Finnish news (Åstrand 20.72 NR)

[IFK_Vaxjo]

From Swedish point of view the most surprising result as the huge pb by Melker Svärd Jacobson and Andreas Otterling. Carolina Klüft is almost back to 2003 sprint form. Very promising!

[LopenUupunut]

Sudden comeback from 2000 Olympic champion Arsi Harju, who competed this weekend for the first time in 6 years, recording a mark of 18.48.

This may well have been inspired by the fact that our current level in the shot put is lower than mump's confidence in life after seeing Justin Gatlin get a warm welcome. On the national stage, 18.48 now is about the equivalent of 21m in his prime

[LopenUupunut]

84.41 for Lassi Etelätalo... conditions: nice tailwind but cold and very rainy. Big mark on last attempt, best effort before that was 75m

[LopenUupunut]

Ari Mannio opened his season with an okay 83.57 in Dessau. Up here in Finland, the domestic season is slowly getting underway; in Lappeenranta, Kristiina Mäkelä jumped a wTJ NJR of 13.64. I know, not really noteworthy by the standards of anyplace else, with the possible exception of the US

[Powell]

Well, it is better than the Polish NJR

[LopenUupunut]

This year's Elite Games series opened in Tampere. Conditions excellent for sprints (very warm, wind), bad for most other events (very warm, wind, a bit of rain for the later events). Nothing stellar happened, though the 100m times were excellent by Finnish standards...

100m:
1. Hannu Hämäläinen 10.29w (+2.3)
heats:
Jonathan Åstrand 10.26 (+2.0) (3rd all-time on Finnish lists...)
Hannu Hämäläinen 10.26w (+2.4)

400mH:
1. Cornel Fredericks RSA 49.20
2. Nathan Woodward GBR 49.80

3000mSC:
1. Ali Abubaker Kamal QAT 8:34.26
2. Jukka Keskisalo 8:41.50 (steeple season opener... doesn't look too good)

LJ:
1. Godfrey Mokoena RSA 778 (-1.8)
2. Michel Tornéus SWE 769 (-0.9)
3. Tommi Evilä 759 (-1.0)
4. Luvo Manyonga RSA 733 (-0.9)

HT:
1. Tuomas Seppänen 74.84
2. Mattias Jons SWE 74.11

JT:
1. Oleksandr Pyatnytsya UKR 79.79
2. Ari Mannio 77.52
3. Harri Haatainen 76.30

full results:
http://live.time4results.com/yu/2011/tampere/

[LopenUupunut]

Pitkämäki has a minor injury, but the current prognosis is he won't miss any comps.

[nbonaddio]

Pitkämäki has a minor injury, but the current prognosis is he won't miss any comps.

Any news on Heikkila, Hongisto, Valtimaki?

[LopenUupunut]

Heikkilä hasn't opened yet (not sure if he's injured). Hongisto is healthy but in very bad form. Välimäki's doing okay (47.29 this year - well, that passes for okay here...), though he lost in his opener to Petteri Monni (who's currently our #2 guy at 47.63).

[LopenUupunut]

Teemu Wirkkala had an elbow operation, which puts him out of any action for the next few months.

In other news, Finland (as noted elsewhere) stays on the second-highest level of European team competition. Day 1 was a disappointment, day 2 on the other hand was mostly good. The highlight of day 2 was Jonathan Åstrand's 20.50 (+1.8) PB in the 200, putting him 2nd on the all-time national list. Hardly a surprise after the excellent 100 from last week and good 200 form indoors, though he did get somewhat lucky with the conditions. Now let's just hope he stays healthy... It was also nice to see Johanna Lehtinen back in decent form (taking 2nd in a very slow w1500) after many consecutive years spoiled by injuries.

[nbonaddio]

Heikkilä hasn't opened yet (not sure if he's injured). Hongisto is healthy but in very bad form. Välimäki's doing okay (47.29 this year - well, that passes for okay here...), though he lost in his opener to Petteri Monni (who's currently our #2 guy at 47.63).

I tend to look at the brighter side of things. With the 100m coming together, Matti and Petteri is decent form, and hopefully Jussi getting back on the track, a 3:06 4x400 in peak condition doesn't seem that far off. Baby steps!

[LopenUupunut]

Coach says Pitkämäki will be affected by his buttock injury for the rest of the year. Seppo Räty says...

...an old friend called me just to laugh about it. Back in my times everyone had all kinds of injuries and no need to make it a media incident. I made it through a whole summer with a throwing leg full of broken ligaments and still medaled. I had a broken arm at one point and that didn't make the news. I was healthy in a grand total of one major meet [...] I know many others who should have been operated and instead competed. At a high international level, despite legit injuries.

I can understand this from a media point of view - they need something to report and our marks aren't really worth it. But from the sportsman's point of view, it sounds more like "see, that's why I failed to medal yet again, I had this tiny little injury!" A real top athlete can medal with a tiny little injury.

[LopenUupunut]

Next stop of Elite Games at Kuortane. Conditions mostly good (19 degrees, cloudy, not too much wind), though the track was slow and there was a bit of rain at one point.

m200:

1. Jonathan Åstrand 20.85 (+0.2)

mSteeple:

1. Jukka Keskisalo 8:29.47
2. Janne Ukonmaanaho 8:32.03 PB

Looking a bit better, though a long long way from great...

mLJ:

1. Tommi Evilä 798 (+0.1)
2. Luvo Manyonga RSA 796 (+1.1)
3. Roni Ollikainen 779w

Top 2 looked good. Evilä was very angry after the comp and thought he had plenty more in the tank. Manyonga had these really awkward-looking landings where he almost ended up on his nose... (didn't actually cost him much distance, just looked scary.)

mJT:

1. Andreas Thorkildsen NOR 84.33
2. Ari Mannio 79.60
5. Tero Pitkämäki 77.05
9. Zigismunds Sirmais LAT 75.38
10. Vítězslav Veselý CZE 73.24

OK, time to admit it: javelin throw today is a bad joke. This is what our guys were throwing 70 years ago... I'm starting to wonder if Železný regrets retiring.

mHT:

1. Tuomas Seppänen 75.31 PB
2. Dilshod Nazarov TJK 74.71

Biggest upset of the day. Seppänen looked good... rain spoiled the last few rounds somewhat, though most guys kept throwing in the same area anyway.

wHT:

1. Merja Korpela 69.30
2. Nataliya Zolotukhina UKR 68.36

Only 33cm away from NR... looking good, in a not-really-world-class way.

Full results: http://live.time4results.com/yu/2011/kuortane/

[LopenUupunut]

Long jump results from Jämsä:

1. Luvo Manyonga RSA 826 PB (+0.9)
2. Tommi Evilä 788
3. Roni Ollikainen 781w
4. Juho-Matti Pimiä 774
5. Mikko Kivinen 773 (3 times, all with a spare 10cm on the board)

Hammer results from Kaustinen:

1. David Söderberg 77.34

[LopenUupunut]

Javelin results from Pihtipudas:

1. Jarkko Koski-Vähälä 81.53
2. Antti Ruuskanen 80.15
3. Ari Mannio 79.02

Time to update my javelin formchart for this year...

1. Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway)
2. Sergey Makarov (Russia)
3. Matthias de Zordo (Germany)
4. Robert Oosthuizen (South Africa)
5. Dmytro Kosynskyy (Ukraine)
6. Igor Janik (Poland)
7. Vadims Vasilevskis (Latvia)
8. Fatih Avan (Turkey)
9. Roman Avramenko (Ukraine)
10. Dmitriy Tarabin (Russia)

[LopenUupunut]

Next edition of Elite Games at Lapinlahti... Full results here.

Weather: CHAOTIC. During men's long jump alone the wind varied between -3.8 and +5.5, with the last few rounds being quite calm. And the brightly burning sun was suddenly replaced by torrential rain...

Some good results from our guys, but they didn't do anything internationally shocking. From a Daegu point of view, the main news are that 1) Dodson was totally off and 2) Ibargüen is definitely for real.

m100:
1. Jacques Harvey JAM 10.20 (+0.5)
2. Jonathan Åstrand 10.36
..
5. Marc Burns TRI 10.46
6. Jeremy Dodson USA 10.76

m400:
1. Rabah Yousif SUD 45.13
..
3. Johan Wissman SWE 46.20
4. Lansford Spence JAM 46.85
5. Matti Välimäki 47.07 (national leader)
6. Petteri Monni 47.67

Nice time from Yousif... and, on a "somewhat" lower level, our guys.

mSteeple:
1. Youcef Abdi AUS 8:16.41
..
5. Jukka Keskisalo 8:26.45 (national leader)
6. Janne Ukonmaanaho 8:27.08 PB

Ukonmaanaho is definitely improving nicely, with a bit of luck we can send 2 guys to Daegu (not that they'll achieve anything there...)

mLJ:
1. Luvo Manyonga RSA 800 (-2.7)
2. Roni Ollikainen 790w (+4.0)
3. Tommi Evilä 789 (+0.4)
4. Norris Frederick USA 781w (+2.4)

Nuff said.

mHT:
1. David Söderberg 75.11

Unfortunately Tuomas Seppänen seems to have peaked too early...

mJT:
1. Antti Ruuskanen 82.29 SB
2. Harri Haatainen 81.01 SB

Ruuskanen finally got some air below a couple throws... Tero Järvenpää also SB'd at 76.21 but that's some 11m off from where he should be. He's throwing way too far from the side (think Fatih Avan x3) and can't get any height that way

m4x100
1. Jamaica 39.01 (Spence, Dwyer, Barnes, Harvey)
2. Finland 39.48 (Myllymäki, Hämäläinen, Åstrand, Ruostekivi)
3. International 39.50 (Arājs, Burns, Dodson, Tärnhuvud)

Finland was aiming for the Daegu standard of 39.20 (which would have also been a NR) but (unsurprisingly) didn't make it. Dodson was the weak link in Team International, both Barnes and Åstrand toasted him on the curve...

wTJ:
1. Caterine Ibargüen COL 14.59 (+1.6)
2. Amanda Smock USA 13.84w (+2.5)

[LopenUupunut]

Today's meet at Joensuu was mostly disappointing. Very few results worth mentioning...

m200 (+0.2)
1. Jonathan Åstrand 21.01
2. Jeremy Dodson USA 21.09

mJT
1. Sean Furey USA 78.57
2. Antti Ruuskanen 78.08

So FIN and USA splitting the two events above is nothing really unusual, but...

mHT
1. Olli-Pekka Karjalainen 76.54 SB

After being sidelined for a couple months with a back injury. About the only promising thing today...

mLJ:
1. Tommi Evilä 781 (-0.1)
2. Luvo Manyonga RSA 780 (-0.1)

w1500:
1. Zoe Buckman AUS 4:06.06
2. Erin Donohue USA 4:07.04
..
4. Karin Storbacka 4:13.66 PB

Storbacka moving up nicely - just two years ago she was our 400m national champ...

[26mi235]

m200 (+0.2)
1. Jonathan Åstrand 21.01
2. Jeremy Dodson USA 21.09

If Dodson improves some he will move back into the mediocre category, 21 is surprisingly slow for a WC entrant from the US

[LopenUupunut]

Quite a slow start to NCs in Turku (that was expected, since most of the early events weren't that exciting)...

m20kW:

1. Jarkko Kinnunen 1:23:40 PB

His form over shorter distances seems at least as good as in '09 when he went 3:47 at World Champs, but whether that translates to a good 50k remains to be seen.

mSteeple:

1. Janne Ukonmaanaho 8:39.44

Keskisalo not running. Could be a tactical move (they both have the B standard so we can only send one, as long as Keskisalo doesn't lose he's probably in, and the best way to avoid losing is...), or then he just feels he's been racing too much.

w800 (heats):

1. Johanna Matintalo (14yo) 2:08.25 PB

Lack of talent has never been the problem here... it's the way we manage to waste 99 per cent of it.

Full results: http://live.time4results.com/yu/2011/kalevankisat/

[LopenUupunut]

More action at NCs today. I was there watching, for the first time in a decade Great as it was, I'm not going back tomorrow; body just can't take it

m100:

1. Hannu Hämäläinen 10.72 (-1.2)
2. Jonathan Åstrand 10.77

w100:

1. Ella Räsänen 12.06 (-1.1)

m400:

1. Matti Välimäki 47.47
2. Ville Wendelin 47.84 PB
3. Jani Koskela 48.17 PB

w800:

1. Karin Storbacka 2:03.97
2. Johanna Matintalo 2:05.87 (14yo, 15yo NR)

mHT:

1. Olli-Pekka Karjalainen 75.20
2. Tuomas Seppänen 74.47
3. David Söderberg 73.12

14th consecutive gold...

mJT (qualification):

1. Antti Ruuskanen 82.21
2. Tero Järvenpää 78.23 SB

mLJ:

1. Tommi Evilä 808 SB
2. Roni Ollikainen 804 PB
3. Mikko Kivinen 789 =PB

Evilä won with his last jump, just missing the B standard... Kivinen was robbed when one of his jumps was mismeasured (almost certainly would have been PB). That got the loudest crowd reaction of the day... everybody was shouting, whistling and swearing at the officials. (There was a previous mark that hadn't been smoothed properly and they measured from that!!)

mPV:

1. Jere Bergius 560 =PB
2. Eemeli Salomäki 554

wLJ:

1. Tiia Mäki 623 PB

She was a huge crowd favorite as the home crowd girl, perhaps that boosted her to a surprise gold (though it was known she was in good shape) Probably the most emotional winner of the day too, she was jumping all over the place

[lonewolf]

More action at NCs today.mLJ:

1. Tommi Evilä 808 SB
2. Roni Ollikainen 804 PB
3. Mikko Kivinen 789 =PB

Evilä won with his last jump, just missing the B standard... Kivinen was robbed when one of his jumps was mismeasured (almost certainly would have been PB). That got the loudest crowd reaction of the day... everybody was shouting, whistling and swearing at the officials. (There was a previous mark that hadn't been smoothed properly and they measured from that!!)

I have never worked a meet in Europe and can seldom figure out the allocation of officials from limited TV clips. This is a national championship, did they not have a designated Pit Judge whose duty it is to observe the landing and ensure the pit does not have any possible confusing marks in the landing area?

[LopenUupunut]

There was one, but he screwed up badly

[lonewolf]

There was one, but he screwed up badly

That he did. Take him off the marker and put him back on the rake.

[LopenUupunut]

Last day of NCs...

mJT:

1. Ari Mannio 85.12 SB
2. Tero Järvenpää 80.10 SB
3. Antti Ruuskanen 79.51
4. Jarkko Koski-Vähälä 78.38

...phew. At least now there's no way they'll fail to select Mannio, which is good since he's the only somewhat consistent thrower we have. Also, it seems he's rounding into good shape at approximately the right time The other 2 spots will probably be decided at Lappeenranta next week (Pitkämäki might grab one spot just with his name, as long as he can be bothered to turn up...) Conditions: 22°C, very slight headwind.

m5000:

1. Jukka Keskisalo 14:07.54

Somewhat surprisingly, he turned up for the 5k. Better than I feared but not where he used to be...

mHJ:

1. Jussi Viita 220
2. Osku Torro 220

Torro just can't match his indoor shape...

mDec:

1. Sami Itani 7731

wHT:

1. Merja Korpela 67.10

w200:

1. Anna Hämäläinen 23.76 PB (+0.0)

m200:

1. Santeri Tukia 21.61 (-0.2)

Åstrand DNS with some minor injury...

wPV:

1. Minna Nikkanen 412

...meh. Another athlete already selected for World Champs solely for her indoor shape

[Elival]

w800:

1. Karin Storbacka 2:03.97
2. Johanna Matintalo 2:05.87 (14yo, 15yo NR)

Only interesting result together with Mannio and maybe the LJ for men. What a weak championship! On the other hand... I doubt the Swedish championship next week will be much better.

[LopenUupunut]

Last Elite Games meeting today at Lappeenranta. The main event was of course...

mJT:

1. Sampo Lehtola 83.77 PB
2. Antti Ruuskanen 81.11
3. Jarkko Koski-Vähälä 80.95
4. Tero Pitkämäki 79.37

After 5 rounds Pitkämäki was still leading, but then the other guys apparently got this idea... "this is the last opportunity to make the Finnish team for World Champs" ...and started throwing

The sad thing is that our #7 guy in this one event is as competitive internationally as anyone we have in any other event... The other sad thing is that Tero Järvenpää injured his leg or groin or something.

mLJ:

1. Tommi Evilä 801
2. Roni Ollikainen 791

wSteeple:

1. Sandra Eriksson 9:49.46 SB

Made the B standard by a hair, in a total solo run. She was totally off until a month ago but has been rapidly gaining form

mDT:

1. Märt Israel EST 62.65
2. Mikko Kyyrö 60.60

wJT:

1. Elisabeth Eberl AUT 60.07 PB

m5000:

1. Josphat Kiprono Menjo KEN 13:21.10
2. Collis Birmingham AUS 13:21.38
3. Ben St. Lawrence AUS 13:23.44

w1500:

1. Zoe Buckman AUS 4:06.39
2. Kaila McKnight AUS 4:08.79

mHT:

1. David Söderberg 76.41

w100H:

1. Adrianna Lamalle FRA 13.14 (+0.7)
2. Nooralotta Neziri 13.30 PB

m100:

1. Lerone Clarke JAM 10.06 (+0.5)
2. Ainsley Waugh JAM 10.11
3. Ramil Guliyev TUR 10.14 NR (but not PB...)

Jukka Keskisalo won the Elite Games jackpot, only €15000 this year.

Full results here.

[LopenUupunut]

A very small Finnish team has been selected...

As usual, I've evaluated the chances of each athlete on my personal scale of none/slim/some/OK.

(with SBs)

m200 - Jonathan Åstrand (20.50) - chances: slim

That's very slim. A month ago I'd have seriously considered giving him a some, but his form has come crashing down, possibly because of the stomach injury. He'll really have to recover if he is to do anything meaningful.

mSteeple - Jukka Keskisalo (8:26.45) - chances: none

Nowhere near where he used to be...

m50kW - Jarkko Kinnunen (no SB) - chances: some

Probably our best chance outside of the javelin, he really seems to have good upside, though Euro Champs last year was a major disappointment. He has PB'd at both 20k and 30k this year, but with no 50k time it's hard to assess just where he really is right now.

m50kW - Antti Kempas (4:02.37) - chances: none

He has a good champs record but still no chances because his form just isn't there. Still, it's nice to see him recovering

mHJ - Osku Torro (233i) - chances: none

Capable of good jumps, but so far only indoors. And his knee is messed up so badly he very nearly decided not to go. He himself seems to think he has a slim chance but I don't see it.

mPV - Jere Bergius (560) - chances: slim

He looked really good at NCs, but not today. If he can jump the way he did at NCs and has a whole heap of luck he can do another 560 which just might be enough to make the final. Beyond that... nah.

mHT - Olli-Pekka Karjalainen (76.54) - chances: some

Well, at least he has a lot of experience and is in an event that hasn't been doing that well globally lately. So he has some chances of making the final, and I wouldn't be surprised if he can improve that SB. But no medals.

mJT - Ari Mannio (85.12) - chances: OK

Lots and lots of pressure on him now; our only real medal hope. We'll see how he'll do...

mJT - Tero Pitkämäki (85.33) - chances: some

The decision to select him has already drawn criticism... just what has he really shown this year? Then, everyone knows he could rebound and he does have better medaling chances than anyone else who could have taken his spot.

mJT - Sampo Lehtola (83.77) - chances: some

Even after that big throw today it was surprising he was selected; Ruuskanen and Koski-Vähälä have surely shown much more solidity. But it was a big throw in the right place... now we just need two more. At least it seems he can get the best out of himself in a tight corner (he also PB'd at Euro U23s) which is always useful. And he'll get some experience for future

wSteeple - Sandra Eriksson (9:49.46) - chances: slim

With a time like that, realistically she should have no chances. But you'd have been excused a month ago for giving her no chances of making the team.

wHT - Merja Korpela (69.30) - chances: slim

Again, very very slim chances (of making the final). Will probably take an NR...

wPV - Minna Nikkanen (460i) - chances: none

She was in great shape indoors... but not outdoors. She keeps complaining the weather has been bad (and it often has), but a good athlete can do well in any weather. In her indoor shape she could make the final but I don't see that happening now.

[LopenUupunut]

Jere Bergius 572 at Haapajärvi, Oly A standard and =3rd on the world list... didn't expect that

Eemeli Salomäki 2nd with 560, also not bad - now if only they could maintain this form...

[gennady]

Jere Bergius 572 at Haapajärvi, Oly A standard and =3rd on the world list... didn't expect that

Eemeli Salomäki 2nd with 560, also not bad - now if only they could maintain this form...

Congratulations.

[LopenUupunut]

Javelin guys starting to round into something resembling form... too early, as usual

Ruuskanen was the national leader for one day with 82.60, but Mannio improved to 83.74 at Äänekoski yesterday, so he now tops the national list (and is clearly our #1 guy). Wirkkala is also back in action and opened his season with 80.77 in Germany, so his recovery seems to have been OK.

Updated javelin formchart:

1. Vítězslav Veselý (Czech Republic)
2. Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway)
3. Guillermo Martínez (Cuba)
4. Fatih Avan (Turkey)
5. Oleksandr Pyatnytsya (Ukraine)
6. Dmitry Tarabin (Russia)
7. Ari Mannio (Finland)
8. Matthias de Zordo (Germany)
9. Genki Dean (Japan)
10. Stuart Farquhar (New Zealand)

Zigismunds Sirmais threw 84.06 in Estonia on Friday, will be interesting to see how he does at Eugene

[LopenUupunut]

Wirkkala improved to 83.73 at Karjaa today, a measly 1 cm off Mannio's national leader Mannio himself was 4th in the Oslo DL with 82.20 and complained he'd left his legs home.

Meanwhile, in the 1500, Niclas Sandells ran a new PB of 3.38.08 (also at Oslo, but outside the main DL programme)... which is the best time by a Finn since 1989! To think we've won three Oly golds in this event

[LopenUupunut]

First meet of the Elite Games series today at Tampere. Weather: cold, mostly rainy.

mJT:
1. Antti Ruuskanen 84.95
2. Ivan Zaitsev UZB 76.99
(Mannio, Wirkkala and Pitkämäki weren't competing)

For the first four rounds the track was very, very wet, Zaitsev was leading with 76.01 at that point. Things improved somewhat in the last two rounds, everybody in the top 4 had their best result in round 6... at this point it looks very likely that our team for the Euros will be Ruuskanen, Mannio, Wirkkala, if anybody else wants to make the team they'll have to throw 84+ at Pihtipudas next week.

mLJ:
1. Khotso Mokoena RSA 807 (+0.7)
2. Michel Tornéus SWE 807 (+0.7)
3. Roni Ollikainen 784 (+0.8)

wSteeple:
1. Sandra Eriksson 9:51.41

Cutting 2 seconds from her own national leading time, she's opened this season better than any before... hopefully she can get Johanna Lehtinen's NR of 9:40.28 this year, looking at her improvement profiles from previous years it should be doable

Full results here.

[croflash]

Do you think it's fair to say that Pitkämäki is already past his prime? He has not been the same for a couple of years now, one could argue he has not been able to compete at the same top level since winning the WCh in 2007.

[LopenUupunut]

I wouldn't object to it, but he might

Pitkämäki keeps saying his physical shape has if anything improved since those glory days, but for some or other reason that's not reflected in his results... and lately it's been increasingly hard to blame that solely on technical problems. Sure, he is struggling technically, but I don't see him gaining 15 meters overnight even if he suddenly nails it - and besides, he's been struggling technically for ages yet he's only been throwing below 80 for a year.

It's obvious he's stronger than let's say de Zordo but can't actually get that strength behind the javelin... and that's what's been getting worse lately, despite a half-hearted attempt at imitating de Zordo's rotation. I think some of his original explosiveness is gone
It's as if the mycoplasma fatigue from last year still affected his throws, but so far he at least hasn't blamed that.

Anyway, even if it were just a technical problem that wouldn't help much unless he actually solved it

[LopenUupunut]

Excellent LJ comp in Jämsä

1. Roni Ollikainen 832w (+2.2)/805 (-0.5)
2. Mikko Kivinen 802 (+1.4)
3. Tommi Evilä 799w/795
4. Eero Haapala 786
5. Juho-Matti Pimiä 784

Really a pity Ollikainen fouled all jumps with decent wind readings... he could have taken down Evilä's NR today. Hopefully he at least gets the Oly standard this year, the potential is definitely there but a little luck with winds would be very welcome