Silja Kosonen achieved her goal and won the youth EC gold in front of the home crowd in Espoo. The result of 73.71 is only seven cents short of the Raisian’s record.
Emma Hyuppa,
Petra Manner
The gold medalist was the shot putter Silja Kosonen public goal at the under-23 athletics European Championships in Espoo, and the implementation did not leave anyone cold. 20-year-old Kosonen took the third prize race victory of his career in rainy Leppävaara on Friday evening.
Kosonen threw the second best result of his career, 73.71, right in the first round. The competition record for European under-23 competitions improved to new meter readings. The Suomalaištahti was only seven centimeters short of his personal record he threw in June.
Yes coach Jani Pihkanen like Kosonen themselves believed that the opening rush was enough to win.
– The coach seemed to say that he could congratulate now. We have a tough group of racers there, but even the runner-up in the race would have needed more than a meter to improve on the record, so I was able to just enjoy the race and encourage others, Kosonen said.
– I didn’t think that such a hard throw would come in the first one, but it goes like that, Kosonen laughed.
In the end, the difference to the challengers was more than four meters.
Kosonen threw a wild series in the competition: 73.71, 72.43, 72.45, 70.11, 72.20 and 67.36. With the exception of the last throw, Kosonen’s every throw would have been enough for an overwhelming victory, as the second-placed Charlotte Payne threw 69.22. Germany took the bronze Aileen Kuhn with a result of 68.30.
Finland’s second moukari finalist Aada Koppeli finished sixth with a record 65.74.
The last youth competitions
Kosonen has previously won EC and WC gold in the under-20 category. He also holds the Junior world record. The native of Raisi, representing the Turku Sports Association, has already achieved good results in prestigious adult competitions: he was fifth in last summer’s European Championships and seventh in the World Championships.
The Espoo Games were the last prestigious youth competitions for Kosose, who was born in 2002. The next time the under-23s will compete in two years, when Kosonen will already be of legal age.
– Maybe a little empty feeling. I have invested in these games for a very long time. These are the broken junkies. Yes, I cried a little. Pretty funny feeling. Although this is not over, there are probably quite a few adult value competitions coming up, Kosonen said.
The Finnish athletics team won no fewer than five medals on Friday. Saga Vanninen won gold in the heptathlon, Eemil Helander ran to silver in the 5,000 meters, Veera Mattila surprised with his 800m silver run and Jessica Kähärä jumped to bronze in the triple jump.