Jere Haapalainen and Antti Sainio saved their strength correctly and stormed to a double victory in the 400-meter hurdles at the under-20 European Championships.
Jere Haapalainen and Antti Sainio took a double victory in the 400m hurdles at the European Under-20 European Championships in Jerusalem. Haapalainen won EC gold with a new Finnish under-20 record time of 50.02 and Sainio won silver with his new record of 50.19.
Both Haapalainen and Sainio ran well tactically, as they led France from the start Anouar Bourahla and Serbia Nikola Kostic froze badly in the last 100 meters. Instead, the Finns had correctly saved their strength. In the same way as in the Kaleva Games, Haapalainen started his rush in the last 50 meters and Sainio also tightened after the last fence past Bourahla and Kostic.
However, Bourahla stayed with the medals and took the bronze. Germany’s Owe Fischer-Breiholz instead passed Kostic in the final meters and finished fourth.
Haapalainen, 19, has improved his record several times this season. Already in the semifinals, he screwed up his record time to 50.06. Sainio, 18, has also done the same, who ran in the semi-finals with a new record time of 50.43. Oskari Mörön The SE time is 49.04.
The performance of the Tampere Pyrinnö duo is historic in many ways, as no Finnish man has won a medal in the under-20 European Championships on this trip. In women Viivi Lehikoinen ran bronze in 2017.
Update at 18:22: Added information about the history of the Finnish duo’s performance.