Wilma Murto jumped an excellent WC general practice in Rouen, France, but the platform was poison for her Achilles tendons. According to the manager, competing in the Olympic Games would have continued.
Pekka Holopainen,
Juuso Koskinen
When suffering from Achilles pain Wilma Murto on Saturday night stopped jumping in the World Indoor Championships final in Glasgow, his manager sitting in the stands Tero Heiska immediately decided one thing.
– The cause of the pain is obviously from the Rouen Games (February 24). Wilma went there completely symptom-free and returned to Finland with Achilles tendonitis. It means that there will be no return to that place, Heiska commented to Urheilu.
According to the manager, there is nothing wrong with the event itself, but according to him, the platform tailored for pole vaulters was unusually bouncy, which also caused Murro big challenges with the speed run and the step mark – and obviously put a strain on the Achilles tendons so that one of them hurt.
A high-quality jumping start in itself made it possible, because Murto jumped the second best result of his career, 480, and stopped when the bar was at 486, which on Saturday won the World Championship gold Molly Caudery still exceeded. Murto put the whistles in the bag because of a strange Achilles sensation. It was a World Silver Tour level indoor competition.
– Hall platforms are often performance venues that are built separately for each competition, which means that they may be very different from each other and burden the athletes’ support system in a very surprising way. In indoor competitions, there is rarely a platform that each athlete trains on every day and is used to running on.
Caudery’s 486 is the Rouen race record; on the men’s side of the United States Christopher Nilsen has jumped as many as 605 in 2022.
Murto jumped in Rouen after a long break, as he had previously competed there as a junior in 2016 (438) and 2017 (415).
A week off anyway
According to Heiska, the pain is being investigated further in Finland, but in the best case it is only an inflammatory pain and the tendon has not broken strands.
– After Glasgow, the program includes a week’s vacation anyway, during which the pain will hopefully settle down.
Murron wanted to continue jumping already in Rouen, because the mood of the day was excellent. In Glasgow, the suspension took an even stronger hold.
– Of course, there is room for speculation when you look at the results of the medal trio (480-480-475) and know what condition Wilma is in, Heiska admits.
– But even though the WC indoor medal is a wonderful achievement, it does not compare to the Olympic Games in Paris, under whose conditions everything happens now. On the other hand, if Wilma had continued to jump after 455, wouldn’t the pain have brought the limits at 465 at the latest. Hypothetically, it can be said that even in that situation, Wilma would have continued jumping at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Murro’s coach Jarno Koivunen said that the athlete will visit Turku after returning to photograph the injured area. Koivunen assumed that it was just inflammatory pain.
– The athlete was smart and knew how to finish the race in time. In the first final jump, the step mark was much further back than usual, and the pain increased with each attempt. If a pole vaulter suffers from even the slightest pain, a natural performance is impossible, Koivunen states.