With her new Finnish record, Wilma Murto rises to 12th place in the all-time pole vaulting statistics.
18.8. 16:23•Updated 18.8. 16:26
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MUNICH. 16 Finnish track and field athletes fit into the top 50 of the all-time list in their sport, when the forms of competition included in prestigious competitions are still taken into account.
There are two women on the list: a pole vaulter Wilma Murto and a javelin thrower Paula Tarvainenwhose Finnish record is enough for women’s modern javelin in the world statistics instead of 44th.
Murto was already on the list before Wednesday’s EC final; the old SE reading of 472 was enough for the 38 instead of the one shared among the pole women.
The fresh SE 485, which also sets the record for the European Championship, raises Murro to no less than 12th on the all-time list. Only the javelin thrower is higher in his sport than the Finns Aki Parviainenwhose 93.09 brings fourth place among javelin bears.
Watch Wilma Murro’s crossing from height 485 in the video below. The story continues after the video.
With Murro, the second highest Finnish place is shared by 12th in the javelin throw Tero Pitkämäkiseven-time medalist and 2007 world champion.
Pitkämäki and Murto are united not only by the status of the prize winner but also by the manager Tero Heiska.
– Maybe this sounds a bit brash, but I already knew in 2016 that such a chapter would be written in Wilma’s story at some point. Even though there have been a lot of difficult years in between and many have criticized Wilma for e.g. coach changes, everything has been part of the growth process, Heiska told Urheilu on the way to the Finnish team’s hotel and recalled a newspaper story from 2016.
– I have a magazine story in which Wilma stated that she plans to jump five meters one day. The journey towards it continues.
485 would have been enough for a medal every time
Women’s pole vault is one of the youngest sports in athletics. It did not enter the competition program until the European Championships in Budapest in 1998, when the Ukrainian jumped gold Anzhela Balahonova with a result of 431. On Wednesday, Murto started the EC final in Munich from a height of 440.
Women’s pole vaulting has been contested for medals in adult outdoor courses a total of 27 times. Murron’s 485 would have been enough for a medal every time and for gold no less than 19 times.
The international athletics federation, World Athletics, has its own point tables for all sports performances, from which you can apply some kind of measurements for the results – let’s also underline that you shouldn’t read the points like the damn Bible.
However, Murron’s 485 gives the hardest score, 1,224, when comparing women’s Finnish records. Parviainen’s Finnish record of 93.09 gives the hardest record points, 1,288. To reach that, Murro would have to improve his SE to 505, which would be a centimeter short Yelena Isinbayeva from the world record he jumped in 2009.