Judoka Martti Puumalainen’s gold medal is Finland’s first prize medal in 30 years.
Martti Puumalainen has won judo EC gold. With his medal, he returned the Finnish judo team to European Championship medals for the first time in 30 years. The gold came from the heavyweight division.
The medal was secured with a semi-final victory over Holland From Jelle Snippen 10 to 0. In the final match, the Finn beat Georgia Guram Tushishvilin in overtime.
He also beat Serbia in the tournament by Igor Vracar and Russian Valeriy Endovitsky.
Born in 1997, Puumalainen’s career has been on a strong upswing in recent years. In August, he fought to a historic victory in the Masters judo tournament. The man from Puuma became the first Finn who has ever won any medals at those games.
There is a high probability that Puumalainen will make it to the Summer Olympics in Paris next summer. He is even considered a potential medal candidate for the Olympics.
Even an Olympic place is a great achievement in a global sport. At the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, no less than 26 different countries won medals.
Finland’s previous prize medal is from the 1993 European Championships. Then Jorma Korhonen competed for EC bronze in the 71-kilogram weight class.