Marko Asell

Marko Tapio Asell (born May 8, 1970 in Ylöjärvi ) is a Finnish wrestler . He won a Greco-Roman style welterweight silver medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta . From 2007 to 2011 he was a member of the Social Democrats in the Finnish Parliament .

Career

Marko Asell started wrestling as a teenager in 1982. He became a member of the sports club Koo-Vee Tampere , to which he belonged until the end of his career as a wrestler in 2001. He was only active in the Greco-Roman style and was trained by Pasi Sarkinen. He learned the trade of a painter and house painter and became a member of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. After working as a local politician for a while, he moved to the Finnish Parliament as a member of this party in 2007.

As a junior, Marko Asell qualified to participate in several international championships. He made his first start in 1987 at the European Junior Championships in Katowice , where he finished 11th in the lightweight. In the following years he achieved better placements. He was fifth at the Junior World Championships in 1988 in Wolfurt / Austria and also fifth at the Junior World Championships (Espoirs) in Budapest in the welterweight division. In 1990 he was sixth welterweight at the European Junior Championships.

In 1990 Marko Asell was the first Finnish champion in the senior middleweight division, leaving two renowned wrestlers behind with Jouko Salomäki and Timo Niemi . From 1991 to 1994 he came in second (1991), third (1992) and third (1994) in the Finnish championship. In those years Timo Niemi, Tuomo Karila and Seppo Salimäki placed in front of him at these championships . He came therefore only in 1994 for his first use in an international championship of the seniors, where he started in the welterweight division. At the 1994 World Cup in Tampere , however, it was only enough for 14th place. In 1995 he came in ninth place at the European Championships in Besançon and also at the European Championships in Budapest in 1996 he could not place himself in the front with a 16th place.

His great success at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was all the more surprising . He defeated there in the welterweight division Stojan Dobrew from Bulgaria , Takamitsu Katayama from Japan and Artur Dsihassow from Ukraine and was in the final against the Cuban Filiberto Ascuy Aguilera , who gave him no chance and quickly defeated him. However, winning an Olympic silver medal was a sensational success for Marko Asell.

At the European Championships in 1997 in Kouvola he confirmed this success, because he was runner-up there with victories over Alberto Recuero from Spain , Wladimir Kopytow from Belarus , Erol Koyuncu from Turkey and Mircea Constantin from Romania and a defeat in the final battle against Torbjörn Kornbakk from Sweden - European champion .

From 1998 Marko Asell started again in the middleweight division. After a 10th place at the World Championships in Gävle , where he a. a. Ara Abrahamian from Sweden defeated, he achieved an excellent fourth place in this weight class with three wins at the 1999 World Cup in Athens . At the European Championships in Moscow in 2000 he finished only twelfth place and at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 he was defeated by Thomas Zander from Germany and Hamza Yerlikaya from Turkey and ended up in 17th place.

Then he ended his wrestling career.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Result
1987	11.	Junior European Championship in Katowice	Light	Winner: Alexander Kornjuma, USSR ahead of Salih Yilmaz, Turkey
1988	5.	Junior World Championships in Wolfurt / Austria	Light	behind Arkadi Krajni, USSR, Marek Tarka, Poland , Erik Hahn , GDR u. Rudolfo de la Rosa, Cuba
1989	5.	Junior World Championships (Espoirs) in Budapest	Welter	behind Yvon Riemer , France , Richard Motejka, CSSR , Arkadi Krajni u. Georgi Petkow, Bulgaria
1990	6th	Junior European Championship (Espoirs)	Welter	behind Jaroslaw Basiljuk, USSR, Ilie-Sorin Moisache, Romania , Istvan Iringyi, Hungary , Jantscho Kolew, Bulgaria u. Yalcin Özdemir, Turkey
1993	3.	Baltic Sea Games in Tallinn	medium	behind Toomas Proovel , Estonia a . Juri Zigalo, Latvia
1994	14th	World Cup in Tampere	Welter	Winner: Mnazakan Iskandarjan , Russia ahead of Jozef Tracz , Poland a. Torbjörn Kornbakk , Sweden
1995	9.	EM in Besançon	Welter	Winner: Stojan Dobrew , Bulgaria ahead of Mircea Constantin , Romania a. Vladimir Kopytov , Belarus
1996	16.	EM in Budapest	Welter	Winner: Nazmi Avluca , Turkey ahead of Wladimir Kopytow u. Erik Hahn , Germany
1996	silver	OS in Atlanta	Welter	with victories over Stojan Dobrew , Bulgaria, Takamitsu Katayama , Japan a . Artur Dsihassow , Ukraine a . a loss to Filiberto Ascuy Aguilera , Cuba
1997	2.	EM in Kouvola / Finland	Welter	with victories over Alberto Recuero, Spain , Wladimir Kopytow , Erol Koyuncu , Turkey a. Mircea Constantin u. a loss to Torbjörn Kornbakk
1998	7th	FILA tournament in Nikea	medium	Winner: Raatbek Sanatbajew , Kyrgyzstan ahead of Ioannis Savvas, Greece
1998	10.	World Cup in Gävle / Sweden	medium	after victories over Marcin Letki, Poland a . Ara Abrahamian , Sweden a. Defeats against Janos Kismoni, Hungary a. Behrouz Jamshidi , Iran
1999	4th	World Cup in Athens	medium	after a defeat against Theophanis Anagnostou, Greece , victories over Hidekazu Yokohama, Japan a. Bagador Gasiev, Azerbaijan a . a loss to Raatbek Santbajew
2000	12.	EM in Moscow	medium	Winner: Martin Lidberg , Sweden ahead of Andrej Batura , Belarus a. Alexander Menschtschikow , Russia
2000	17th	OS in Sydney	medium	after defeats against Thomas Zander , Germany and Hamza Yerlikaya , Turkey

Finnish championships

(only senior area)

year	space	Weight class	Result
1990	1.	medium	before Jouko Salomäki and Timo Niemi
1991	2.	medium	behind Timo Niemi, in front of Seppo Salimäki
1992	3.	medium	behind Timo Niemi u. Tuomo Karila
1994	3.	medium	behind Tuomo Karila u. Seppo Salimäki
1995	1.	Welter	before Michael Lyyski u. Tomi Rajamäki
1996	1.	medium	before Tomi Rajamäki u. Marko Korpela
1997	3.	medium	behind Marko Korpela u. Petri Särkijärvi
1998	2.	medium	behind Tomi Rajamäki, in front of Michael Lyyski
2000	1.	Semi-difficult	in front of Jorma Niemi u. Hannu Jeronen

Explanations

• all competitions in Greco-Roman style
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championships, EM = European Championships
• Lightweight, then up to 68 kg, welter weight, up to 76 kg, middle weight up to 82 kg (until 1996) and up to 85 kg (from 1997 to 2001), light heavy weight, up to 97 kg body weight

swell

• Trade journal Der Ringer
• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig
• Website of the Finnish Sports Association TUL

Web links

• Marko Asell in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )