Men’s javelin throw of better quality than ever – Finland is at European Championship level

Andersson Peters won his new world championship. PASI LEISMA

Trinidad and Tobago, the home country of the 2012 Olympic champion, Kenya of the 2015 world champion, Grenada of the 2019 world champion and India of the 2021 Olympic champion.

The night before Sunday Finnish time, in the World Cup finals, Grenada won gold, India won silver, the Czech Republic won bronze, Germany placed fourth, Pakistan placed fifth, Finland placed sixth, Moldova placed seventh and Finland placed eighth.

It’s clear that men’s javelin is more global than ever

– Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic victory could not have been a better gift for the javelin throw. There are definitely more throwers out there. Pakistan is on the rise. Without a doubt, the depth of the javelin throw is greater than ever. It is no longer a Northern European sport, even for women. Among other things, China invests in women’s throwing sports, says Iltalehti athletics expert Arto Bryggare.

Local time in the USA on Saturday night saw a great World Cup final against the wind.

– At the time of Seppo Rädy and Tapio Korjus in the 1980s, the 85-meter throw was a whoah, whoah throw. Now that’s the usual result.

It is remarkable that Eugene was missing a surprising number of the world’s top players of recent years.

Among the active players, Johannes Vetter, who threw the longest, Kim Amb, the national match winner, and Rocco van Rooyen, who was twelfth in the world statistics last season, are injured. Medalist Vítězslav Veselý has pneumonia. Olympic winner and world champion Thomas Röhler has been completely lost, as well as last season’s world number two Marcin Krukowski and last season’s No. 1 Gatis Caks. Belarus’ Aleksei Katkavets is on the ice. 2019 World Championship medalist Magnus Kirt has been trying to come back after a series of injuries this summer.

Sports Federation’s javelin coach Petteri Piironen nods to the assessment that the level and quality of the men’s javelin are the toughest in history.

– The level is damn wide. There are a lot of throwers between 85 and 90 meters. The longest throw of the season always starts at a good 90 meters, he states.

– And for various reasons, a lot is now on the sidelines. If everyone was healthy and on track, the level would be wild, the man continues.

Anderson Peters was arguably the best man in the final. Three times over 90 meters. A 95-meter one would probably have gone in a downwind.

Neeraj Chopra was a bit nervous at the start of the event when he tried to throw the 200m. From the third round, he got the equipment in a better position and did what was necessary for a medal. In the last two rounds, the bangs were gone.

Czech Jakub Vadlejch is the man of the tournament. The bronze was the third plaque in the last five competitions. Jan Zelezny got another hat in his hat.

The only surprise of the finale was that there were no surprises. Pakistani big man Arshad Nadeem already showed last summer that he is a tough guy and Moldovan host Andrian Mardare throws with nice technique.

For Finns, it’s great that the traditional sport is recovering after difficult years. The last time in the 2015 World Cup were two blue and white in the final at the same time.

Lassi Etelätalo’s great prize competition final streak continued. Fourth time in big middles and the same number of times in eights.

Oliver Helander would have been able to compete for medals in downwind or calm weather, at least in theory. But the man’s throwing background against the wind is modest. A place among eight is certainly disappointing, but in the big picture a decent performance.

But even in this sport of athletics, Finland’s top level is only in the front row of the European championships.

Two Europeans raced ahead of Etelätalo in Eugene, and a total of five, including Oliver Helander’s teammate, in front of Oliver Helander.

Vetter will arrive in Munich strong, Andreas Hofmann will get his back destroyed by bed in shape, and veteran Vesely is always dangerous in value races.

In Bavaria, we have to break the streak of no medals.

The previous javelin medal and with it the Finnish athletics medal is Antti Ruuskanen’s bronze from the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam.