Tero Pitkämäki
Tero Pitkämäki ( Tero Kristian Pitkämäki ; born December 19, 1982 in Ilmajoki ) is a former Finnish javelin thrower . His greatest achievement was winning the 2007 World Cup.
He started throwing the javelin when he was 16. After continuous improvement, he represented his country at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens , where he finished eighth with 83.01 m.
He achieved his personal best on June 26, 2005 in Kuortane in Finland with 91.53 m. This made him the favorite for the win before the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005 , but to the disappointment of the Finnish spectators was only fourth with 81.27 m. At the European Championships in Gothenburg in 2006 , he finished second behind the Norwegian Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen .
At the Golden League meeting in Rome on July 13, 2007 Pitkämäki's spear left the throwing sector and hit the French long jumper Salim Sdiri in the back. Sdiri was hospitalized with a wound more than ten centimeters deep. The incident sparked a discussion about safety precautions in athletics competitions.
At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka , Pitkämäki won the title with a width of 90.33 m on September 2, 2007 and relegated the co-favorites Andreas Thorkildsen and Breaux Greer to their places. At the end of the year he was voted Europe's athlete of the year and ahead of Kimi Raikkonen as athlete of the year in Finland .
At the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 he won the bronze medal with 86.16 m . In 2009 Pitkämäki reached 5th place at the World Championships in Berlin . A year later, he won the bronze medal at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona with 86.67 m. He finished fifth at the 2012 Olympic Games in London . Pitkemäki was twice more successful at world championships: in 2013 he was runner-up in Moscow and in 2015 in Beijing he won the bronze medal. In both years he was again voted Finland's Sportsman of the Year.
In June 2018 Pitkämäki suffered a cruciate ligament tear . In October 2019, he announced his retirement from competitive sports.
Tero Pitkämäki was 1.95 m tall and weighed 92 kg.
Web links
- Tero Pitkämäki in the database of World Athletics (English)
- Tero Pitkämäki in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Hahn: Athletics - Nightmare with a Speer , Süddeutsche.de, July 15, 2007
- ↑ Christian Fuchs: Mo Farah wins election - Robert Harting fifth , www.leichtathletik.de October 5, 2012
- ↑ iaaf.org: F1 champion Kimi Räikkönen beaten by Pitkämäki in race for annual sports award ( Memento from December 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pitkämäki, Tero |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pitkämäki, Tero Kristian |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish javelin thrower |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 19, 1982 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ilmajoki |