Lasse Virén and Pekka Vasala won Olympic gold 50 years ago

Tactically, the merconomist from Lohja, who did a fine job as a watchmaker, knew how to calculate his strength, knew his abilities and was not afraid of anyone. Threatening strength, Vasala’s step rose, and like a deer he ran away in the last bend, as the front straight opened up past the Kenyan Kipchoge Keino, who defended the gold in Mexico and already won the gold medal in the steeplechase here. New Zealand’s Rod Dixon had emerged as a top threat on the back straight, but the strength was not enough. Vasala was invincible.

I saw aptly, almost poetically and clearly the “blue and white voice” of Yleisradio Pekka Tiilikainen in pursuit of style was described by the newspaper Uusi Suomi Pekka Vasalan 1500m Olympic victory in Munich 1972.

Sunday, September 10, 1972, the last competition day of the Games, remained forever in Finnish sports history.

Today is 50 years since Lasse Virén and Pekka Vasala won two Olympic golds for Finland in half an hour.

– Of course, it will go down in history. There probably won’t be any more, that’s two gold in half an hour. At least I won’t see it in my lifetime, Vasala, 74, believes.

A week earlier, Virén had run a tenth of a ton – despite falling – to both an Olympic victory and a world record. The gold in the 5000 meters on the memorable Finnish day was the second of the games for him.

At the same time, Vasala was preparing for the 1500 meter final.

– I walked calling from Room up the stairs to the stadium and I had time to see Lasse finish just then, he recalls.

– I didn’t notice Lassen running the lap of honor when I tried to focus on my own performance in the best possible way. But it was great to watch when he finished. All credit to Lasse!

Nurmen telegram

The tactics that looked like the work of Vasala’s watchmaker were partly the sum of coincidences.

– SpongeBob Nurmi had sent me a telegram which I never received. He wrote that don’t let Kipchoge Keino a meter away. Follow it, it’s your tactic.

– And I had Harri Larvan another tactic. The kind that hits 300 meters before the finish line, says Vasala, referring to the previous Finnish Olympic champion in the 1500 meters, the man from Turku who won gold in Amsterdam in 1928.

The start of the competition was, according to Vasala’s standard, “quiet slogging.”

– Then suddenly Kipchoge Keino your host at 700 meters to a huge speed.

The Kenyan’s two-round streak forced Vasala to change his plan.

Even though he didn’t hear about Nurme’s missing email until after the race, now he practically implemented the nine-time Olympic champion’s instructions on the track: follow Keino, don’t run away.

– There was nothing else to do but to follow as much as possible.

Same rhythm

The breakneck speed was eating away at the line pulled by Keino, which man by man began to thin out. The last round was insane.

– We went really hard on the back straight, Vasala remembers.

– The previous summer I had won Keino at the World Championships in Helsinki. While he may have been more durable, I knew I was faster, and at the moat my confidence grew as I grew.

As the front straight opened up, Vasala got up next to Keino, and for a while they ran exactly at the same pace.

– We had the same step rhythm. A photo has been taken of it. At that moment, I knew that the victory was clear.

– Then a fierce battle at the end! Yle’s TV narrator Anssi Kukkonen yell.

– Vasala is currently the first! 50 meters to the finish line! Pekka Vasala wins! He wins and brings us another gold medal in less than half an hour! Vasala wins, Keino second and Dixon third.

Vasala remembers that he didn’t have time to feel much after crossing the finish line.

– I raised my hands as a sign of victory, congratulations came and Nuuttila Seppo hugged, he refers to the head coach of the Sports Association.

– We went to a doping test and interviews, we were also taken to television. It was the same nonsense as it is today.

Vasala missed the evening party.

– I took it quite calmly. I walked around the city for a bit and then came to the cottage. Sinkonen’s Kari (Vasala’s coach) and Lasse then came much later.

Training stick

Vasala ran the last 800 meters in a record time of 1.48.4, and the final time of 3.36.33 is still a Finnish record. Antti Loikkanen surpassed it with a hand time (3.36.3) in 1980.

However, Vasala is not pleased with the record.

– The pace was too quiet for the first two laps. The end was much tougher, but the Finnish record is really weak, he criticized.

– It would have been much nicer if it had been as fast as it is in today’s races – to have achieved such a result that it would not have been broken for a few years. Well, it’s been 50 years now.

ME is Moroccan of Hicham el-Guerrouj in names from 1998: 3.26.00.

As Vasala’s confident words tell, he was in the shape of his life in Munich.

It was also known in Finland – at the latest after Vasala set the 800-meter European record of 1:44.5 in the Finland-Sweden national match during the Olympics, which was only 0.2 seconds short of the world record.

– I had a hard time, he says about his training.

– At best 194 kilometers per week. In hill training, we bounced up a hill 450 meters and did pull-ups under it. On the track, races of 400, 300 and 200 twice a day. The power of the training was tuned to the extreme.

When the competitors lined up at the starting line, the confidence in the runner from Riihämäkä was strong even in the home stands.

The victory was not a surprise, even though it came through a hard fight in the end. Knowing exactly his level, Vasala just took his own.

– Means and Jim Ryu were my main opponents, but Ryun fell in the heats, he repeated the fate of the US ME man.

– I only had Keino as a worthy opponent.

Clear decision

Vasala was also number one in the world statistics at 800 meters, but he missed that on the Olympic track before the 1500 meters race.

– 800 is an enigmatic journey. If you’re in the bag or otherwise in the wrong place at the wrong time, it’s a tough race. When you push on the track, anything can happen.

– We made a clear decision that it is better to focus on the 1500, when we have trained for it once.

Vasala wanted to secure the gold medal that he knew belonged to him. On the other hand, with a little risk-taking, he could very well have become a two-time Olympic champion like Virén.

The idea took hold especially after Vasala saw the 800m final. of the United States David Wottle won with a time of 1:45.86.

– That final was surprisingly easy. In that sense, it was a bit disappointing. I should have run anyway, but what’s done is done.

Virén later won two golds also in Montreal 1976, becoming a four-time Olympic champion.

Financial advisor

Vasala remembers his Olympic victory fondly. He refers to the 1500m winner at the 1960 Rome Olympics, the Australian to Herbert Elliott.

– Elliott once said that an athlete who sets as his goal something other than Olympic victory, achieves something else in sports.

– That has been my motto, and I’m lucky that I achieved it, Vasala said.

– However, since then I haven’t left it on the track to run. I’ve had other things in my professional life, and I’m happy that I’ve been able to work for sports.

Vasala, who currently lives in Heinola, has worked in management positions at, among others, the Finnish Sports Institute in Vierumäki and at SUL and SVUL. He received the title of Financial Advisor in 2011 after retiring a year earlier.

– You have to get busy with the grandchildren.

Four medals

Finland’s medals on the big day in Munich were not limited to two golds. Boxer Reima Virtanen won Olympic silver and archery on the same day Laasonen asked bronze.

Of course, Finland had achieved bigger catches in the early years of Olympic sports, when, for example, in Paris in 1924, under the leadership of Paavo Nurmi, a total of 37 medals were won.

About half a century later, the global competition was already in a completely different category.

The historical significance of the closing day in Munich is underlined by the fact that in the last nine Summer Olympics, Finland has not been able to surpass that one day in the medal statistics, even with its entire haul.

In Sydney in 2000, the same thing was achieved – two golds, a silver and a bronze – but the catch has been smaller eight times.

In Munich, Finland won a total of eight medals (3–1–4) and was 14th in the statistics. Last year in Tokyo, Finland’s two bronze medals were enough in the comparison between the countries, instead of 85.

At the end of the interview, Vasala returns to the big day in blue and white. He reminds that Lasse Virén must not be forgotten, and sends his greetings to the Myrskylä legend via Iltalehti:

– Good luck on your 50th anniversary, hopes simple Olympic champion Pekka Vasala.