Edvard Vesterlund

Edvard Westerlund medal table
Edvard Vesterlund
Wrestler
Finland
Olympic games
gold	1924 Paris	medium
bronze	1928 Amsterdam	Light
World Championship
silver	1921 Helsingfors	medium
gold	1922 Stockholm	Light
European Championship
bronze	1933 Helsinki	medium

Edvard Vilhelm Vesterlund (born February 1, 1901 in Helsinki , † December 7, 1982 ibid) was a Finnish wrestler . His international career extended from 1921 to 1936. In 1924 he was Olympic champion at the Summer Olympics in Paris .

Career

Edvard Vesterlund (actually Westerlund) started wrestling as a teenager. He started for the Helsinki Athletics Club (Helsingfors). As usual in Finland, he initially only wrestled in the Greco-Roman style. From the mid-1920s, he also went to the mat in national competitions in free style. His international career began as early as 1921 when he finished 3rd in the Greco-Roman style middleweight championship in Helsinki at home . In 1922 Edvard Westerlund was world champion in the Greco-Roman style in Stockholm in the lightweight. In 1924 he achieved the greatest success of his career in Paris with the Olympic victory in the Greco-Roman style in the middleweight division. He also competed in the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, where he won a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman style in a lightweight . Finally, at the end of his career, he also qualified for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. There he started in the Greco-Roman style in the light heavyweight division , but had to be content with 8th place.

In the European Championships, which were held regularly from 1925, he was only at the start in 1933 in Helsinki. He came there in the Greco-Roman style in the middleweight division in 3rd place.

Edvard Westerlund was three times Finnish champion that he did not win this title more often, was mainly due to the strong competition in Finland. His toughest rival was probably Väinö Kokkinen.

Edvard Westerlund's brothers Kalle and Emil were also top wrestlers.

successes

year	space	competition	style	Weight class	Results
1921	2.	World Cup in Helsingfors	GR	medium	after victories over Alfred Hagmann, Finland, Viktor Ternestin, Estonia, Aarne Pieteläinen and Vihtori Jokela, both Finland, one defeat against Taavi Tamminen , Finland, one victory over Eemil Juvonen, Finland and one defeat against Volmari Vikström , Finland
1922	1.	World Cup in Stockholm	GR	Light	after victories over Birger Nilsen, Norway, Otto Borgström, Sweden, Ödön Radvány , Ungern and Carlo Weinold, Denmark
1923	1.	Gothenburg fighting games	GR	medium	in front of Vaester, Estonia and Adolf Rieger , Germany
1924	gold	OS in Paris	GR	medium	after victories over Sade Dürrü, Turkey, J. Dumont, Belgium, J. Reinderman, Netherlands, Harry Nilsson, Sweden, Nikola Grbic, Yugoslavia and Arthur Lindfors , Finland
1925	2.	Nordic Championship in Copenhagen	GR	medium	behind Ragnar Bohm, Sweden, in front of Johannes Jakobsen , Denmark
1927	3.	Intern. Tournament in Helsingfors	GR	medium	behind László Papp , Hungary and Väinö Kokkinen , Finland, in front of Albert Kusnets , Estonia
1928	bronze	OS in Amsterdam	GR	Light	behind after defeating Karl Pedersen, Norway, defeating Lajos Keresztes , Hungary, defeating Walter Massop, Netherlands, defeating Eduard Sperling , Germany and defeating Tayyar Yalaz, Turkey
1928	1.	Intern. Tournament in Wiborg	GR	medium	before Albert Kusnets and Arvo Haavisto , Finland
1933	3.	EM in Helsinki	GR	medium	after a loss to Axel Cadier , Sweden, a win over Karl Kullisaar, Estonia and a loss to Jean Földeák , Germany
1936	8th.	OS in Berlin	GR	Semi-difficult	after a loss to Axel Cadier, a win over Jean Houdry, France and a loss to Olaf Knutsen, Norway

Finnish championships

Edvard Vesterlund was three times Finnish champion and seven times runner-up. The individual results at a glance:

• 1920, 2nd place , GR, Leicht, behind Oskar Friman and in front of Kalle Westerlund
• 1926, 2nd place , GR, light, behind Väinö Kokkinen
• 1927, 1st place , GR, Leicht, ahead of P. Kilpiö and Kalle Anttila
• 1927, 2nd place , FS, middle, behind Arno Haavisto, in front of Jaakko Filppula
• 1929, 1st place , FS, Welter, ahead of Eemil Pihlajamäki and Onni Sirenius
• 1930, 2nd place , GR, middle, behind Väinö Kokkinen and in front of Jaska Filppula
• 1930, 2nd place , FS, medium, behind Matti Lahti, in front of L. Hilden
• 1931, 3rd place , GR, medium, behind Väinö Kokkinen and Mikko Nordling
• 1932, 2nd place , GR, medium, behind Väinö Kokkinen and in front of Eelis Vecksten
• 1933, 2nd place , GR, semi-difficult behind Kyösti Luukko and in front of Onni Pellinen
• 1934, 3rd place , GR, semi-difficult, behind Väinö Kokkinen and Edil Rosenqvist
• 1936, 1st place , GR, semi-difficult, ahead of Ilmari Kallio and Veikko Korhonen

Explanations

• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship
• GR = Greco-Roman style, FS = free style
• Lightweight, up to 1929 up to 67.5 kg, from 1930 up to 66 kg body weight, middle weight, up to 1929 up to 75 kg, from 1930 up to 79 kg body weight, light heavyweight, from 1930 up to 87 kg body weight, welterweight freestyle 1929 up to 72 kg body weight, welterweight 1930 also introduced in Greco-Roman style (body weight also up to 72 kg body weight)

literature

• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships 1896 to 1976, 1976
• Athletics magazine, official organ of the German Athletics Sports Association (DASV) from 1891, Frankfurt (Main)

Web links

• Profile of Edvard Vesterlund at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Edvard Vesterlund in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )