SANDELL - HALF MARATHON RECORD

Annemari SANDELL set a new Finnish national half marathon
record when finishing ninth in the Lisbon Half Marathon,
Portugal.

Sandell who is preparing for her marathon debut at the 
Boston classic on 17th April, finished ninth in a time of
1:09.58 behind Kenyan great Tegla Loroupe(1:07.24), 
newly crowned World Cross Country champion Deratu Tulu 
(1:08.04) and Portgual's own Fernanda Ribeiro (1:08.23).
These three domianted the race and took the first three
places on this tough course.

Sandell set the previous Finnish record of 1:10.04 when 
coming fifth in the World half marathon championship in 
1998.

KARJALAINEN HAMMER BEST

Olli-Pekka KARJALAINEN, the reigning world junior hammer
champion got his Olympic year off in fine style, when
winning the IAAF GP11 event in Pretoria, South Africa.

Karjalainen's 79.63 metres winning throw was a new 
personal best for the young Finn and was all the more
promising because the hammer slightly hit the cage on
release and would otherwise surelly have crept over the
80 metre line. 

Juha Tiainen, the 1984 Olympic champion is the only
Finn ever to have surpassed this barrier. His national
record of 81.52 metres was one of eight throws over 80m
during his career.

Karjalainen's 79m throw was an improvement on the 78.33m
personal best he set last season. 

KONONEN- SPECTACULAR 50K WALK RECORD.

At the 50km walk race in Dudince, Slovakia, 1995 World 
champion Valentin KONONEN set a spectacular new Finnish 
50k walk record with a time of 3:39.36hrs. Kononen's
performance was so dominant that he won the race by 
15 minutes and in the process became the 6th fastest
walker on the all-time world list.

DUDINCE, Slovakia 25.3.2000 K
M 50K:
1. Valentin Kononen Suomi 3.39.36
Finnish record/world alltime 6th.
(old Finnish record 3.41.09 Kononen 1997). 
2. Petr Korcok Slovakia 3.55.48
3. Zoltán Czukor Unkari 3.55.48
4. Aleksandar Rakovic Jugoslavia 3.56.56.

26/03/2000