Ella Junnila was a fine fifth in the women’s height final. The last time a Finnish high jumper was able to do the same was 53 years ago.
Joel Sippola,
Laura Arffman
Athletics EC Championships 7.6–12.6. Ylen channels. See the approach information at this link.
Ella Junnila performed excellently in the women’s height final and reached a rare Finnish achievement. Junnila was fifth and achieved the best Finnish ranking in the sport in 53 years in the prestigious outdoor track competition.
Asko Pesonen was also fifth in the height race of the 1971 European Championships. No Finnish woman has achieved better in outdoor track competitions. Junnila has reached bronze at the adult competition level in the EC halls in 2021.
Junnila, who had performed convincingly at the height since Friday’s qualifying, crossed the heights of 182, 186 and 190 in style in the final with her first. The first drop came at 193, but the Finn easily surpassed this with his second.
Junnila had not gone this high in more than three years. Junnila tried three times from a height of 195, but the bar came down each time. He would have missed the best of the outdoor tracks.
The gold was won by the 22-year-old from Ukraine, who dominated the sport in recent years Jaroslava Mahutshih (201) before Serbia’s super pledge Angelina Topic (197) as well as from soil Irina Geraschenko (195).
Slipping was a shame
After the race, Junnila’s main concern was how close she got to the medal position.
– Honestly, this thing sucks. Had all the seams to take a medal. Today, only others jumped better.
Junnila’s performance was sure and calm.
– I admit that the qualifier two days ago is heavy, especially when we live like this in the beginning of the season. Competition endurance comes through competitions. Technically, it was really safe and I got some good jumps.
In the last 195 attempt, Junnila slipped a little.
– In the big picture, I am very satisfied. It has been that low for a long time. I know there are bangs for much better jumps.