Monday morning shortly before seven o’clock, a fit 200 meter SE man Samuel Purola walks through the doors of the heart department of Jyväskylä Central Hospital.
He has an appointment for a heart operation called cryoablation. Before the operation, Purola is relatively calm, although he admits that he is nervous.
Purola’s heart symptoms started last spring at a training camp, when he suffered from heart rhythm disturbances for up to 20 hours straight. The symptoms continued sporadically throughout the summer, but the persistent runner did not want to end the competition season in the middle.
The worst situation was at last summer’s athletics GP in Oulu, where a cardiac arrhythmia struck in the assembly room just before the start.
– The legs were like macaroni. My heart was pounding and pounding quite long, says Samuel Purola, 24, about his moments of horror last summer.
Despite the rhythm disturbances, the hard-headed athlete started the journey and was third in the race. He timed 21.03 in 200 meters in front of the home crowd.
– In hindsight, it would have been reasonable not to run that race, but it is typical of an athlete’s nature not to give up easily, he states.
In any case, the risk of running a race with arrhythmias was quite high. In the fall after the season, Purola underwent more detailed investigations and the disturbances were explained. In the heart, supraventicular hyperventilation and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation were finally found.
The heart problems have also affected Purola’s breathing and body function, so it may have had an effect on the result level as well.
Additional discoveries were made in the heart operation
In the operation carried out on Monday, additional discoveries were made in the heart of Purola. The procedure took a little longer than planned, but the doctor also operated on the new findings in the heart.
“Apparently a couple of parts of the heart were frozen,” Purola explains, adding that he is not a cardiologist and cannot tell us more about it.
Purola has great faith in the fact that everything was taken care of.
If the rehabilitation goes well, Purola will be able to return to training quite soon.
– Here we are at the end of a week and then we can start training in full.
Petteri Jouste is the new coach
More has happened in Purola’s life. He has changed coaches. For the past 11 years, the sprinter has been coached by his father Mika Purola. Coaching has produced a lot of Finnish records since the junior leagues.
– The long-term coaching relationship with my father was shelved. This was a joint decision of both, says Samuel Purola.
The over 190-centimeter sprinter from Oulu Pyrinnö wants a slightly different stimulus in his training, and now a long-time sprint coach has taken over the coaching responsibility Petteri Jouste.
– I thought about it for a long time and Petteri was a natural choice.
Before the heart operation, Purola already had time to start training under Jouste’s watchful eyes.
– I have liked Petter’s system and he is already a very familiar person. Things have started well.
Among others, Jouste’s training group includes last summer’s 100-meter Finnish champion Riku Illukka and those who ran a distance of less than 10.40 Oskar Lehtonen, Eino Vuori and Valtteri Loukoso there is enough speed in training.
– Loading a group helps. Even in the starting exercises, you get the feeling of competition and you get a lot more out of them.
Purola 2.0 ready to run really hard
Purola says that after the operation he is like a new man.
– Now that there is a new coach and the heart has been fixed, I am the Purola 2.0 version and the goals are tough.
The sprinter’s long-term goal has been locked in four years. Purola wants to run in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
– This is a four-year period and the goal is to run 200 meters in 20.00, reveals Purola, whose current Finnish record is 20.45.
– Of course, that record can come earlier, laughs the runner.
The last time a Finnish male sprinter won 200 meters was at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. Tommi Hartonen ran the then Finnish record of 20.47 in the semi-finals of the 200 meters at the Olympic Games, which Purola broke in 2022.
Purola’s goal next summer is to improve his speed and thereby improve the record in both one hundred and two hundred meters. 400 meters may also be part of the competition program.
– I believe that 200 meters will move hard. It’s probably partly due to the heart thing that it hasn’t gone harder yet, reflects the sprinter from Oulu, whose 100-meter record seven years ago is 10.31.
Purola says that it has not yet measured its entire capacity.
– Let’s put in everything we possibly can.
In civilian life, last summer, Purola was regrettably only a few points away from a place to study law.
– I take courses at an open university and apply there until I get a place.
See Samuel Purola’s Finnish record run from 2022: