Jorma Valkama
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Jorma Rainer Valkama (born October 4, 1928 in Vyborg , † December 11, 1962 ) was a Finnish long jumper .
After Valkama had failed to qualify for the finals at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki and at the 1954 European Athletics Championships in Bern, he achieved the most important international success of his career at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. With a width of 7.48 m, he won the bronze medal in the long jump behind the Americans Greg Bell (7.83 m) and John Bennett (7.68 m).
In 1957 Valkama remained unbeaten in 40 competitions. At the European Athletics Championships in Stockholm in 1958 , he finished sixth with 7.5 m and fifth at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome with 7.69 m. His last international championship was at the European Athletics Championships in Belgrade in 1962 . In the qualification he convinced with a jump of 7.65 m, but was then only able to achieve the twelfth-best distance in the final with 6.78 m. Less than three months later, at the age of 34, he was killed in a traffic accident.
Jorma Valkama was 1.72 m tall and weighed 66 kg. His personal best of 7.77 m, achieved on September 16, 1956 in Turku, was a Finnish record at the time.
Web links
- Jorma Valkama in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
- Jorma Valkama's career statistics at tilastopaja.org (Finnish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c IAAF: Evilä's global medal inheritance ( Memento from November 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (English), November 5, 2005
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Valkama, Jorma |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Valakama, Jorma Rainer |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish long jumper |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 4, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vyborg |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 11, 1962 |