KUORTANE. A tall and slender man walks thoughtfully along the first snow-covered Kuortanee sports field. The javelin pace track is hidden under the snow. From that end Magnus Kirt On June 22, 2019, he started his performance, at the end of which the javelin drilled into the grass field only 90.61 meters from the throwing line. My record, Estonia’s record and the top result of the 2019 season in the world.
As a reward, Kirt remembers that he received about 5,000 euros with bonuses from the organizers. On the north side of the Gulf of Finland, a man who is often very successful praises the Finnish organizers as fair and straightforward negotiators when it came to rewards.
When there were 3.5 months to the javelin final of the World Championships held in Doha exceptionally late in the fall, Magnus Kirt was the number one thrower in the world. The thrower, who started from the small town of Törva in southern Estonia, did not know at the time that he would live out his last drug-induced moments as a top athlete.
– Two days earlier, I had thrown more than 90 meters (90.34) for the first time in Ostrava. Everyone thought I wouldn’t recover from it that quickly physically and mentally. However, I felt in Kuortane that I was in great shape, recalls Kirt, who has competed in no less than eight places in Finland during his career.
Sadness and sadness
In the eyes and voice of Kirti, 33, on the deserted sports field in Kuortanene, there is longing and sadness, but also pride.
– I wanted to throw 80 meters and I achieved it in 2015. Then I wanted to throw 90 meters and achieve a medal in the competition. I threw more than 90 meters and achieved two medals. A sports career was a great privilege, even though I didn’t get to be at the top for a long time.
In a normal situation, Kirt would now be at the age of a top athlete preparing for next summer’s two prestigious competitions, but at the European Championships in Rome and the Olympic Games in Paris, he will be at most a talented young female thrower Gedly Tugin as a coach. Last summer, Kirt was in Espoo at the under-23 European Championship, helping the Estonian thrower to the silver medal.
Doha World Cup final In the 5th round On October 6, 2019, everything crumbled at once. With his second round score of 86.21, Kirt chased the top man, Grenada Anderson Peters 68 centimeters away. The throw ended in a violent dive, at the end of which Kirti’s entire weight landed on the throwing hand, i.e. the left shoulder joint. The shoulder joint came completely out of its socket.
Pitkämäki in horror
The Estonian, who was waiting for help at the minute shop, didn’t know it yet, but he had just performed on big stages for the last time as an athlete. Far away in Finland, having already packed up his career Tero Pitkämäki followed a familiar athlete writhing on the Mondo platform in horror.
– You could immediately see that the shoulder had dislocated. And when it happens in a sport like the javelin in a shoulder stress test at the level of a competition final, the tendon injuries are very significant, Pitkämäki recalls.
Kirti and Pitkämäki have an interesting fact in common: the Estonian took a big leap from national to international level in 2014–15, when he improved his record from 79.70 to 86.65, or 6.95 meters.
When Pitkämäki threw a record 91.53 in June 2005, also in Kuortane, it meant that his own record had improved by 6.89 meters from the previous summer.
In the history of the World Championships in Athletics, we have rarely seen such an incredible silver medalist as Magnus Kirt on October 6, 2019.
– Only ibuprofen was enough for the pain at that point. It felt strange to receive a medal when the continuation of my own career was completely behind a foggy view, Kirt told Urheilu in connection with the international Javelin Seminar held in Kuortane on November 16.
Numbers in front
One lecturer at the seminar was a doctor, a doctoral candidate Krista Tapaninaho. Based on statistics, he explained how a very small percentage of professional baseball pitchers are able to return to the top level after shoulder surgery. In the javelin throw, the chances are even smaller.
Kirt also understood the odds when he came to Finland as a well-known and meritorious sports surgeon Urho Väätäinen to operate.
– I knew that the numbers were strongly against me, Kirt, who probably competed for the last time in the summer of 2022, recalls.
Keihäs then flew 73.67 in the Estonian championships; after the injury and the treatments, the movements necessary in the top javelin throw of the shoulder never returned to normal.
However, the modest result was a mentally important milestone for the man in a process where he had to gradually let go of his own sports goals. Kirt admits that he has already changed his identity from a top athlete seeking a comeback to a coach.
The curious thing about my own record was that it is the world record for left-handers with the current javelin model.
Other well-known left-handed throwers in the history of Finland’s favorite sport have included the first world champion, GDR’s Detlef MichelDaegun (2011) German World Champion Matthias de Zordo and Finns Pentti Sinersaari and Olympic champion (1984) Arto Härkönen.
Magnus Kirt has often, and at times even bitterly, gone through his fate in the WC-Doha. He arrived in Qatar unsure of how his lower back and elbow would allow him to throw, but he left the competition city with his career practically over for a completely different reason.
– In my opinion, the main reason for what happened was the length of the season and the workload.
The winner, Anderson Peters, competed in the summer months before the World Championships three times, Kirt 12 times.
Fire and nail
Kirt is not alone with his fate. The main opponents of his best seasons are even permanently out of the medal game for various reasons John Weather, Thomas Röhler and Andreas Hofmann. Anderson Peters’s health has also begun to fail, and by Keshorn Walcott last season ended on the operating table. The game is what it is.
Kirti’s mouth comes out with a measured speech. The man is intelligent, polite and sympathetic.
– It’s a funny contrast to what Magnus was like in a competitive situation. The man was full of fire and spunk and not really a social guy of the throwing place. If you didn’t start to find suitable aggression, sniffing from a bottle of ammonia helped at the latest, laughs the sports coach of the Sports Association Peter Piironen.
Kirt, who lives with his Latvian girlfriend, is completing his economics studies at Tallinn University in addition to coaching. When he was young, Kirt was very versatile in athletics and even dreamed of his role model, an Olympic champion Erki Noolin from following to 10 matches.
He mentions the discus thrower as his other Estonian idols Gerd Kanter and at one time also a skier Andrus Veerpalun, over which the halo has since completely evaporated. Father who passed away in 2014 Peter Kirt was a passionate sledding person. He was twice in the Olympic Games luge as a coach.
Born on April 10, 1990 in Törva, Southern Estonia, 33 years old.
Lives in Tallinn, coaches and studies economics at university.
Height 192 cm, weight when active 89 kilos.
Record 90.61 in Kuortane 2019. European Championship bronze 2018, World Championship silver 2019.
Jumped a height of 210 and a length of 696.
A career at the top level ended with a severe shoulder injury in the 2019 World Cup finals in Doha.
The second day of the seminar started in the morning with Kirti’s lecture: “My story, my career and my experience as a world-class javelin thrower”.
The show, which lasted about an hour, was a great success; the hall listened to the charismatic Estonian with complete concentration.
– The performance was more exciting than the competitions. I wrote the show for a long time. Not for long periods at a time, but every day somewhat. It wasn’t therapy for the end of my career per se, but I also came across things that I had managed to forget, maybe even wanted to forget, says Kirt with a smile.
Judging by everything, he has not been forgotten in Estonia. The man was followed by a three-person documentary team in Kuortane like a shark on a ship. The finished product should be distributed next year. However, the docker will not reach the dream end point of his career, i.e. the Olympic gold in Paris.
When in Eugene and Munich 2022 was thrown from the World Cup and European Championship success, Kirt admits that he followed the broadcasts like a cold fish. The sadness of my own absence was still so huge.
– Only Lassin (South house) record and EC bronze caused some kind of emotions. I already watched the World Championships in Budapest full of enthusiasm.
– Oliver Helander is a strong candidate to win Olympic gold in Paris. And I’m not saying this just because I’ve always been treated fairly in Finland and I broke my record here.