Eduard Hämäläinen

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Eduard Hämäläinen (born January 21, 1969 in Qaraghandy , Kazakh SSR ) is a former decathlete . In 23 decathlons he reached over 8,000 points, and in seven competitions he exceeded 8500 points. The 1.94 m tall and 93 kg heavy athlete won medals for three countries during his career.

nationality

Hämäläinen's great-grandfather emigrated from Finland to Russia before 1917 and was later deported to Kazakhstan. Hämäläinen started for the Soviet Union until 1991 , for the CIS in 1992 and for Belarus from 1993 to 1996 , where he lived in Hrodna . In 1994 he moved to Kuortane in western Finland , and from January 1, 1997 Hämäläinen was allowed to start for Finland .

Career

At the Junior World Championships in 1988 in Sudbury , Canada, Hämäläinen won bronze with 7596 points behind the German Michael Kohnle and the Czech Robert Změlík . At the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, he finished seventh with 8233 points. In 1992 he became champion of the CIS, at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona he gave up after the high jump.

As part of the World Indoor Championships in Toronto in 1993 , a heptathlon for men was held as a demonstration competition. Hämäläinen took third place with 6075 points behind the American Dan O'Brien and the Canadian Mike Smith . The competition was Hämäläinen's fourth and last heptathlon, a year before Toronto he had reached 6096 points in Berlin. Hämäläinen won silver at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart . With 8724 points he was 93 points behind Dan O'Brien.

In 1994, when he won the Mösle all- around meeting in Götzis, he achieved the highest score of his career with 8735 points. At the European Championships in Helsinki in 1994 , he gave up after the first day. A year later at the World Championships in Gothenburg in 1995 he won silver like two years before. With 8489 points he was 206 points behind Dan O'Brien. Hämäläinen made his last start for Belarus at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. With 8613 points he finished fifth, he was 51 points behind the winner of the bronze medal, Tomáš Dvořák from the Czech Republic.

The 1997 season began Hämäläinen with his third victory in Götzis after 1993 and 1994 with 8617 points. Four weeks later he competed in Group B of the European Decathlon Cup in Oulu in front of a home crowd in the Finnish national jersey for the first time and won with 8260 points. At the 1997 World Championships in Athens he achieved the second best result of his career with 8730 points and set the Finnish national record that is still valid today (2007). However, he was 107 points behind the winner Tomáš Dvořák.

At the European Championships in Budapest in 1998, the medals went exclusively to athletes who had grown up in the Soviet Union. It won the Estonian Erki Nool with 8667 points ahead of Hämäläinen with 8587 points and the Russian Lev Lobodin with 8571 points.

After he had to skip the 1999 season due to injury and could not finish the competition in Götzis in 2000, he entered the Finnish championships for the first time in Lahti in August 2000 and won the second national championship of his career with 8240 points. At the Olympic Games in Sydney, however, he was completely out of shape. Following the Olympic motto that participation is more important than victory, he did not break off the competition, but took 24th place with 7520 points. With the lowest number of points in a finished decathlon since 1989, he did not want to end his career. In 2001 he delivered two 8000-point competitions at the Mösle all- around meeting and the European Cup, but then gave up after two competitions at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton.

Appreciation

Although he was only able to win four silver medals at major championships and his Olympic career shows a fifth place as the best performance, Eduard Hämäläinen is one of the best decathletes of all time. He is one of only seven athletes who averaged over 8,600 points in their ten best competitions by the end of 2006. His particular strength was the 110-meter hurdles, in which only Frank Busemann achieved better results in a decathlon. His weakest discipline was the javelin throw, here he was only able to surpass the 60-meter mark in two decathlons in his entire career.

Top performances

  • 100 meters: 10.69 seconds (1994)
  • Long jump: 7.56 meters (1997)
  • Shot put: 16.74 meters (1996)
  • High jump: 2.11 meters (1994), in the hall 2.15 meters (1995)
  • 400 meters: 46.71 seconds (1997)
  • 110 meter hurdles: 13.57 seconds (1993)
  • Discus throw: 52.20 meters (1994)
  • Pole vault: 5.30 meters (1993)
  • Javelin throw: 61.88 meters (1993)
  • 1500 meters: 4: 22.5 minutes (1987)
  • Decathlon: 8735 points (1994)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hämäläinen, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belarusian, later Finnish decathlete
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Karagandy