JURY’S STILL OUT FOR AKI PARVIAINEN ! The summer of 1999 was an exceptionally good one for Finnish sport. Mika Hakkinen was paraded through the streets of Helsinki after winning his second Formula One World Motor Racing title and to cap that success, Tommi Makinen clinched his fourth consecutive World Rally Driving Championship. To the outside world Finland would seem to be the land of motor sports. Yet to think that would be to seriously overlook the achievements of the third man of Finnish sporting success last summer, Aki Parviainen, the new World Javelin Champion. More fundamentally, it would also ignore Finland’s long standing love affair with spear throwing. When Aki Parviainen clinched the world javelin crown with his fifth round throw (89.52m) in Seville, spectacularly deposing Konstantinos Gatsioudis of Greece who had led the competition since the first round (89.18m), Parviainen became the latest in a long line of Finns to have won major international javelin honours. This century Finnish men have won seven Olympic, four European and now three World javelin titles and have set 18 world records. What a difference a year makes! Twelve months before Seville at the 1998 European Championships in Budapest the mood of Finnish supporters had been very subdued directly after the javelin final, in sharp contrast to the euphoria which greeted Parviainen’s victory last summer. Parviainen had been the main Finnish favourite for gold in Budapest. He had travelled to Hungary as world leader with wins over Steve Backley and the rest of the world’s javelin elite earlier in the 1998 season. Finnish hopes were doubly high because Parviainen had also joined the exclusive 90 metres club with two throws over that elusive line. As such, Parviainen’s ninth place finish, missing his last three throws when Britain’s Mark Roberson beat him to the top eight cut, was a severe disappointment to the whole Finnish nation. Budapest was the first time I properly met and talked with Parviainen. Unfortunately, the unplanned meeting took place at the championship banquet which was held directly after the javelin final and closing ceremony. It was the most inopportune of moments to meet, and not surprisingly I stumbled across him in melancholy frame of mind accessing his defeat. With both of us also slightly worse for drink and at a loss for words, I commiserated saying that “one defeat doesn’t make anyone a bad competitor”. Then recognising the delicacy of the situation I scuttled off and left him in peace. On reflection my comment had neatly summed up the situation. Parviainen was no over night sensation and as a youth in 1992 he had become world junior champion and set a world junior record. A thrower of his class did not suddenly become a failure with one defeat! Last summer, I met up with Parviainen again, this time in the more sober venue of the circular lounge of the Star Hotel, Stockholm, the meeting headquarters for the 1999 DN Galan Grand Prix. There I found a changed athlete, someone very much at ease with himself both as a person and a competitor. “There were two main influences on why I became a javelin thrower” began Aki. “Firstly, my brother Mika who is four years older than me (Mika Parviainen set a personal best of 80.26m in 1992 with the senior 800gm javelin) was already a javelin thrower. Secondly, I grew up in a small village (near the town of Joensuu in the east of the Finnish lake district) and really there was very little to do in the summer except sport”. “I joined the same club (Pyhaselan Urheilijat) as my brother and tried many events at first. I ran, I threw the shot, and I tried both the long and high jump. I even had a go at the pole vault. My best I think was 3.50m which is not bad!” Yet what had inspired Parviainen to pursue javelin throwing as a career rather than just a part time activity like his brother? “Like most kids I would watch sport on television and then go outside and try and imitate my heroes. In 1998 Tapio Korjus won the Olympic title and his victories along with those of (1997 World Champion) Seppo Raty were a great inspiration to me. The young rising star Kimmo Kinnunen ( who was to become 1991 World Champion) was also someone who I wanted to emulate”. “There were many boys of my age who were promising talents. We all took inspiration from Finland’s great javelin tradition but none of my local friends ever took sport as seriously as I did. They all got distracted by the usual experiences of teenage years but I seldom wavered. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to be a sportsman”. Yet surely I asked Aki, isn’t there also a down side to having to follow in the footsteps of so many great Finnish champions? For instance, British milers certainly seem to find the burden of Britain’s illustrious middle distance tradition too hard to bear at times. I wondered was there a similar situation in Finnish javelin circles? “There is possibly too much inspiration for Finnish throwers” commented Aki. “The achievements they have to match are so great, that maybe the pressure on them to improve is too intense”. “However what can you do?! This season so far, Finland has six men who have thrown over 82 metres and…last year we had 18 men in the world’s top 100 throwers. So if you do not push yourself, how can you hope to succeed against that sort of national competition?” Aki largely blames this undue pressure for the sustained period of injury he suffered in the years during which he graduated from the junior to senior ranks. “When I was younger…I wanted to throw further and further. I was trying to throw 85 metres when I did not have the right physical strength or technique for that distance. This was the reason why I suffered the serious arm injury which meant I missed the 1993 season. The injury continued to effect my throwing throughout 1994 as well”. However, Aki is nonetheless conscious of the overwhelmingly positive aspects of the Finnish javelin tradition. “Finnish children never lack inspiration. We always have many good throwers and there are so many former champions to copy”. Central to this continued Finnish success is the famous annual javelin carnival weekend which takes place in the small town of Pihtipudas each summer. The meeting which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in 2000 was begun and remains organised by Jorma Kinnunen, world record holder in 1969 and father of 1991 world champion Kimmo Kinnunen. “All the kids attending, get to see the javelin stars compete” Aki enthused. “They are given instruction by their heroes and the atmosphere is wonderful. I first visited the carnival when I was 15 years old and it is an important part of any young Finnish throwers development”. Parviainen has only had one coach, Jarmo Hirvonen, throughout his career as a javelin thrower. Hirvonen became Parviainen’s trainer in 1989 and his advise guided Aki’s rapid development as a junior thrower. Prior to Jarmo advising me “my personal best with the 600gm javelin was 41.72m. Immediately, after he took charge I started throwing further and by the end of 1989 my best had risen to just under 64 metres (63.88m). The next summer the progress was even greater and I managed 79 metres with the junior spear and 63.50m with the senior javelin”. Aki continued “I think there was a natural trust between Jarmo and myself from the beginning…with these sorts of results how can you not have faith in your coach! Jarmo’s secret is that he explains everything to me in such a straight forward way. In terms that it is easy to understand”. Speaking at the DN Galan meet approximately a month before his world championship victory in Seville, Parviainen was firmly settled on his goals. “As a Finn the Olympics are my ultimate dream. There is the history of the event but also they only come along every four years, this makes them special. To win there is my dream. Of course, this world championship year is important to me as well”. Yet frighteningly for Parviainen, the scenario prior to Seville was almost identical to what had taken place twelve months before in the build up to Budapest. Parviainen was once again the world’s leading thrower. He had produced an enormous 93.09 metre throw in Kuortane, Finland early in the summer. Only Zelezny had ever thrown further and in Seville Zelezny would not be at his best, still recovering from injury. So Aki was the favourite to win gold on paper, if perhaps not in the minds of the rest of the world who saw his defeat in Budapest as a sign that he was a choker when it came to major championships. In Finland the javelin is the national event within the national summer sport of track & field athletics. Living in football dominated Britain, it is difficult to imagine the pressure to succeed that both the Finnish public and media exert on their athletes particularly the javelin throwers. In Budapest, before the javelin final, the ranks of journalists attending the Finnish Federation’s press conference were swelled by three television crews despatched solely from Finland to follow Parviainen’s progress! The same situation existed in Seville where at the final press briefing, with Finland having won no medals at all, a seasoned Finnish press man began the questions by asking Aki, “so how does it feel Aki being the last hope for Finnish athletics!”. A fortnight after his world championship win, I chatted to Aki again in the less pressurised atmosphere of the Grand Prix Final in Munich’s Olympic stadium. I asked him what had been the difference between Seville and Budapest? How had he managed to cope with the golden expectations of five million javelin crazy Finns willing him to win, as if by some sort of Finnish birthright? “Prior to Seville, a Russian called Jury Hannin helped me to cope with all the mental pressures” revealed Parviainen. “My manager Harri Halme suggested to me in July after the Paris Grand Prix that Hannin would be the best person to advise me. So before and after each competition since then I have discussed my feelings with Jury and this has helped me tremendously”. “Hannin comes from St. Petersburg but now lives in the town of Jyvaskyla (home of the 1000 Lakes Car Rally) and helps many top Finnish athletes including the multi gold winning Olympic and World cross country skier, Mika Myllyla and javelin thrower Mikaela Ingberg ( 1995 World & 1998 European Bronze medallist).” “It has taken many many days for me to understand that my win in Seville is real and not just a dream. It really is a dream come true and the difference between now and how I felt a year ago after Budapest is too big to describe.” In Seville, after the final Aki gave no clue to the world’s media about the Russian mind doctor who was behind his now solid competitive temperament but nonetheless the immense relief and joy he displayed after winning was obvious to all who attended the post event press conference. “This has been the goal of the season, even though I haven’t dared to say it” Aki told the assembled journalists. “After I had secured my place in the last three rounds I decided that I am not leaving here without a medal!” So what is the future now for Aki Parviainen? Back in Stockholm before Seville, I had asked him about his goals. “If I was to achieve all my aims, that is to say if I was to win both in Seville and Sydney, I am not the sort of person who would just stop competing and retire. I love being an athlete. I’m a natural sportsman, it’s my life and at the moment I cannot see beyond it. Sport is in my heart”. After Seville, Aki’s vision of the future has not changed. Yet what does he think about his internationally better known compatriot, Mika Hakkinen. Would he rather have the world wide fame of the motor racing circuit? “I was never attracted by motor sports…I have never really had any interest in cars” Aki replied emphatically. “Though I was delighted with the Peugeot car which I was given for being the overall best athlete in the Finnish Federation’s Elite Games series this summer…. No, I always has a desire from an early age to achieve something great in athletics!” With an attitude like that, whatever happens at the Sydney Olympics, the Finnish public will surely never again question Aki Parviainen’s competitive abilities! Copyright - Chris Turner 1999. Chris Turner is a freelance writer and press officer working in athletics. He was in charge of the IAAF/LOC interview service in Seville. PARVIAINEN - PERSONAL DATA Aki Uolevi Parviainen. Born in Helsinki 26.10.1974. 191cm; 96 kg. Coach (since 1989) – Jarmo Hirvonen. Club – Pyhaselan Urheilijat 1983-1995; Joensuun Kataja 1996 – Personal best (800g) javelin – 93.09m 1999. (Previously 90.88m 1998) 2.0 kg discus – 36.78m 1993 (last known). 7.26 kg shot – 12.26m 1993 (last known). Championship performance – 1991 Jnr Ech 3rd; 1992 Jnr Wch 1st; 1995 Wch 9th; 1997 Wch 8th; 1998 Ecup 3rd; Ech 9th; 1999 Wch 1st.