“The day will come when he will be a prize medalist”

Lassi Etelätalo coach and spear legend Leo Pusan75, said that two goals were set for Etelätalo this season: Championship gold from the Kaleva Games and a prestigious medal.

The EC bronze and Etelätalo’s new record of 86.44 aroused warm feelings in Pusa. Etelätalo’s road to becoming an open competition medalist has not been the easiest. For example, he had to miss the 2015 season and a large part of the following one due to injuries.

– Lassi’s journey has been very rocky at times. There have been many setbacks, such as various injuries. However, we have always handled things the way they should and received the world’s best sports medicine treatment in Finland.

Pusa watched the race calmly with his wife.

– My wife and I were at a pond in Central Finland, where we could watch the swans swimming during the day. We were calm, but in the afternoon, the phone started to receive a lot of messages, various questions. It disturbed our peace a bit.

– I was looking forward to the race with a calm mind and when the first throw went well, I knew that everything was fine.

Pusa believed that the duo’s long-term work would bring results from the European Championships in Munich. Etelätalo and Pusa have patiently moved forward step by step towards the big goal.

– We have trusted that the day will come when Lassi Etelätalo will be a prize medalist. Last spring already seemed that now it is near. After Kaleva’s games, I was confident that those who would move him off the podium must be tough, said Pusa, who himself competed in the javelin at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Etelätalo was tied for a medal from the start of the competition, but so was the Czech Republic Vitezslav Vesely wedged further ahead with his 84-meter. Etelätalo broke its bronze-winning record throw right after this with the fifth attempt.

Pusa said that he was confident that Etelätalo would be able to match Vesely’s curve.

– I didn’t experience it as a panic situation at all. As far as the camera shot of Lass, he was very calm and didn’t seem nervous at all. You can see it from the outside if the athlete is nervous and then not much can be expected, at least big kicks. Lassi was very lassi-like there.

According to Pusa, in a successful throw, everything fell into place.

– We have tried to get efficiency from speed and relaxation so that it would come to the end. Lass has a long draw anyway, so he got a suitable delay. Everything worked out on that fifth throw.

It is proven that the methods of an experienced coach are still sufficient for a valuable competition medal. However, Pusa says that a successful coach must follow his time. A coach and an athlete cannot do it together.

– Otherwise, those methods wouldn’t last if you didn’t have an open-mindedness and live in modern times. Today, a team must be assembled around the athlete, which includes various professionals and with whom we work. It must work seamlessly. From the beginning, I wanted to build one with Lass, because I have always wanted to do this kind of teamwork with my own athletes.

Pusa says that the two have found the right and like-minded people with whom the path to the top has been built. It is now bearing fruit.

Pusa has not yet had time to plan more precisely how to celebrate the medal with the spear hero. Etelätalo’s wife Anni and the couple’s little daughter Netta will at least join the party.

– Netta is also the more important focal point in all of this, and they have given Lass a lot of strength. Let’s see how everything can be agreed, can’t it be done with traditional, slightly more festive, cake coffees?