Olli-Pekka Karjalainen takes 5th in hammer at World Championships

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Olli-Pekka Karjalainen, 25, recorded the best Finnish performance of the IAAF World Championships so far on a rainy Monday night, throwing 78.77 to finish in 5th place behind the world #1 Ivan Tikhon of Belarus.
      Belarus took an impressive 1-2 in the event, with Vadim Devyatovski grabbing the silver medal. Both men threw well over 80 metres, and Tikhon's winning effort was a massive 83.89.
      Karjalainen, who has previously often failed to deliver when it counts in qualifying, now gave a solid performance and his final throw brought him to within 60 centimetres of the bronze medal, which went to Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland.
      In the women's high jump, Kajsa Bergqvist doubled Sweden's tally of gold medals with a near-perfect performance. She cleared 2.02 to win, and then made three reasonable attempts at a new world record of 2.10. The Swede's delight was profound: she was returning after a difficult achilles tendon injury that kept her out of the Athens Olympics.
      Sweden got a second medal, too, as Emma Green claimed the bronze behind Chaunte Howard of the United States. Howard made it into a real competition, clearing two metres for only the second time in her career.
     
A number of Finns will be in action today, but all eyes will probably be on javelin specialist Tero Pitkämäki, the country's biggest hope for a medal. He takes part in qualifying this morning, along with a former world Champion Aki Parviainen and Esko Mikkola. Jaakko Ojaniemi also begins his two-day punishment in the decathlon. He started brightly, taking 4th place in the 100 metres.
      Pitkämäki delivered the goods with his first qualifying throw, clearing the required 81.00 metre line with more than a metre to spare. Parviainen also looked likely to qualify at the time of writing, meaning that those attending Wednesday's (sold out) evening session will have at least two Finns to cheer in the final of this tradition-rich event.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki skies open as World Championships get under way (8.8.2005)

Links:
  IAAF World Championships

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