Athletics European Championships 7 June–12 June. Ylen channels. See shipping information at this link.
Finnish athletics have returned to an all-too-familiar situation at the European Championships in Rome – it is up to the javelin men to open up the medal statistics.
by Oliver Helander the qualifying competition was colorful. The ominous grimaces of the preliminary training scared the javelin people, but it was just the hot gel that ended up in an arcane place.
Then Helander broke the qualifying mark by 82 meters with his first (84.35).
In the second qualifying group, they threw Toni Keränen and Lassi Etelätalowho won bronze at the previous European Championships.
Keränen organized a big bang when he raced with 82.77, i.e. over the qualifying limit. Keränen fanned himself and bowed for a reason after his throw.
– Excellent work from Liminga’s reaper. By far the longest throw of the season, by far the most important moment of the season, said ‘s expert Tuomas Raja.
Keränen’s first throw failed when he drifted too close to the line. Sports coach Petteri Piironen was satisfied with Keränen’s second bet.
– Got a cleaner stroke, better power to the spear, not to the crossarm.
– It’s in good shape when the result was close to the record. That is surely Toni’s best moment. Hopefully there will be a little more in the finale. This will definitely give you confidence.
Finally
For Keräs, the championships are the third in his career. In the summer of 2022, at the World Championships in Eugene and the European Championships in Munich, he failed to qualify with weak attempts.
The selection of Keränen for the European Championships in Rome was not an easy task. He competed to the last for a place Toni Kuuselan with, but eventually beat his rival brother who suffered from health problems.
– An all too familiar place for me, that the spear selection soup is cooked. I don’t want to be in that mess, Keränen commented In the evening newspaper before the European Championships.
Keränen threw his first 80-meter throw of the summer in the EC qualifying. In the five previous races of the season, the results were between 75.89 and 79.09.
Keränen’s record has been broken in Oulu 2022 with 82.89. Keränen now won the second result of his career in the European Championship in Rome.
– Of course, the expected step. After all, I’ve strived for the same result in previous skirmishes, and there have been opportunities. Fortunately, this happened, Keränen rejoiced.
However, she was not surprised by her handsome curves.
– I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. That wasn’t an act of self-deprecation. I finally got to my level. The whole spring has been such that I’ve been waiting for it to come. It’s good that I woke up a little bit to this throwing.
– Not a hot button, but good enough.
For the final, Keränen didn’t want to pile up more goals.
– The same Mindset as in qualifying. I’m just going to throw the spear as far as possible. I’m not going to guess any rankings or meters.
Familiar oats for Etelätalo
Also known as a stable qualifying thrower, Lassi Etelätalo made it to the finals. He threw his best result of the qualification 80.83 in his last. Etelätalo also opened the qualification with 80 meters (80.56).
Etelätalo already believed that his first throw was enough. Then he thought “as a basic pessimist” that it might not be enough after all, so he had to throw away all three of his attempts. The first one would have been enough – for four cents.
– Very basic, good throws. There were no squats even during exercise. Good day, Etelätalo summit.
The last time Finland had three men in the javelin final was at the European Championship final in Zurich in 2014. Then Antti Ruuskanen and Tero Pitkämäki were the best in the qualification and Etelätalo advanced to the finals last with a score of 78.22.
In the Zurich final, Ruuskanen won, Pitkämäki was third and Etelätalo fourth.
– Again I was the worst Finn in the qualification. The others threw the line, I had to tense up. In Zurich I had to do a little more. The same starting situation for the final, Etelätalo laughed at the points of convergence and hoped for an equally strong final success.
Oliver Helander’s hot gel accident was acknowledged by Etelätalo in a way befitting the spearmen’s collective spirit.
– Yeah. It’s not the first time.
A big ball from Helander?
Both sport coach Petteri Piironen and ‘s expert Jaakko Ojaniemi were surprised by the tough qualifying level.
– I would not have thought that it would rise this high. The weather is good. Some wind gets into the field, even though it’s such a boiler. It must have some effect, Piironen thought.
In the final, all Finns have a chance for points positions, i.e. top 8, Piironen saw.
– Oliver has a chance for the brightest. It’s in such great shape. Haven’t hit a single throw yet this summer, but still managed to throw 84 meters. There’s a big box in hand.
The men’s javelin final will be thrown on Wednesday, i.e. the closing night of the Games, starting at 9:30 p.m.
Urheilu follows the European Championships moment by moment in this article.
Athletics European Championships 7 June–12 June. Ylen channels. See shipping information at this link.