Pertti Karppinen

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Pertti Karppinen, 1980

Pertti Johannes Karppinen (born February 17, 1953 in Vehmaa ) is a former Finnish rower . Karppinen is considered to be the most successful single rower in the history of rowing. His biggest competitor was the German rower Peter-Michael Kolbe . Against him he won the finals at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976 and in Los Angeles in 1984 . In total, Karppinen won three Olympic gold medals and two world championship titles in one. In 1979 and 1980 he was Finnish Sportsman of the Year .

Athletic career

From the beginning of his career to 1980

Pertti Karppinen began rowing in 1968 at the suggestion of his older brother Erkka. He belonged to the rowing club Nesteen Soutajat in Naantali . At the European Championships in 1973 , Karppinen won the B final in a single and thus finished seventh overall. In the following year he reached the A-final at the World Championships in Lucerne and finished sixth. At the 1975 World Championships in Nottingham, Peter-Michael Kolbe from the Federal Republic of Germany won ahead of the Irish Seán Drea and Martin Winter from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Karppinen finished fourth, two and a half seconds behind Winter.

At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Kolbe won the first run ahead of Seán Drea and Joachim Dreifke from the GDR, Karppinen had to go into the repechage run as fourth of the run. He reached the semi-finals as the winner of the repechage. From the first semifinals, the Argentine Ricardo Ibarra as well as Kolbe and Dreifke made it to the final, the second semifinals were won by Drea ahead of the Russian Mikola Dowgan and Karppinen. In the final, Peter-Michael Kolbe led for a long time, while Karppinen was initially in fifth place. In the second half of the race, Karppinen passed his opponents and won by two and a half seconds over Kolbe, who in turn had six and a half seconds ahead of bronze medalist Dreifke. Drea, Dowgan, and Ibarra completed the result in that order. Karppinen was the first Olympic rowing medalist from Finland.

At the 1977 World Championships in Amsterdam, Karppinen won his first world championship medal when he received silver two seconds behind Joachim Dreifke; Third was Dowgan. The following year, Kolbe won the World Championships in New Zealand in front of Rüdiger Reiche from the GDR, Karppinen took sixth place. In 1979 in Bled Karppinen won his first world championship title, at the finish he had six seconds ahead of Kolbe, Reiche was two more seconds behind in third.

Karppinen, 1980

In the run-up to the 1980 Olympic Games , the US government decided on an Olympic boycott by the United States, which was joined by 41 National Olympic Committees . In many other states, some athletes decided to boycott while others participated. In the singles final in Moscow, four rowers, who had also started in the 1979 World Championship finals , rowed with Pertti Karppinen, Wassili Jakuscha from the Soviet Union, the Swede Hans Svensson and the British Hugh Matheson . Instead of Rüdiger Reiche, Peter Kersten represented the GDR and only Kolbe was absent due to the boycott, Vladek Lacina from Czechoslovakia completed the final field. Karppinen won the final ahead of Jakuscha and Kersten, Matheson was just over ten seconds behind in sixth.

From 1981 until the end of his career

Over the next few years, 2.01 m tall Pertti Karppinen competed in double sculls with his 1.93 m big brother Reima . In 1981 the two started at the world championships in Munich for the first time and won the silver medal behind Klaus Kröppelien and Joachim Dreifke from the GDR and ahead of the Norwegians Rolf Thorsen and Alf John Hansen . In 1982 in Lucerne the Norwegians won ahead of the double scull from the GDR. Reima and Pertti Karppinen took fifth place. 1983 in Duisburg won Thomas Lange and Uwe Heppner from the GDR before Thorsen and Hansen. Behind the West German boat with Andreas Schmelz and Georg Agrikola , the two Finns took fourth place.

In the run-up to the 1984 Olympic Games , the government of the Soviet Union decided on an Olympic boycott , which 18 National Olympic Committees joined. Of the boats represented in the singles final of the World Championships in 1983, the USSR, the GDR, Czechoslovakia and Poland boycotted. For the United States, at the Olympic Regatta in Los Angeles, instead of the third place in the World Championship, Christopher Wood started as the new man John Biglow , so that world champion Peter-Michael Kolbe was the only single rower from last year's final. But with Kolbe, Pertti Karppinen, who has returned to the one, and the Argentine veteran Ricardo Ibarra, three rowers were at the start who had already reached the final in 1976. Karppinen won the first run with over seven seconds ahead of Kolbe and Biglow. In the semifinals Karppinen won with the fastest time ahead of the Canadian Robert Mills and the Greek Kostas Kontomanolis , the second semifinal was won by Kolbe ahead of Ibarra and Biglow. In the final, Kolbe led again for a long time and, like in 1976, Karppinen was able to overtake him in the final sprint and won with a two-second lead, eight seconds behind Kolbe, Mills rowed to the bronze medal. Karppinen was after Vyacheslav Ivanov (1956 to 1964) the second rower to win three Olympic gold medals in a single.

At the 1985 World Championships on the Belgian lake Hazewinkel, Karppinen won his second world title ahead of Andrew Sudduth from the United States and Kolbe. A year later, at the World Championships in Nottingham , Kolbe won four seconds ahead of Karppinen, followed by Vasily Jakuscha who won the bronze medal. Since the world championships in 1974, either Kolbe (five titles) or Karppinen (two titles) or a rower from the GDR (one title each for Hönig, Dreifke and Reiche) had won the single world championships. This is what happened at the World Championships in Copenhagen . It won by Thomas Lange , the new representative of the GDR before Kolbe and Karppinen.

In his fourth Olympic start in 1988 in Seoul Karppinen lost in his prelude to Sweden's Fredrik Hultén . After winning the repechage, Karppinen met Peter-Michael Kolbe in the semifinals. Kolbe won, thirty seconds behind Karppinen reached the finish line last. Karppinen won in the B-final and finished seventh. Karppinen remained active in the One for another four years. He reached seventh place at the World Championships in 1989 , 1990 and 1991 , he rowed each to eighth place. After finishing tenth at the 1992 Olympic Games , Karppinen's great career came to an end.

Pertti Karppinen was a firefighter by profession. He was part of the Wärtsilä shipyard's fire department. Karppinen later worked for a bus company.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The Olympic database SportsReference states Askainen as the place of birth. Like Vehmaa, Askainen lies in the Varsinais-Suomi landscape .
  2. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 – Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin 2000 ISBN 3-328-00741-5 p. 649 note 487
  3. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 – Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin 2000 ISBN 3-328-00741-5 p. 556 and p. 649, note 488
  4. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 – Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin 2000 ISBN 3-328-00741-5 p. 677
  5. ↑ One-finals of the 1979 World Championships
  6. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 – Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin 2000 ISBN 3-328-00741-5 p. 773
  7. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 – Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin 2000 ISBN 3-328-00741-5 p. 895
  8. ↑ One-finals of the 1983 World Championships
  9. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 – Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin 2000 ISBN 3-328-00741-5 pp. 1013-1014
  10. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 – Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin 2000 ISBN 3-328-00741-5 p. 649 note 487
  11. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 – Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin 2000 ISBN 3-328-00741-5 p. 1111 note 505
personal data
SURNAME Karppinen, Pertti
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karppinen, Pertti Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish rower
DATE OF BIRTH 17th February 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Vehmaa