The Finnish quartet opened their World Cup career in Helsinki in 1983 and were irrevocably hooked.
OREGON. Four athletics fans with a collector’s nature sat in the stands at the World Championships in Helsinki in 1983. Markku Muona, Seppo Kärkkäinen, Jukka Mukala and Timo Nyrhinen had packed into the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, which at the time attracted around 50,000 spectators, but did not know each other at the time. One thing was crystal clear to everyone: the races will be watched on site from start to finish, including every morning and evening session.
What was true in 1983 is still true today. The four have had tickets to every morning and evening competition organized in the history of the World Cup. When the same faces met from one Games to another all over the world, the idea of traveling together matured over time.
– In Athens (1997), the group started to get closer, and now we are here, Nyrhinen, 75, who lives in Espoo, says.
Kärkkäinen, 76, also admits to being from Espoo. Muona, 73, is from Siilinjärvi and Mukala, 65, is from Hamina. A lot of money has been sunk into World Cup trips, but there are worse investment options. The passion to travel around the world paid what it cost – or took what it took.
– It took 46 hours to get here from Hamina, says Mukala.
The car journey from Hamina to Helsinki-Vantaa airport is just over an hour and a half. The flight to Eugene was via Frankfurt and Denver. However, at the end of Denver, the game had to be interrupted due to a technical fault that hit the plane.
The interruption of the journey also had fatal consequences for the pipe, which can be safely called incredible: the foursome missed the first morning session of the World Championships in Oregon, which became the first missed session in the entire history of the World Championships.
– It wasn’t our fault! Mukala says.
Nyrhinen’s bag was also left on the trip, which contained the Finnish flag that always accompanies the traveling party. The previous one remained Tero Pitkämäki took over in 2007, when Pitkämäki toured the World Cup stadium in Osaka with the ticket of Nyrhine and his partners as the newly minted world champion.
– The sports association donated a new one, because of course the ticket stayed with Tero as it should, Nyrhinen says.
Tight competitions are the most important measure
When the odometer has accumulated 15 World Cup competing countries, Finland, Japan and Germany have organized the competitions twice, there have been enough events. Three years ago in Qatar, getting lost in the wrong stand on a 50-kilometer walk meant getting to know armed security guards.
– In the end, the gentlemen understood that we were not traveling with an attack in mind, Nyrhinen says.
– There were so many gunmen around that we were already thinking about whether we would end up here, Muona says.
– In Rome (1987), the tour guide was on the tube. He had extra tickets that he had sold outside the stadium. It didn’t turn out to be good, Kärkkäinen adds, but notes that none of this foursome were caught in the crossfire.
For these men, strict and high-quality competitions are the most important thing. The success of the Finns is not a prerequisite for a successful World Cup, but it is the icing on the cake – if it is to come. This is evident from the answers when talking about the most memorable World Cup moment.
– The length of Tokyo, coming from almost one mouth.
The answer is not surprising. It is not the first time that the 1991 World Cup final battle Mike Powell’s and by Carl Lewis has sometimes been titled as the greatest athletics competition of all time.
– The Stuttgart Games (1993) had the best atmosphere, says Kärkkäinen.
The Germans also performed to their advantage in the women’s high jump final in Berlin in 2009. The competition ended with the Croatian by Blanka Vlasic to victory, but the special feature of the competition was related to the one who jumped in front of his home crowd to Ariane Friedrich.
While jumping, the German jumper asked the stadium to be completely silent, and the 75,000-strong audience did as ordered.
– That complete silence was impressive.
– In honor of these games, it must be said that here everyone gets encouragement. Ours are, of course, a bit more brisk, but the Americans know how to value performance, Nyrhinen says.
The heat is trying
Athletes have been able to compete in Eugene in hot conditions that have favored sports that require explosiveness. In the stands, the heat has made you sweat, if there was no shade available.
– It has been a bit too hot for our taste in the sunshine. You can do with less, Kärkkäinen states.
It has been hot in previous games as well. The 50-kilometer walk at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo is known as a classic competition in endurance sports, which pushed competitors to their limits.
Valentin Kononen finished in fifth place in the heat and especially in the midst of extreme humidity with a time of 4.02.34. For comparison: Kononen’s winning time in the 1995 Gothenburg World Cup trip was 3:43:42.
– In Tokyo, each of us fell in love with walking 50 kilometers, Kärkkäinen says, but notes that the heat didn’t hurt as much as the humidity.
– Then we were also younger and more durable, Muona grumbles after.
In the World Championships in Oregon, however, there is no longer the royal distance of walking, but the length of the long distance of the competitions is only 35 kilometers.
– Twenty-five back. Immediately, Nyrhinen impales.
Only in the World Cup
The joint trips of the value competition teams focus specifically on the World Championships. Other competitions such as the Olympics and European Championships are not automated. There is variation in them.
– I have been to all the European Championships since 1990, with the exception of the 2006 Gothenburg Games, Kärkkäinen says.
– The Summer Olympics since Moscow (1980) have been part of the program, if you have been able to attend. There were tickets to Tokyo too, Mukala says, referring to the Japanese organizers’ decision to organize last year’s Olympics without an audience.
For Nyrhi, the Olympic experience is limited to one time.
– Helsinki 1952. And it was only because Ostrobothnia had gathered hay and it was a rainy week. Father said that we should not go to the Olympics. Then we went. What papers are left, I’ve been to athletics and swimming competitions, Nyrhinen recounts his Olympic debut at the age of five.