Eemil Helander won silver in the men’s 5,000 meters at the under-23 European Championships. The prize medal crowns Helander and coach Ari Nummela’s joint junior years.
Aino Paloniemi,
Petra Manner
Finland Eemil Helander has won silver in the men’s 5,000m race at the under-23 European Championships in Espoo. Helander’s time of 13,40,15 is a new record for a runner.
Great Britain ran to victory Charles Hicks at 13,35,07. Hicks got away from Helander in the last lap, but the Finn pressed on to the finish while the home crowd cheered on while standing.
– It was a great feeling. Helander said in an interview that he has been chasing this prize medal in the junnu race for the entire junnu years, although of course the goals are for adults, but still this is a good step forward.
Helander, who started the race with a brave initial pace, was sometimes also at Finland’s record pace as the race progressed. The speed even scared the Finnish runner himself at times.
– Maybe halfway there and up to three tons it felt really good. The last two kilometers were a struggle, but at that point I knew that the others were already a little behind.
– I thought that I should just try to hang on. You mustn’t start blinking backwards or something. I just tried to look as fresh as possible in it and fight to the finish line with a bad ton.
Helander’s coach Ari Nummela describes the silver as the crown for the junior years together. In recent years, the duo’s training has been heavily overshadowed by Nummela’s illness. Nummela has incurable cancer.
– After all, it’s a really big deal for me. Especially for Eemil. This work is being done for him, Nummela said emotionally.
Read more: Ari Nummela wants to see his coach on the podium at the European Youth Championships – that’s why he works with the power of painkillers
Nummela was confident about his protégé even before the competition.
– Yes, we went through all the scenarios and one of them was that one starts hard from the beginning, and actually our reaction to that from the beginning was to go along with it, unless it’s completely stupid, and it wasn’t.
Nummela sees a bright future for Helander, either at 5,000 meters or in the hurdles.
– Many thanks to Ari. We have had a very long-term cooperation. Ari is really systematic and knows very well where to go. He can give me good tips and we can communicate with just a few words, Helander described his coach.
Another Finnish runner Mustafa Muuse ran in the 5,000 meter race with a time of 14.33.68 and finished 18th.