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Tero Pitkämäki

In summer 2005, Ponsse signed a sponsorship contract with Tero Pitkämäki. The contract was extended at the beginning of 2006, which means that Ponsse will be Tero’s main sponsor until the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. On these pages we will follow the highlights of Tero’s career.
Tero Kristian Pitkämäki was born in Ilmajoki on 19 December 1982. He represents Nurmon Urheilijat -99 club. His trainer is Hannu Kangas.
Pitkämäki was 10 years old when he threw a javelin for the first time. At his first athletics completions Pitkämäki took part in all the events, winning in the javelin, which made his choice of event easy. Pitkämäki started to compete seriously five years later when he decided to stop skiing, which he considered his main sport until then.

Tero Pitkämäki is a young future hope in javelin who has quickly risen into the Finnish javelin elite - in 2004 he won two gold medals at the Kalevan Kisat Finnish Championships in Vaasa and was the best placed Finnish athlete in the Olympic Games by finishing in eighth position in the javelin final.  

2005 - 2006

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.

Best result 2005 91,53 Kuortane 26.6.
Best result 2006 91,11 Kuortane 24.6.

2007

On August 5,2007 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.

Best result 2007 91,23 Lapinlahti 22.7.

On October 5, 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.

In addition to his career in sports, Pitkämäki graduated in spring 2006 as an electrical engineer from the Vaasa University of Applied Sciences.