Athletics

Women

MIKAELA INGBERG

Mikaela Ingberg has been the most consistent performer in Finnish athletics for a decade and a half. In the past 14 years she has participated in 13 major championship competitions and qualified for the final in 11 of them. Beijing will be her fourth Olympic Games, which is a new record for Finnish female track and field athletes. Mikaela is coached by Tapio Korjus, the Olympic javelin champion of 1988. She has a versatile background in sports: she used to play football, basketball, volleyball and table tennis in her junior years before concentrating on the javelin. Mikaela studies for a degree in marketing at Turku University of Applied Sciences.

Other Achievements:
1993 EurJunCh gold.
1994 EurCh 16th.
1995 WCh bronze.
1997 WCh 4th.
1998 EurCh bronze. World Cup 3rd.
1999 WCh 9th.
2001 WCh 6th.
2002 EurCh bronze. World Cup 3rd.
2003 WCh 4th.
2005 WCh 9th.
2006 EurCh 10th.

Personal Best:
64.03 (2000)

NIINA KELO

Niina Kelo is perhaps still best known in Finland as the spouse of the world javelin throw champion Tero Pitkämäki, but in Beijing she will make a debut as an Olympic athlete in her own right. Throwing events have always been Niina’s forte: she has won two Finnish championship titles in shot put and one in discus throw. In the javelin throw her recently-made personal best of 54.19 is a particularly strong result for a heptathlete. Niina studies for a nursery school teacher’s diploma at the University of Helsinki. She is coached by her mother Eila Kelo.

Achievements:
1999 EurJunCh 7th discus throw, 10th heptathlon.
2006 EurCh 15th heptathlon.

Personal Best:
5956 (2006)

MERJA KORPELA

*May 15, 1981 Soini
Present residence: Soini
171 cm, 84 kg
Club: Soinin Sisu
Coach: Antti Vierula
Event: Hammer throw

Merja Korpela took up hammer throw in 1994 when it became an official event in women’s athletics. She won bronze at the European Junior Championships of 1999 in Riga. Last year Merja finally took over the mantle of the best female hammer thrower in Finland. She is a qualified sports masseuse and is currently studying physiotherapy at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences. Her favourite pastime is needlework.

Achievements:
1999 EurJunCh bronze.
2000 WJunCh 4th.
2001 EurU23Ch 5th.
2002 EurCh 25th.
2003 EurU23Ch 6th.
2006 EurCh 31st.
2007 WCh 16th.

Personal Best:
68.65 (2007)

VANESSA VANDY

Vanessa Vandy has a New Zealander father and a Finnish mother. She took up pole vaulting at 13 after her family moved to Vaasa. The year 2007 saw Vanessa emerge to the national fore: she improved her personal best by 45 centimetres and won the pole vault event in the athletics match against Sweden in her debut in the Finnish senior national team. Vanessa is also a musician and a songwriter and aims for a successful career in the music industry.

Achievements:
2007 EurJunCh 7th.
2008 WJunCh 6th.

Personal Best:
431 (2008)

Men

TOMMI EVILÄ

* April 6, 1980 Tampere
Present residence: Tampere
194 cm, 84 kg
Club: Tampereen Pyrintö
Coach: Juhani Evilä
Event: Long jump

Tommi Evilä became an instant national hero in Finland in 2005, when he won the only medal of the host nation at the World Championships in Helsinki. He has remained one of the most popular sports personalities in the country due to his outspoken character and despite a string of injuries that have kept him out of major international competitions since that great day three years ago. An injury also robbed Tommi of a trip to Athens 2004, which only made him ever more determined to fulfil his lifelong dream of Olympic success in Beijing. The Olympic year of 2008 has indeed seen him already improve on his Finnish record. Tommi chose long jump as his sport “because it is the closest thing to flying”. His second greatest passion is playing the guitar.

Achievements:
1998 WJuniorCh 10th.
2001 EurU23Ch 5th.
2005 WCh bronze. EurIndoorCh 4th.

Personal Best:
822 (2008)

ROBERT HÄGGBLOM

* August 9, 1982 Vaasa
Present residence: Vaasa
183 cm, 120 kg
Club: Vasa Idrottssällskap
Coach: Magnus Häggblom
Event: Shot put

Robert Häggblom was a talented sprint swimmer in his junior years, but at 12 years of age he decided to concentrate on shot put, always his first love among sports. In 1999 he won gold at the World Youth Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. However, because of the high level of competition in Finnish shot put he was not able to make his breakthrough into the domestic fore in the senior ranks until 2006. In the past few years Robert has trained with discus thrower Frantz Kruger who became his club-mate after moving to Vaasa. Robert is coached by his father Magnus Häggblom, a former decathlonist. His favourite pastime is carpentry.

Achievements:
1999 WYouthCh gold.
2001 EurJuniorCh silver.
2007 WCh 22nd. EurIndoorCh 4th.
2008 WIndoorCh 16th.

Personal Best:
20.53 (2007)

MIKKO HALVARI

* March 4, 1983 Porvoo
Present residence: Jyväskylä
183 cm, 93 kg
Club: Tuusulanjärven Urheilijat
Coach: Jussi Välimäki
Event: Decathlon

Mikko Halvari was a promising ice hockey player in his junior years but he decided to switch to athletics at 16 because he wanted to test his skills in an individual sport. Three years later he won bronze in decathlon at the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. Beijing will mark his debut at major international championships at the senior level. Mikko has also won Finnish junior championship medals in discus throw. He is no relation to Mika Halvari, the shot put champion of the 1990’s.

Achievements:
2002 WJunCh bronze.
2005 EurU23Ch 6th.

Personal Best:
7719 (2008)

JANNE HOLMÉN

* September 26, 1977 Jomala
Present residence: Uppsala (Sweden)
177 cm, 62 kg
Club: IF Åland
Coach: Rune Holmén
Event: Marathon

Janne Holmén’s appearances at major marathon races have been few since his surprising victory at the European Championships of 2002 in Munich, due to both injuries and his concentration on his doctoral thesis in history at the University of Uppsala, which he accomplished in 2006. Next year he was the second best European runner in the marathon race at the World Championships in Osaka. Janne hails from the Aland Islands, an autonomous province of Finland. His family credentials in athletics are impeccable. His mother Nina Holmén won gold in 3,000 metres at the European Championships of 1974 in Rome. His father and coach Rune was also one of the best Finnish long-distance runners of his time.

PREVIOUS OLYMPIC GAMES:
2004 22nd marathon.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
1999 EurU22Ch silver 10 000 m.
2000 WCh 35th half marathon.
2001 WCh 29th half marathon.
2002 EurCh gold marathon. WCh 29th half marathon.
2006 EurCh 7th marathon.
2007 WCh 9th marathon.

PERSONAL BEST:
2:10:46 (2008)

VISA HONGISTO

* April 9, 1987 Valkeala
Present residence: Valkeala
185 cm, 80 kg
Club: Valkealan Kajo
Coach: Kai Kepsu
Event: 200 m

Visa Hongisto made history in 2007 by winning gold in 200 metres at the European U23 Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. His title was the first of any kind for Finland in the men’s non-hurdle sprint distances. Also not common in Finnish sports circles these days is Visa’s rural background: when not training he works at the family farm. In his free time he enjoys fishing. Visa will become the second Olympic runner in his family: his mother Eeva Haimi participated in 400 and 800 metres in Mexico 1968.

Achievements:
2005 EurJuniorCh 5th 100 m, 4th 200 m, bronze 4x100 m.
2006 WJunCh semi-fi nal 100 m, semi-fi nal 200 m.
2007 WCh 2nd heats 200 m. EurU23Ch gold 200 m, bronze 4x100 m.

Personal Best:
20.56 (2007)

TERO JÄRVENPÄÄ

* October 2, 1984 Tampere
Present residence: Tampere
187 cm, 96 kg
Club: Tampereen Pyrintö
Coach: Pentti Järvenpää
Event: Javelin throw

Tero Järvenpää was originally supposed to become a discus thrower. In 2001 he ran into problems with his throwing technique just before the World Youth Championships and decided to switch to his secondary event. He qualified for the Finnish team as a javelin thrower, won bronze and never looked back. The following years have seen Tero emerge as a consistent performer on the domestic and inevitably on the world javelin scene. In the Olympic year of 2008 has marked his final breakthrough with podium places at three Golden League competitions. Like many Finnish top track and field athletes Tero is coached by his father. He studies for an engineering degree at Tampere University of Technology.

Achievements:
2001 WYouthCh bronze.
2003 EurJuniorCh silver.
2005 EurU23Ch 5th. Universiade silver.
2006 EurCh 17th.
2007 WCh 8th.

Personal Best:
86,68 (2008).

OLLI-PEKKA KARJALAINEN

* March 7, 1980 Töysä
Present residence: Helsinki
194 cm, 120 kg
Club: Töysän Veto
Coach: Arto Rinta-aho
Event: Hammer throw

With World and European Junior Championship titles under his belt, Olli-Pekka Karjalainen was hailed as the brightest prospect of Finnish track and field athletics at the turn of the millennium. In 2000 he was chosen to carry the Finnish flag at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Games, his Olympic debut. Success in the senior ranks was long in coming, however. In 2004 Olli-Pekka won the IAAF World Athletics Final, but medals at major championship events eluded him until 2006, when he took silver at the European Championships in Gothenburg. “O.P.” goes to his third Olympic Games but he calculates to be really at his best in London 2012 at 32, which is “the best age for a hammer thrower.” Olli-Pekka studies for a degree in political science at the University of Helsinki.

Previous Olympic Games:
2000 34th.
2004 15th.

Other Achievements:
1997 EurJuniorCh bronze.
1998 EurCh 24th. WJuniorCh gold.
1999 WCh 11th. EurJuniorCh gold.
2001 WCh 10th. EurU23Ch silver.
2002 EurCh 8th.
2003 WCh 14th.
2005 WCh 5th.
2006 EurCh silver.
2007 WCh 9th.

Personal Best:
83.30 (2004)

ANTTI KEMPAS

* October 3, 1980 Helsinki
Present residence: Tuusula
191 cm, 67 kg
Club: Tuusulanjärven Urheilijat
Coach: Martti Kempas
Event: 50 km walk

Antti Kempas used to compete in several track and field events in his junior years, including middle distance running and triple jump. He decided to concentrate on race walking when he saw Valentin Kononen win silver in the 50-kilometre race at the 1998 European Championships in Budapest. Antti’s early career was affected by long-term injuries, and he was able to make his international debut in senior level only at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. Antti is a qualified sports instructor. He is coached by his father Martti Kempas.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
2005 WCh 21st.
2007 WCh 11th.

PERSONAL BEST:
3:57:59 (2007)

JUKKA KESKISALO

* March 27, 1981 Varkaus
Present residence: Joensuu
185 cm, 66 kg
Club: Joensuun Kataja
Coach: Tommy Ekblom
Event: 3000 m steeplechase

Jukka Keskisalo evoked memories of the glorious days of old when he stormed past the field on the final lap to win gold in the 3,000-metre steeplechase final at the European Championships in Gothenburg. His victory was the first one for Finland in track races at any major championships since 1978 and in the steeplechase since 1936. Jukka was duly elected Finnish Athlete of the Year 2006. Good years have been few and far between in Jukka’s career. He first came to the fore in 2003 with a promising top ten finish at the World Championships in Paris. The Olympic year of 2004 was however lost to stress fracture, and a calf injury spoiled his next season. Last year he was sidelined by hamstring syndrome. Beijing will thus mark Jukka’s Olympic debut and long-awaited return to the world scene.

Achievements:
2000 WJuniorCh 7th.
2003 WCh 9th. EurU23Ch bronze.
2005 WCh heats.
2006 EurCh gold.

Personal Best:
8:16.74 (2006)
8.16,74 (2006)

FRANTZ KRUGER

* May 22, 1975 Kempton Park (South Africa)
Present residence: Vaasa
203 cm, 130 kg
Club: Vasa Idrottssällskap
Coach: Kaai Preller
Event: Discus throw

Finnish track and field sports received a major boost when Frantz Kruger announced his change of allegiance. The bronze medallist from Sydney 2000 received his Finnish citizenship in 2007 and represented his new country for the first time at the World Championships in Osaka. In 2003 Frantz was married to Heli Koivula, who competed for Finland at two Olympic Games in jumping events and won silver in triple jump at the European Championships of 2002. Frantz used to compete in swimming and play rugby in his junior years in South Africa. He chose discus throw as his new sport in 1991 because it offered better chances of international competitions. In addition to Olympic bronze Frantz has won two African championship titles and one gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. He still holds the African (70.32) as well as the Finnish record (69.97) in discus throw. Frantz studies for a degree in international business and marketing at Vaasa University of Applied Sciences and likes to read detective novels in his free time.

Other Achievements:
For South Africa:
1994 WJuniorCh gold.
1998 CommonwG silver. AfrCh gold. World Cup 3rd.
1999 WCh 17th. All-Africa Games gold. Universiade gold.
2001 WCh 8th.
2002 CommonwG gold.
2003 WCh 6th.
2004 AfrCh gold.
2005 WCh 6th.
For Finland:
2007 WCh 19th.

Personal Best:
70.32 (2002)

JARKKO KINNUNEN

* January 19, 1984 Jalasjärvi
Present residence: Jyväskylä
187 cm, 70 kg
Club: Jalasjärven Jalas
Coach: Kari Ahonen
Event: 50 km walk

Jarkko Kinnunen’s development as a race walker was long hampered by a back injury he suffered at the age of 16. He made a promising debut at international stage at the European Championships of 2006 in Gothenburg and first made the top ten at next year’s World Championships in Osaka. Jarkko studies for a PE teacher’s degree at the University of Jyväskylä.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
2006 EurCh 14th.
2007 WCh 10th.

PERSONAL BEST:
3:56:54 (2006)

FRANCIS KIRWA

Francis Chepsiror Kirwa became accustomed to running in the typically Kenyan way: while tending his family’s cattle. He decided to become a race runner after watching Kenyan athletes win gold at the Seoul Olympic Games of 1988. In 1997 he won a scholarship at a university in Atlanta. Francis first came to Finland in 1999 in order to run a few races as a pacemaker. Since 2002 he has lived in Lahti. Francis first competed for Finland at the athletics match against Sweden in 2004. He became a Finnish citizen next year just in time to run for the home country at the World Championships in Helsinki. In April 2008 Francis took his first international victory by winning the Padua Marathon with his personal best time. In his spare time Francis likes to play volleyball and football.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

2005 WCh 39th marathon. EurCh 76th cross-country race.
2006 EurCh 28th marathon. WCh 41st road race.

PERSONAL BEST:

2:11:00 (2008)

MIKKO LAHTIO

* September 21, 1984 Loppi
Present residence: Riihimäki
193 cm, 74 kg
Club: Helsingin Kisa-Veikot
Coach: Olavi Lahtio
Event: 800 m

Mikko Lahtio has dominated the Finnish two-lap scene since 2006 but injuries postponed his debut at major international championships until Beijing 2008. In his junior years Mikko competed in longer distances, mostly in steeplechase, before concentrating on 800 metres at the age of 16. Mikko studies for a degree in construction engineering at HAMK University of Applied Sciences in Hämeenlinna. He has been coached all through his career by his father Olavi Lahtio.

MIKKO LATVALA

*July 8, 1980 Vaasa
Present residence: Kuortane
182 cm, 82 kg
Club: Haapajärven Kiilat
Coach: Toni Latvala
Event: Pole vault

Mikko Latvala took up pole vaulting as a boy after watching his father perform so badly that he was certain he could do better. His father became his fi rst coach but today Mikko is coached by his brother Toni. Mikko showed great promise in his early years: his personal record of 566 was the best result in the world in his age category in 2001 and in the same year he won silver at the European U23 championships. Injuries have hampered his progress in later years, however. In June 2008 Mikko cleared the bar at 563 centimetres to qualify for his first Olympic Games. His favourite hobby is collecting and repairing old cars.

Achievements:
2001 EurU23Ch silver.
2002 EurCh 15th. EurIndoorCh 14th.
2005 EurIndoorCh 14th.

Personal Best:
566 (2001)

TERO PITKÄMÄKI

* December 19, 1982 Ilmajoki
Present residence: Seinäjoki
195 cm, 92 kg
Club: Nurmon Urheilijat -99
Coach: Hannu Kangas
Event: Javelin throw

Tero Pitkämäki goes to Beijing as the reigning World Champion in the event most cherished by Finnish sports fans. The status of javelin throw in the country is well attested by the fact that Tero was chosen Finnish Athlete of the Year 2007 ahead of Formula One world champion Kimi Räikkönen. Tero made a promising Olympic debut in Athens 2004 finishing in eighth place and being the best Finnish athlete in track and field at the Games. Finally, he made his breakthrough to the world elite in the following year. Tero’s primary sport in his junior years was cross-country skiing. He began to concentrate on javelin throw at the age of 15. He holds a degree in electric engineering.

PREVIOUS OLYMPIC GAMES:
2004 8th.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
2003 EurU22Ch bronze.
2005 WCh 4th.
2006 EurCh silver.
2007 WCh gold.

PERSONAL BEST:
91.53 (2005)

TEEMU WIRKKALA

* January 14, 1984 Toholampi
Present residence: Toholampi
187 cm, 89 kg
Club: Toholammin Urheilijat
Coach: Hannu Kangas
Event: Javelin throw

Teemu Wirkkala led the charge of a new Finnish javelin thrower generation in the first years of the new millennium. In 2001 he won gold at the World Youth Championships in Debrecen and two years later led the home throwers to a clean sweep of medals at the European Junior Championships in Tampere. Injuries affected his next few seasons, but in 2006 Teemu qualifi ed for his fi rst major international championships in the senior ranks. Teemu earned his ticket to his first Olympic Games by finishing second behind his training partner Tero Pitkämäki at the traditional meet of Finnish elite javelin throwers at Pihtipudas. His favourite hobbies are fly fishing and poker.

Personal Best:
84.10 (2008)

RESERVE: ANTTI RUUSKANEN (javelin, men)

(Photos: Lehtikuva)

Team Management