Wilma Murro became the first Finnish track and field athlete to win EC gold both indoors and outdoors.
Hinn Hirvonen,
Emma Jump
4.3. 19:41•Updated 4.3. 22:48
Pole vaulter Wilma Murto has won the European championship in athletics at the EC indoor competitions in Istanbul, Turkey. The EC gold was secured with a score of 480, which is also Murro’s indoor record.
Slovenia won the EC silver in a tight pole vault competition Tina Sutej, which exceeded 475.
Czech Republic took the bronze Amalie Svabikova with a score of 470.
Sutej once tried to surpass 480 until he raised the bar to 485. However, he failed to overcome the height.
Murto continued to compete even after securing the EC gold. He failed to break 485, but raised the bar to 491, which he attempted twice. It would have been an EC indoor competition record, as the current record is Yelena Isinbayeva in names: he surpassed 490 in 2005 in Madrid.
Murto is the first Finn to have won a prestigious medal both outdoors and indoors. At the same time, he opened the Finns’ medal account at the EC indoor competitions in Istanbul.
At the same time, Murro became only the fifth Finnish female all-around athlete to win a medal at the European Championships.
– Feels good. I wasn’t quite so sure when I entered the race, but as the race progressed I started to find my own sense of value competition. I’m really glad it wasn’t a one race gimmick and I was able to stretch today. With basic confidence and a good performance, it looks like you can reach 480, Murto told Urheilu.
Murto sensationally won the EC gold in the summer. In the competition, he improved the Finnish record three times and finally won the championship with a score of 485. Murto improved the Finnish record he held at the time by 13 cents.
Now, at the indoor games in Istanbul, she said that she changed to a stiffer rope for the last jumps, when she set off to try for Isinbaeva’s competition record.
– I jumped bigger than at the European Championships in Munich. It was a pretty big win for myself and that’s why I dared to raise 491 to the last jumps. I’m really looking forward to the next attempts with such numbers. It blew my mind that it’s Isinbajeva’s record, which I can break, if I could break the competition record.
Murto described that he already knew before the pole vault final that the competition would be good.
– Excited, but not in an oppressive and stressful way, but enthusiastically. I had credit for my own doing today.
Last summer’s European champion was among the medal favorites of the competition. However, the bronze medalist of the summer European Championships, Sutej, who jumped his record 482 in the hall period, entered the race as the favorite to win.
Murto went to the EC halls after Sutej as the second player in statistics: in the opening of the season in Kuortane, he surpassed his hall record of 475.
The European Championship gold medalist also found sympathy for the Slovenian who finished second in the competition.
– I feel that Sutej is such a jumper that he deserves more than silver and bronze. But you don’t start humiliating yourself in a competitive situation. It has been great to compete with him this year as well.
23 years had already passed since Finland’s previous European indoor championship. The previous Finnish winner was from 2000, when Timo Aaltonen won gold in the shot put. However, he became the winner only after the fact, when Ukraine Oleksandr Bahats lost his win because of a doping cart.