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Pitkämäki opens his competitive season by beating Thorkildsen at Kuortane

3 June 2007

Tero Pitkämäki started his competitive javelin season by throwing 87.78 metres at the international games in Kuortane, and beating the Olympic gold medallist Andreas Thorkildsen. Norway’s Thorkildsen came second with a throw of 87.24 metres. Pitkämäki’s throw is the season’s best domestic result and is now second in world statistics. “A satisfactory result considering that there was a slight headwind during the games,” said Pitkämäki with a smile as he signed autographs after the competition. “The first throw was good technically, although it rose a little too high. The second throw was also good (86.60), but the delivery of the other throws was not relaxed enough,” he continued

On the basis of the competition at Kuortane, Pitkämäki is expecting a close contest against Thorkildsen in this summer’s competitions. The top two will meet each other next in Oslo on the 15 June in the opening competition of the Golden League. “It looks fairly even. I kept expecting that one of us would throw even further after the first round,” Pitkämäki said.

Pitkämäki, who last year sprained the ankle of his supporting leg three times, was happy that the first competition with his new ankle support was a success. His supporting leg held up well and he did not end up on the ground after his throws. However, the tight support has its own problems.
“Tero’s first two throws were technically good, although they went high, which is a result of the fact that if the supporting leg holds well, the throw easily goes too high,” said Pitkämäki’s coach Hannu Kangas. Kangas is also predicting a tight contest between Pitkämäki, 24, and Thorkildsen, 25, in the summer’s games. “Both of them threw their best throw a little too high, but it looks really even,” said Kangas, comparing the top two, who have dominated the event at international games over the last few seasons. After the result at Kourtane, Pitkämäki now leads Thorkildsen in head-to-head competition 13–12.