Wilma Murro had six good or excellent value races in a row. Now he had to make a tough decision, but there could be a treasure chest at the end of the rainbow, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Armand Duplantis since 2018, has jumped eight value competition finals, of which he has won seven. The “disappointment” came at the World Championships in Doha 2019, when the USA Sam Kendricks left the prodigy for silver.
One in the same competitions Wilma Murtoa junior sensation from a few years ago, dived straight into the water loop and suddenly packed his pole into the pipe after jumping 435 in the qualifying.
Of course, no other jumper should be compared to Duplantis, but after that dark moment, Murto changed the direction of his career in many ways and jumped six good or great value competition finals between 2021 and 2023. The good ones brought the 6th, 5th and 6th places and they shine again with two European Championship golds and a World Championship bronze. However, no tree grows to the sky.
This nice, linear progression, which Finnish sports fans were wild about, was interrupted on Saturday night in Glasgow, when Murto stopped the World Cup competition after jumping only third with 455.
Game over immediately
On February 24, in Lievin, France, he hurt his achilles badly, when the bar was stuck on its supports at 480 centimeter. The break immediately interrupted the game, but something had broken in the tendon and of course a week wasn’t enough to fix it.
The most respected muscle maintenance magician in the recent history of Finnish athletics Pentti Niemi immediately sent Murro a text message encouraging him to go to France, reminding him that this solution on a good jumping day, even after the peak height, required a really hard professional head and mentality.
– You can only do that if you work hard, Niemi formulated for the concerned athlete.
The interruption of the World Cup final also hurt hard, but things had to be prioritized once and for all. The MM indoor medal looks good in the display case, but not so good that the rhythm of the fast-approaching outdoor track season, the competition plan, let alone the juicy goals, would have to be reset because of it.
In 2022, Murto won European Championship gold after being out of competition for more than four months due to a metatarsal injury from mid-winter to early summer. It worked that time, but it’s not worth trying twice.
Even Paris is in danger
The Achilles tendon injury would have worsened and become chronic with maximally powerful jumping at the factory Takuu, and at worst even jeopardized the main goal of his entire career, i.e. the Olympic Games in Paris.
If an injury can ever come at a good time, then the hall season ends now anyway. Athletes typically return to basic training after a short break before starting to increase their performance in the spring towards the summer.
Now is the most favorable time to treat an injury, the true nature of which may not be known yet. Athletics-Finland is knocking on wood.
The Indoor World Championships in Athletics will culminate on Sunday, March 3. You can see the shipping information at this link. Online events are tracked in this article.