Väinö Perttunen

Väinö Aleksanteri Perttunen (born September 12, 1906 in Kemi , † September 8, 1984 ibid) was a Finnish wrestler . He was two-time European champion in 1937 and 1938 in the Greco-Roman style bantamweight .

Career

Väinö Perttunen was a member of the wrestling club Veitsuluodon Vastus. He wrestled exclusively in the Greco-Roman style. With the strong competition in Finland at the time - Finland was one of the leading wrestling nations in the world in the 1920s and 1930s - it was not until 1933 that Väinö became the Finnish bantamweight champion for the first time and was allowed to represent his country at the European Championships in Helsinki .

In Helsinki he celebrated two points wins and had to retire after the third round after a defeat against Ödön Zombori from Hungary because of 5 fault points. With the 4th place he just missed a medal.

1934 and 1935 dominated the Finnish championships Esko Hjelt in the bantamweight, so that Väinö Perttunen could not participate in the European championships. In the elimination for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , however, Perttunen prevailed again and was able to compete in Berlin. He won his first four fights in Berlin, but then lost to Jakob Brendel from Nuremberg and had to make do with 4th place again.

In 1937, Perttunen made his breakthrough at the European Championships in Paris . With five victories he won the European title. In the final battle he won over Egon Svensson from Sweden . Incidentally, in many statistics Dante Bertoli from Italy is listed as the European champion. Väinö Perttunen does not appear here in the winners list. But that's wrong. Väinö Perttunen became European champion in 1937, Dante Bertoli retired after the 4th round and finished 5th in the final score with 7 missing points. How this error came about is unknown. In 1938 Perttunen was able to successfully defend this title at the European Championships in Tallinn . He defeated u. a. the young, only 18-year-old German champion Ferdinand Schmitz from Cologne and Kurt Pettersén from Sweden, who was to become Olympic champion 10 years later , on points.

In 1939 Väinö Perttunen was replaced by Kauko Kiisseli in his own country.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Results
1933	4th	EM in Helsinki	Bantam	with victories over Antonín Nič , Czechoslovakia a . Robert Voigt , Denmark a . a loss to Ödön Zombori , Hungary
1936	4th	OS in Berlin	Bantam	with victories over Ferdinand Hyza , Czechoslovakia , Hüseyin Erkmen , Turkey , Robert Voigt a. Iosif Tovar, Romania a . a loss to Jakob Brendel , Germany
1937	1.	EM in Paris	Bantam	with victories over Janis Muzenieks, Latvia , Stanko Schneeberger, Yugoslavia , Eigil Johansen, Denmark , Antonín Nič u. Egon Svensson , Sweden
1938	1.	EM in Tallinn	Bantam	with victories over Ewald Sikk, Estonia , Ivar Stokke , Norway , Hüseyen Erkmen, Ferdinand Schmitz , Germany a. Kurt Pettersén , Sweden

Finnish championships

year	space	Weight class	Results
1933	1.	Bantam	before Antti Vallin
1935	2.	Bantam	behind Esko Hjelt and in front of Heikki Kärkkäinen
1937	1.	Bantam	before Kauko Kiisseli and V. Nevalainen
1938	1.	Bantam	in front of Kauko Kiisseli and Guido Vestergård

Explanations

• all competitions in Greco-Roman style
• OS = Olympic Games, EM = European Championships
• Bantam weight, at that time up to 56 kg body weight

swell

• Athletics magazine , No. 31/32/1936, pages 16 to 18,
• Kraftsport trade journal , No. 08/1937, page 6,
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships of FILA, 1976, pages E-23, E-32 and E-35

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ^ Technical journal Kraftsport No. 8 of May 26, 1937, pp. 3–8; Documentation of International Wrestling Championships of the FILA, 1976, p. E-32