24-year-old Tero Pitkämäki wins the Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year 2007 05. October 07

Tero Pitkämäki has achieved another first to add to his illustrious season, he is the first ever Finnish athlete to be voted the male Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year.

Javelin throwing is almost a religion in Finland, and this summer Tero Pitkämäki became the fourth man from his country to win an IAAF World title in the event. Pitkämäki has been this season's outstanding Javelin thrower, winning 14 out of 16 competitions. His triumphs included not only the gold medal in Osaka but also victories at four IAAF Golden League meetings and the IAAF World Athletics Final.

Pitkämäki proved in Osaka that not only can he throw the javelin a long way - a fact evident since he started throwing over 90m two years ago - but that he could also shoulder the continuing burden of expectation from a nation who had hoped for a home soil podium place two years before in Helsinki, only for him to finish a disappointing fourth.

"That was my dream, to win the gold medal. Our team had not won a medal in Osaka until the Javelin, so I was their last chance. I was a little bit nervous because in the qualification I was not able to achieve the (automatic) standard. My technique was something I was thinking about before the competition. It worked well finally," said Pitkämäki.

Pitkämäki had already won the competition with a superb second round throw of 89.16m and then, when able to relax, emphasised his supremacy by sending the javelin out to 90.33m - the last breathtaking throw of the competition.

It was a triumph witnessed by nearly half of Finland, where in another continent, legions of athletics fans were glued to their television sets willing his Javelin to fly.

"I was so happy because in Helsinki, two years ago at home, I had a black day," added the man from the Ilmajoki in the west of Finland, who coincidentally clinched his gold medal just 18 minutes before the female Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year 2007, Croatian High Jumper Blanka Vlasic.

Pitkämäki's golden performance saw him turn the tables on his Norwegian friend and rival, reigning European champion, Andreas Thorkildsen, who had forced Pitkämäki to settle for silver 12 months before in Gothenburg.

One of the reasons Pitkämäki has become so consistent this year is that he has finally become a full-time athlete after graduating at the end of last year with a degree in electrical engineering.

Nevertheless, it has not been an entirely problem-free season for Pitkämäki, as he had the shocking experience of spearing the French Long Jumper Salim Sdiri in the ribs with a wayward throw at the Rome Golden League meeting in July.

It was no fault of either athlete, but not surprisingly, it shook Pitkämäki's confidence. Thankfully, after a brief stay in hospital, Sdiri has suffered no lasting damage but Pitkämäki's morale was not helped by footage of the incident making headline news around the world.

"Thank God he was alive. That accident was a terrible thing and we were both very lucky," said Pitkämäki, well aware that the accident could have had a much worse outcome.

Pitkämäki, who is quietly spoken under normal circumstances, is still reluctant to talk about the incident in detail but, helped by his coach Hannu Kangas, he showed his mettle by recovering his mental composure in time for Osaka,

"The first week after Rome was awful. We went little by little and eventually had some very good training sessions. In his first competition afterwards, in Lapinlahti (in Finland), he threw over 91 metres. I thought then that it would take a very strong guy to beat Tero in Osaka. We turned a sad thing into a victory for mental power," reflected Kangas.

Now, instead of looking backwards, Pitkämäki and Kangas are looking forward to the Olympics next summer in Beijing. In 2004, Pitkämäki was the youngest man to make the final and finished eighth, in a competition won by Thorkildsen.

The pressure will be on Pitkämäki to deliver the gold again after Finland failed to win a single athletics medal in Athens for the first time in its Olympic history.

"Before the Athens Olympics, when Tero was seen as a promising candidate for selection, we were asked how he would cope with the pressure of the great Finnish tradition in this event," said Kangas recently.

"Our reply was simply, ‘the sun also rises in Greece as it does in Finland'. What we meant by this was it is important not to get things out of perspective. However big the challenge is, you have to treat the Olympics or the World Championships just like any other meeting, focusing on the normal routine of training and competition. In this way, you can cope successfully with the pressures and expectations by concentrating on the basics."

"I have always said that our road is from eighth place, to fourth place to second place, to first," added Kangus, looking back down the path that has brought his pupil to being the World Champion and the honour of being the first Finn to be chosen as Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year.

Click here for the complete European Athlete of the Year 2007 rankings list.

european-athletics.org