The three European Championships in Munich brought a heel injury with them from Holland. In addition to Turku, the Kuortanene competitions will also be missed. Etelätalo will probably throw next time in July.
At the European Championships in Munich last August, he crowned himself with the bronze medal of his career and his record of 86.44 A glass of Etelätaloa was expected on Tuesday at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, along with other Finnish EC heroes, ie Wilma Murron, Raitanen’s top mixed Kristiina Mäkelän as a result. Etelätalo didn’t show up, despite reporting. He should have thrown next at the Kuortane Games on Saturday.
– I don’t throw in Kuortane either. Your health situation is not such that it makes sense to compete. In the morning, I informed the organizers of Kuortane that I will not arrive, the 35-year-old javelin thrower told Urheiluik on Wednesday.
During this year Etelätalo, who trained mainly healthy, started his competitive season by throwing every week in Rehlingen, Germany (78.92) and Hengelo, Holland (79.93). In the sixth round of Hengelo on June 4, bad things happened.
– The heel of the supporting leg apparently took a hard impact with the base in a bad position and has been in pain ever since.
Weeks of recovery
The diagnosis was a common, but very painful inflammation of the fat pad of the heel in a collision sport like javelin. It typically takes weeks to get fit for competition – especially if the athlete doesn’t want to take an anesthetic.
– Taping would also help. There is no reason to take a risk like anesthesia at this early stage of the season. If it were a later stage of the season, there would probably be more willingness to take risks.
For the past week and a half, Etelätalo has maintained his physique by working with irons and running. A normal running step does not irritate the heel too much.
– A few days have passed because of a cold, even at rest. In this sense, the autumn of last year until Christmas was quite difficult, when the child started kindergarten. From there, he brought home quite a lot of different diseases, with which he spent more or less until Christmas.
Due to his long and dark health history, Etelätalo would be gloomy, but he sees no reason for that. The screening time of the World Championships in Budapest started for the javelin throw last year on July 31, and three weeks later in Munich, the 86.44-meter thrower crosses the direct competition line handsomely.
Etelätalo, which is considered a sure-fire contender in the eyes of the sports association, is expected to mostly show some kind of proof of health or performance during the screening period that ends on August 5.
In addition to the three-place finish in Munich, the championship career that started at the 2014 European Championships and was also on hiatus in 2014-2019 has brought two fourth-place finishes, one 6th and one 8th place.
Etelätalo has now circled a few dates from the competition calendar. If the competition continues in Finland next time, it will probably be in honor of the own club, Joensuu Kataja, at the Joensuu Motonet GP on July 5.
– My competition manager Jasper Buitink has also offered me for the Lausanne Diamond League (June 30). We’ll see how it goes. I didn’t get a place in the Doha Diamond League.
Leo Pusan and Etelätalo’s coaching collaboration ended after last season. Since then, throwing exercises have been watched by coaches in the camp evenings Tero Pitkämäki and Tuomas Laaksonen and Trusted good-eyed guys in Helsinki. Pusa has also come to help a couple of times. Etelätalo has been responsible for the planning of its secondary training itself for years.
Next spring, Etelätalo will turn 36 years old, a month before the European Championships in Rome in June. The Paris Olympics start at the end of July.
– After Munich, such a natural two-year project became available. Of course, I’ve thought about putting the career in the package in the fall of next year, but it’s not set in stone.
Etelätalo followed the Paavo Nurmi Games javelin competition with interest. Oliver Helander finished second with the third longest throw of his career at 87.32. Out of the two, Helander’s tremendous potential has been considered, but Etelätalo’s strength is the fierce performance certainty of a hard place. A combination of these would be my wish for Finnish spear satraps.
– It was nice to see such a consistent and high-quality series from Oliver. It must be a big and important thing for him.