The men’s 20-kilometer walk has been the least interesting athletics sport for Finns. Now a new era began. Aku Partanen seems to have found his own sport at the age of 31, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen Sports journalist
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The sight was somewhat unreal when Aku Bearden invited the undersigned to visit his small studio in South Helsinki’s Punavuori in the spring of 2019.
When talking about the “athlete who gives his all”, it is usually figurative language instead of concrete. But in Partanen’s case, the saying became flesh to such an extent that the man gave his sports career a huge part of the floor area of his home. The view was dominated by a large transparent tent and an exercise bike placed inside it.
The alpine hut equipment purchased by Partanen would blow air into the tent imitating the high atmosphere, from which the partial pressure of oxygen had been reduced and nitrogen had been added. With the help of the artificial hypoxia created in this way, Partanen increased his red blood cell mass as allowed by the anti-doping rules and through it, his essential oxygen uptake capacity in endurance sports.
He spent the nights in the oxygen tent of his second apartment, which was set up over the bed. There, the device blew breathing air simulating an altitude of about 2,400 meters above sea level.
And what was the result at the World Championships in Doha? Interruption at 50 kilometers, already the fourth time in a row without finishing. Partanen, like others, said goodbye to the human experiment that was supposed to be his parade trip with a handsome 9th place in the Sapporo Olympic competition in 2021.
Amazing bet
When the soon-to-be 32-year-old man is participating in adult competitions for the ninth time, you would think that his own sport with the best potential for success would have already been found. What else. Partanen’s 6th place in the fast-paced 20-kilometer race was a downright amazing bet and forces you to think about whether you should have given up on this journey earlier.
Partanen covered the kilometers at an average pace of 3:55.1. That means about 3,070 meters of coopers in a row, so that the step from the judges also passes.
Competition-level training for 20 kilometers requires completely different approaches to speed endurance training than someone in their fifties. Such training, on the other hand, requires an iron base of endurance so that the athlete can withstand it and recover from it. Perhaps Partanen chose a new main route at just the right time, when the base of endurance is certainly a rock wall.
As an achievement, his 6th place is the highest in Finland in 25 years. My own coach Valentin Kononen was the 50 kilometer EC runner-up in the same race city in 1998. In his twenties Reima Salonen 8th place in the 1982 European Championship was Finland’s best until Saturday. Partanen now walked every kilometer seven long seconds faster than Kononen in his SE performance in 2000.
No wonder
With his SE time of 1:18.22, Partanen jumped to 51st place in the all-time statistics, the all-time race walker for his second by Robert Korzeniowski alongside. At the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, the Pole incredibly won both the 20 and 50 kilometers.
If, on the other hand, Partanen repeated his 6th place on the current, 35-kilometer long “Kunikuusmatka”, it would not be surprising. In terms of oxygen intake, technique and energy economy, these trips can be trained well with the same amounts and powers.
The 20-kilometer race, which is typically at the top of prestigious competitions, has been even the least interesting sport of athletics in Finland due to the poor contribution from Härmä. On Saturday, from this point of view, the sport took a giant leap similar to that of Partane in the world statistics for the next few years.
Yes, that alpine hut. Partanen, who recently settled in Ullanlinna, still owns the equipment, but keeps it in a closet. Nowadays, he goes to gasp for thin air in the alpine hut of the Urhea Academy, which he graduated a few years ago.
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