Martti Puumalainen took an important tournament victory, even though the starting points for the competition were bad. The Finn’s goal is to win medals at the Olympic Games in Paris in less than a couple of years.
Finnish judoka Martti Puumalainen the week started with food poisoning, but ended with a stunning victory at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Australia.
– I have never before won gold in a Games where the Maamme song is played. I had been waiting for this for ten years, Puumalainen tells Urheilu on the phone.
The 25-year-old from Puuma defeated Slovenia in the final Vito Dragic and earned valuable Olympic qualification points.
The Finn ended the match with a handsome sodetsurikomigoshi worthy of ippon.
– I threw him on his back with my strongest throw. No wonderful subtleties were needed.
Even on Tuesday, Puumalainen was on his back in a canvas because of food poisoning.
– I was hungry on Monday evening and I took some toast from the hotel. It tasted bad and looked a bit fishy.
– But I thought that when you are in Australia, there is nothing miraculous about it. Tuesday was a rough day and Wednesday was still tiring. Thursday was full of hope and on Friday I found peace. Fortunately, that food poisoning came and went just as quickly.
Puumalainen says that during the games he had to go to the bathroom more than usual.
– It brought a kind of excitement.
In Paris, the goal is a medal
The victory is really important for the Puumalani when thinking about an Olympic place. The judoka says that he received 350 points from Australia. The man rises to 17th place in the world ranking.
Judo’s Olympic qualification is grueling. Qualifying tournaments are held all year round until the summer of 2024.
The Masters tournament, World Championships and Grand Slams are major competitions in the category, where success brings the athlete a huge number of Olympic points. In practice, the best 16 of the weight class can qualify for one judo series at the Olympics.
Puumalainen is confident of an Olympic place, because the points are already piled up nicely.
The rest of the year is spent in Puumalainen working on competitions and training camps.
– Next weekend there is a GP race in Baku. We’re going there to win. Then I go to Japan for a month. In December, there is the Masters competition in Jerusalem. 35 of the world’s best can get there. Right now I’m in the best shape of my life.
The Puumainen’s goal is to succeed at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
– The direction towards Paris is more than right. There will be continuous development all the time. I have not reached the best as an athlete, and there is still time to develop more than a year and a half. I will definitely be there fighting for medals, even gold, Puumalainen concludes.
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