Sport|Athletics World Championships
The 2007 world champion says from his experience that Oliver Helander has not yet thrown as far as he could.
Eugene, Oregon
Oliver Helander and Lassi Etelätalo throw the javelin in the final of the World Athletics Championships, which starts on the night between Saturday and Sunday at 4:35 Finnish time. The medal winners will be known around six in the morning.
Helander made it to the final with one throw (82.41), with which he was the sixth best in the qualification. Etelätalo threw all three qualifying throws, the best of which carried 80.03 meters. He made it to the finals as the last thrower.
Etelätalo was also the last finalist in the 2014 European Championships in Zurich, where he was fourth, and in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, where he was also fourth.
Helander will throw for the first time in the final, where he has tried three times in the value competitions, but has always qualified before.
Helander throws eighth and Etelätalo tenth in the final. The eight best throwers make it to the last three rounds.
The final favorites are India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra (qualifying 89.91), 2019 world champion Grenada Anderson Peters (89,91), Czech Republic Jakub Vadlejch (85,23) and Julian Weber (87,28), who is trying to save Germany’s underwhelming World Cup.
Helander’s coach Tero Pitkämäki has accordingly tuned his shield to good shape, even though he has spared his hand in the summer games.
Pitkämäki started as Helander’s coach last fall. In June, Helander threw his record 89.83 at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku.
According to Pitkämäki, as a former handball player, Helander is a natural thrower.
“The level of competence is remarkably high,” Pitkämäki says of Helander on the eve of the final.
“I had the opposite. It took an awful lot of throws to make it routine, but don’t try to feed him the same pattern.”
In coaching, Pitkämäki relies on practice and being present with the athlete.
He says that he cannot make an exercise program based on theory alone.
“Thoughts start racing as soon as I see an athlete in action. I quickly get an idea of how things are developed,” says Pitkämäki.
With his experience as a medalist in seven prestigious competitions, Pitkämäki believes that Helander has not thrown as far as he could. The pebbles are enough for a throw of more than 90 meters.
“In his record-breaking throw in Turku, Oliver missed 30 cents of pull distance. In theory, it should take up to five meters from the result. Against this fact, it was a rather special result”, says the 2007 world champion.
In next night’s final, Pitkämäki will stand next to the stands, supporting Helander and Etelätalo. Pitkämäki has a double role, as he is also a sports coach of the Finnish Sports Confederation (SUL).
“In a competitive situation, I try to look calm so that the athlete doesn’t get nervous, even though the tension is quite similar to that of an athlete. It’s just at a different point. An athlete gets nervous before a competition, a coach during it.”
The javelin final will start on Sunday at 4:35 Finnish time.
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