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News of Pitkämäki, August 2005

Zürich Weltklasse is a Golden League competition which is considered the toughest athletics competition in the world – it can be regarded as the World Championships held in one night, with the world’s best athletes competing. Finnish athletes have rarely been invited to the competition. After all, the latest Finnish Weltklasse winner before Friday 19 August was Paavo Nurmi in 1928!

It was a warm day but thunderclouds started to circle around the renowned Zürich Letzigrund stadium. Once the javelin throwers were in the warm-up field, it started to rain and the wind started to blow. However, the wind did not come in strong gusts from the left as in Helsinki but more fairly from the front and right. Therefore the conditions were not perfect for good results but they provided the athletes with a possibility of a fair and even competition.

When it was Tero’s turn as the penultimate thrower in the first round, the jaws of trainers and managers in the audience dropped – and maybe those of the other throwers: 88.71 metres and the competition was practically over. To secure his first position Tero threw over 87 metres on his second throw, with which he could have won the competition as well – and the World Championships in Helsinki. Could this be the start of a journey following in the footsteps of Paavo Nurmi?