The Paavo Nurmi athletics games saw a lot of top performances on Tuesday evening. See the highlights of the Turku Games in this link.
The traditional Paavo Nurme competitions did not disappoint expectations in ideal conditions. In the evening of Turku, race records and personal records were made in the raffle.
The event also accommodated two world leaders, when the Czech Republic Jakub Vadlejch tirpaisi javelin ace 89.51 and Australia Nicola Olyslagers made an effort to jump 201, which was the first ranking in the highest place.
For Finns, pole vaulters were the biggest joys Wilma Murto and a javelin thrower Oliver Helander, who achieved world-class results. Helander took fifth place with a throw of 87.32 meters.
Murto, on the other hand, scored a 475 on the pole vault, with which he took the shared fourth place in the world statistics. In last year’s World Championships, it would have been enough for 4th place. He also tried to stick the top score of 481 in the world statistics, but this time it remained a dream.
At the same time, Murto set a new competition and field record. On outdoor tracks, Murto has only jumped better in last summer’s EC finals, when he bent 480 and his current Finnish record of 485.
According to the jumper, he has been feeling confident since the beginning of the season, even though the first races were not Murto’s best results. Before Tuesday, the best of the Finnish season was the 461 jumped in the Paris Diamond League on Friday.
– This corresponds to how it feels until now. Of course, Paavo Nurme’s first win in the games and still on his home field feels great.
Murto and the entire Finnish trio left behind five high-quality foreign jumpers. Elina Lampela was second with a record 456 and Saga Andersson third with a 446 jump.
Murto usually jumps consistently between 450-460, but this season he is expected to perform more in the 470-480 range.
In the Paris Diamond League, the winning score was 477.
– It creates a pretty good framework for the importance of the result, Urheilu’s expert Tuomas Raja tightly.
The neck injury didn’t hurt
Murro’s way to the competition venue was not the best possible. He had a strong taping on his neck.
– In the morning I meant to call the coach that I won’t jump today, Murto laughed.
– I have an old neck injury that comes and goes.
However, the trouble did not hinder the 25-year-old Murto in the race.
– No. There will be a little biting, but nothing bad. Fortunately, they say that with two-strokes it still depends on the hours and not the day. Enough happens during the day.
According to Murro, he has a positive problem. The physical features have moved on, but it still poses technical challenges.
– The physical properties have progressed so much that we don’t know from which distances I should move. I started with what I usually do, but it was all wrong. I had to screw up the settings a bit. Now they are starting to be found.
Murto was also happy that he was able to exceed the height of 475 with the pole with which he attempted the competition record of 491 in the EC halls. The two-time European champion says that he has never jumped with that device before anyway.
– It’s always that kind of learning in the early season, but now it’s starting to be found.
Expert Tuomas Raja says which things in Murro’s performance are now producing results.
– The run is getting better and he comes to the hole with familiarity. That’s how Snap by Snap starts to move forward.
“Fitness is a rock wall”
Along with Murro and Helander, there is also a moukari thrower Silja Kosonen belongs to those athletes who can fight for a great Finnish position at the World Championships in Budapest.
For Kosonen, who is in his twenties, it means placing in the top six. Last year, he was a wonderful seventh in his first World Championships.
In Turku, he was third in the race, beating the World Championship bronze medalist jane’ Cash register with a result of 72.56.
In athletics, there is a lot of talk about some kind of phantom limits. Finnish runner Eveliina Määttänen achieved this in the women’s 800 meters, where she was the second Finn to clock under two minutes (1:59.96).
Sara Lappalainen the SE time he ran at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago is 0.55 seconds off.
Tuuli Merikoski the women’s 800m SE, which has been held for 30 years, has been getting a good ride in the last couple of years. Lappalainen and Määttänen have now run under it four times in total.
Is the Finnish record about to change hands again?
– Eveliina’s (Määttänen) bet is already the top bet at this point in the year. Now there were top conditions, so it’s not easy to improve. However, the condition seems to be rock solid, Raja beamed.
About the Finnish peaks of recent times On Reetta Hurskee and especially Top with Stripe there were challenges. Although Hurske ran a decent time of 12.92 in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles, Raitanen struggled badly in the hurdles and finished in 8:43.46.
However, Raitase has had a lot of competitive stress with traveling lately. It was the third obstacle race in ten days.
He ran his season’s best 8:22.00 on Friday in Paris.
– On the other hand, that’s the beauty of sport, that it’s not just glamor with tough champions, Raja refers to European champions Murto and Raitase.
– As for the top, there were many hard races behind, so now I started to get a little tired. However, may it be good for him, Raja stated.