sunnuntai 31. toukokuuta 2015
Ari Mannio at the 2010 Bislett Games
|Born|| July 23, 1987 (age 27)
|Height||1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)|
|Weight||100 kg (220 lb)|
|Updated on 11 August 2012.|
Early careerMannio first represented Finland internationally at the 2003 European Youth Olympic Festival in Paris, France, where he won the bronze medal. The next year, he competed in the 2004 World Junior Championships in Grosseto, Italy, placing 6th against boys up to two years older and setting a new personal best of 70.63 metres with the men's 800 gram javelin. In 2005, Mannio's first full year with the men's implement, he claimed a bronze at the European Junior Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania.
2006 saw Mannio's first successes against adult throwers, as he claimed a bronze medal at the 2006 Finnish Championships. However, even though he entered the World Junior Championships in Beijing, China, as the world junior leader, he was convincingly beaten in the final by South Africa's Robert Oosthuizen. The next year, he again failed to claim international gold despite having the best mark coming in; entering the European U23 Championships in Debrecen, Hungary as the only man in the field to have broken 80 metres, Mannio was narrowly pushed out of the medals altogether and had to be content with 4th.
2008 still featured steady development, as Mannio recorded a new personal best of 81.54 in June 2008. However, he was still only the sixth best thrower in Finland that year and nowhere near making the three-man team for the Beijing Olympics.
Elite careerMannio opened 2009 with a massive personal best of 85.70, an improvement of more than four metres on his previous best. This mark was only beaten that year by five throwers worldwide and would remain his season best, even though he also exceeded his 2008 best in all of his next four competitions and either exceeded or equalled it in a total of ten competitions over the year. He also finally struck international gold: again entering the European U23 Championships as the leading favorite, he was passed in the last round by Czech Republic's Petr Frydrych but rebounded with a championship record of 84.57.
Even so, he missed making Finland's four-man team for the 2009 World Championships. Tero Pitkämäki was named as the defending World Champion and Tero Järvenpää based on his stellar 2008 season, while Teemu Wirkkala, who like the other two had represented Finland at the Olympics the year before, qualified in the first trial meet at Pihtipudas. This left the fourth spot between Mannio and Antti Ruuskanen. Ruuskanen beat Mannio in many of the remaining meets, crucially including the Finnish Championships, and got the last spot while Mannio was named a reserve.
Seasonal bests by year
- 2003 - 60.58
- 2004 - 70.63
- 2005 - 76.40
- 2006 - 79.68
- 2007 - 80.31
- 2008 - 81.54
- 2009 - 85.70
- 2010 - 85.12
- 2011 - 85.12
- 2012 - 84.62
- 2013 - 84.65
- 2014 - 83.70
ATHLETICS - FINNISH STAR JAVELIN THROWER - ARI MANNIO, 84.31, Javelin Qualification (21st European Athletics Championships, Helsinki, 2012)
Antti Ruuskanen at Savo Games in Lapinlahti (20 July 2014)
|Born||February 21, 1984 (age 31) Pielavesi|
|Height||1.89 m (6 ft 2 1⁄2 in)|
|Weight||86 kg (190 lb)|
He won bronze medal at the 2003 European Junior Championships and silver medal at the 2005 European U23 Championships. He was sixth at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
He won bronze medal in London Olympics 2012.
In 2013 he finished fifth at the World Championships in Moscow.
In 2014 he has won gold medal at the Europeans with a mark of 88.01m, beating Vítězslav Veselý (84.79m) and Tero Pitkämäki (84.40m).
|2003||European Junior Championships||Tampere, Finland||3rd||72.87 m|
|2005||European U23 Championships||Erfurt, Germany||2nd||76.82 m|
|2009||World Championships||Berlin, Germany||6th||81.87 m|
|2011||World Championships||Daegu, South Korea||9th||79.46 m|
|2012||Olympic Games||London, United Kingdom||3rd||84.12 m|
|2013||World Championships||Moscow, Russia||5th||81.44 m|
|2014||European Championships||Zürich, Switzerland||1st||88.01 m|
Seasonal bests by year
- 2002 - 66.08
- 2003 - 72.87
- 2004 - 75.84
- 2005 - 79.75
- 2006 - 84.10
- 2007 - 82.71
- 2008 - 87.33
- 2009 - 85.39
- 2010 - 83.45
- 2011 - 82.29
- 2012 - 87.79
- 2013 - 85.70
- 2014 - 88.01 (EL)
ATHLETICS HIGHLIGHTS - Kalevan Kisat/ Finnish Nationals Kuopio, Finland 3.8.2014 Men´s Javelin Throw Final - FINLAND - SUOMI-FINLAND -
Tero Pitkämäki in 2014
|Born||19 December 1982 (age 32) Ilmajoki, Finland|
|Height||1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)|
|Weight||92 kg (203 lb)|
CareerPitkämäki finished 8th in the javelin contest at the 2004 Summer Olympics with the result 83.01 m and has since developed into one of the world's leading javelin throwers. As of August 2005, he had thrown 91.53 m, hence he was one of the favorites at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, which were held in his home country. However, he was only fourth with a result of 81.27 m. Pitkämäki took his first medal by placing second at the 2006 European Championships in Athletics.
On Friday 13 July 2007, during the IAAF Golden League meet at Rome's Olimpico Stadium, Tero Pitkämäki threw a javelin too far left and hit French long jumper Salim Sdiri in the side of the back. Sdiri was rushed to a local Rome hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
On 5 August, Pitkämäki won his 4th Finnish championship in a row with a throw of 89.43 meters. In the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan, Pitkämäki secured gold medal in men's javelin with a throw of 89.16 meters. With his last throw in the competition, he bettered his final result to 90.33 meters.
On 5 October 2007, Tero Pitkämäki was honored with the European Athlete of the Year title by the EEA. His 11 wins over the season, including the World Champion title, Golden League in Oslo and Paris, and his season best, also best in Europe, 91.23 meter throw, were the factors for choosing him. In December, Pitkämäki was voted Finnish Sportsman of the Year by the members of the Finnish Sport Journalists Association, beating women's triple world cross country skiing champion Virpi Kuitunen and Formula One world champion Kimi Räikkönen.
Pitkämäki finished 3rd at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing with the result of 86.16 m and also took the bronze medal at the Europeans in 2010 in Barcelona with a throw of 86.67 m.
He finished 5th at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with the result of 82.80 m. His season best was 86.98 m achieved in Stockholm a week after the Olympics.
In 2013 at the World Championships in Moscow he took the silver medal, finishing 10 centimeters behind Vítězslav Veselý.
In 2014 Pitkämäki finished third at the European Championships.
Seasonal bests by year
- 1999 – 66.83
- 2000 – 73.75
- 2001 – 74.89
- 2002 – 77.24
- 2003 – 80.45
- 2004 – 84.64
- 2005 – 91.53
- 2006 – 91.11
- 2007 – 91.23
- 2008 – 87.70
- 2009 – 87.79
- 2010 – 86.92
- 2011 – 85.33
- 2012 – 86.98
- 2013 – 89.03
- 2014 – 86.63