In an interview with Urheilu, Janne Holmén tells how his life changed at the European Championships in Munich 20 years ago. The European championship was great news for the Finns.
Laura Arffman,
Anu Karttunen
After a 20-year break, the European Athletics Championships will be held in Munich from 15 to 21. August. shows the race events live.
When by Janne Holmén the work on the marathon of the 2002 European Championships in Munich was just beginning, the Finnish Sports Federation already held the closing ceremony of the Games. Chairman of the Union, deceased Ilkka Kanerva gave praise to the successful ones, but after the praise, asked where to get endurance runners to Finland again.
There was a shout from the crowd that said Janne Holmén was leading the marathon at 20 kilometers. Kanerva was not startled by this, but promised a princess and half a kingdom to the successful Finnish endurance runner.
More than an hour later, Janne Holmén arrived from the marathon gate of the Munich Olympic Stadium and ran to the overwhelming European championship. Upon hearing Kanerva’s promise, Holmén stated that he already had a princess, but half the kingdom would do.
– Even though he (Kanerva) was a high-ranking politician, he had no chance of giving away half of the kingdom, Holmén states 20 years later.
– He certainly didn’t think it would happen so quickly.
Watch the best bits from the 2002 championship run with fresh commentary from Holmén in the video below. The story continues after the video.
Holmén’s strategy worked
Originally from Åland, Holmén has lived in Uppsala, Sweden for 25 years. Holmén, 44, who works as a teacher and historian at a local university, still follows endurance sports, especially marathons, and has sometimes been a coach.
At the moment, in his opinion, there are a few really good marathon runners in Europe, but a year of two prestigious races might eat into the results.
– It is not possible to run completely in both if there is only about a month between them. You have to prioritize. Or maybe they hope that there will be a tactical run, running a little looser and harder only at the end. I think it’s a pretty bad strategy, Holmén said.
That’s exactly the kind of strategy many runners fell into in Munich in 2002. Holmén believes that many tough European runners thought they could run after the European Championships for big prize money at the New York or Berlin marathons later in the fall. They mistakenly thought that Holmén’s escape was a tactic and that the Finn would freeze at the end.
– For me, Munich was almost the only race of the whole season. I also ran the World Cup half-marathon in the spring, and there was also one small race in Sweden, but that was the main race of the whole season and the only marathon race.
Watch Elävä Arkisto’s video from the 2002 European Marathon in Munich.
“My condition was better than on paper”
Before the European Marathon in Munich, Janne Holmén had run only one full marathon, as he had focused on track running. A year earlier, he had participated in the Rotterdam marathon and finished 21st with a time of 2:16:24. The youngest participant of the competition was not the pre-favorite even in the papers of the competitors.
Holmén expected the race to be at a high pace, and his pre-arranged tactic was to follow the others and tighten up the last kilometers. His training had aimed to increase his speed at the end of the run, a few kilometers before the finish line.
The initial pace of the Munich marathon was very quiet, the kilometer pace was approximately 3:30. Holmén ran a pace of around 3:20 per kilometer, and even that was slower than he had planned.
– I got a small lead already at five kilometers. That’s when I decided to start running seriously. Between five and seven kilometers, I got about a minute more in the lead, because then I was running at a pace of about three minutes per kilometer and the others continued at a pace of 3.30, Holmén said.
Only Norwegian Karl Johan Rasmussen was able to follow Holmén, but he too had to give up before 35 kilometers.
– Between 20 and 25 kilometers, others tried to catch me, but it was also my fastest five-kilometer section, so that lead only grew. That’s when others may have noticed that this is not their day.
A marathon is one of those journeys where the real decisions are made only in the last kilometers. Holmén also tried to run as hard as he could, but at the same time moderately, so as not to meet the wall. This tactic worked perfectly.
Holmén crossed the finish line at 2.12.14 and improved his previous record by more than four minutes. Estonia came in second Pavel Loskutov as well as third-placed Spain Julio Rey lost to Holmén by more than a minute, and behind the Finn was a group of runners who had been considerably tougher on paper.
– There were 40 runners there and my record was there by 20 places. I was kind of a mediocre participant – on paper at least – but I knew I was in much better shape than on paper.
Watch Janne Holmen’s victory interview after the European Marathon in Munich.
Living in Sweden is an advantage for the media mill
Janne Holmén’s European championship surprised not only his competitors, but also most Finns. Holmén recalls how, before the competition, the media image of Finnish endurance running had been very negative for ten years. The top achievements of the 70s and 80s had already been forgotten, and individual successes did not change this.
– Everyone believed that endurance running is only going downwards and maybe that would also be a sign that society is also going downwards. Young people can’t handle anything anymore. My gold medal was my first in a long time, and it was big news.
The EC gold momentarily revolutionized Holmén’s life, because previously he had been allowed to train in peace. After the championship, the media called almost every day. Holmén would have liked to just practice and do his dissertation, but ended up with the solution of giving roughly one interview a week, on Mondays, throughout the fall.
– It was perhaps a small advantage that I lived in Sweden. It was a small obstacle to not having someone knocking on the door every day, Holmén smiled.
– Athletics is a sport that requires all the time to either win or get a medal. If it’s a little worse, it doesn’t interest me as much. In 2004, after the Olympic Games, there was already less interest. Life was normal after that.
Although Holmén improved his time and ran the Finnish record in the marathon in 2007 and was seventh in the World Championships, it was not enough to arouse interest again.
– It was no longer such a big surprise when I had already won once.
In connection with the broadcasts of the European Championships in Munich, a series of stories will be shown, which will tell more about the news of the Finnish winners of 2002. In addition to Holmén, Mikaela Ingberg, Markus Pöyhö and Olli-Pekka Karjalai have been interviewed in the series.