Pitkämäki gears up for the summer ahead 08. May 08

Tero Pitkämäki, reigning European Athlete of the Year, has been slightly out of the spotlight since picking up his trophy at the European Athletics Calendar Conference in Malta last October, but the Finnish javelin thrower is now ready to cast off the winter wraps.
Pitkämäki has been at the Portuguese training facility in Monte Gordo on the Algarve, just a few kilometres from the Spanish border, for several weeks and has been preparing for his first competition of the year at the Finnish throwing Mecca of Kuortane on May 25.

"I have done a couple of throwing sessions in Portugal and both went okay. I feel satisfied about my condition at the moment. In fact, I also had a short training camp in Kuotane in early April. The good thing about this venue is that it is near my home of Seinäjoki (in fact the two places are only about 45km apart)," said Pitkämäki recently.

"I have been healthy and in a stable condition, physically and technically, this winter. Earlier this year, I also spent the whole of January training in South Africa. Everything went well there and when I went back to Finland it was almost spring so I've only had to do a few throwing sessions indoors," added the man who won the world title in his speciality last summer in the Japanese city of Osaka.

Kuortane is one of Pitkämäki's favourite places to throw.

Last season, like he plans to do later this month, he opened his campaign there and warmed up for his stellar summer ahead with a winning throw of 87.78m.

In 2005 and 2006, the sympathetic conditions in Kuortane helped him throw the massive distances of 91.53m and 91.11m respectively.

Inevitably though, his focus of attention this year is not on the meetings in Kuortane, where he will return for a second competition on 6 July, or even the IAAF Golden League, in which he plans to compete in all six meetings as the men's Javelin is one of the $1 million jackpot disciplines. Just like almost every other elite athlete in the world, this year the Olympic Games in Beijing are the top item on his agenda.

There is huge pressure on Pitkämäki's broad shoulders to deliver an Olympic gold medal after Finland could only muster the relatively meagre total of two silvers - in shooting and wrestling - in 2004 and their country's athletes returned home without a single medal from Athens


However, he is trying to shrug off the burden of expectation that has been placed upon him.

"In the end, we all compete against ourselves, not because of what the media or the public might expect. I do my best and if there is no success, there is nothing I can do about it afterwards. I'll just try again," reflected the quietly-spoken Pitkämäki, who finished eighth in Athens four years ago.

However, Pitkämäki has others on which he can lean if the pressure starts to become too great.

"I could not become an Olympic winner all by myself, everyone is needed. My coach, my manager, all those close to me," he added.

His girlfriend Niina Kelo, who was 15th in the 2006 European Athletics Championships Heptathlon, is also part of Team Pitkämäki and looking to accompany him in the Finnish team going to Beijing in August.

Pitkämäki also plans to represent his country at the 2008 European Cup, with Finland in the First League Group A which will be staged in the Portuguese town of Leiria across the weekend of June 21-22.

The Javelin competition there could be a phenomenal one, well worth looking forward to even though it is still almost two months away, as Pitkämäki is likely to face his friend and rival Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen.

With the 2007 World Champion up against Thorkildsen, who finished with the silver medal behind Pitkämäki but delivered his only two defeats last year as well as being the reigning Olympic and European Champion, sparks could fly in Leiria. Even the European Cup best performance of 92.41m, set by Pitkämäki's compatriot Aki Parviainen could be under threat.

Sparks are Pitkämäki's stock in trade as an electrical engineering graduate and he anticipates returning to his profession one day.

"My financial situation is now good and I don't have to worry about going to work. Well, I guess athletics is my job for the moment but one day I think I'll return to engineering. Once I've given up the search for the perfect throw," added Pitkämäki.

However, javelin throwers have a habit of having long careers in the sport, with the Czech great and two-time European Athlete of the Year Jan Zelezny as the prime evidence, so Finland's renowned engineering industry might have to wait some time before it can count on a contribution from Pitkämäki.

Tero Pitkämäki's planned competition schedule 2008
*Not all meetings have been confirmed

Date/Place Competition
25 May KUORTANE, FIN Javelin Fete
1 June BERLIN, GER Golden League
6 June OSLO, NOR Golden League
22 June LEIRIA, POR European Cup
29 June PIHTIPUDAS, FIN Javelin Carnival
6 July KUORTANE, FIN Vattenfall Elite Games
11 July ROME, ITA Golden League
18 July PARIS, FRA Golden League
26-27 July TAMPERE, FIN Finnish Championships
3 August LAPPEENRANTA, FIN European Athletics Permit Meeting,
Vattenfall Elite Games Final
21 August BEIJING, CHN Olympic Games Qualification
23 August BEIING, CHN Olympic Games Final
29 August ZURICH, SUI Golden League
30 August HELSINKI, FIN SWE-FIN Match
5 September BRUSSELS, BEL Golden League
14 September STUTTGART, GER Athletics Final

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