After last year’s set the new meeting record (86.36m ) Tero Pitkämäki comes to Zagreb this year for a new record. Maybe he has to do this if he wants to win great Thomas Rohler, which on Thursday threw his javelin 87.63 in Zurich!
Tero Pitkämäki (born on 19 December 1982) is the 2007 World Champion from Osaka and 2013 Vice-Champion from Moscow. His medal collection also contains the 2008 Olympic bronze medal from Beijing and the 2006 European silver and 2010 and 2104 bronze medal. His personal best is 91.53. In the year, in which he became the World Champion, he was awarded Europe’s best track and field athlete and Finland’s best athlete, ahead of Formula 1 star Kimi Räikkönen.
The most bizarre and stressful episode in his career happened on Friday, 13 July 2007, that otherwise successful and important year for him. At the Diamond League meeting in Rome, his javelin veered to the left, towards the long jump runway, and hit France’s long jumper Salim Sdiri in the back. Sdiri ended up in hospital, luckily with non-fatal injuries, and Pitkämäki ended up in shock.
It’s very fortunate that Salim is alive. And I should thank all gods for that!“ deeply distressed Pitkämäki said then.