UPDATED SATURDAY: Janne Holmén 9th in World Championships marathon

Janne Holmén

Francis Kirwa

Robert Häggblom

Mika Vasara

Olli-Pekka Karjalainen

David Söderberg

Salla Rinne

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Finland's main marathon hope Janne Holmén finished in a very creditable 9th place as the first medal of the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Osaka went to Kenya.
      Luke Kibet shrugged aside his rivals and gruelling 30°C temperatures to come home alone in a time of 2:15.59, more than a minute ahead of Kenyan-born Mubarak Hassan Shami (representing Qatar), and a fast-finishing Victor Röthlin of Switzerland, the silver medallist at last year's European Championships.
      Röthlin was just 8 seconds adrift of an exhausted Shami at the finish, having clawed himself back into contention after the leading group had dropped him with 10 kilometres to go. Yared Asmerom of Eritrea was the surprise of the day, coming from complete obscurity to take 4th, ahead of Japan's own Tsuyoshi Ogata, winner of the bronze medal in Helsinki two years ago.
      Kibet showed the rest of the pack a clean pair of heels from around 32km, and after 35km he never looked like being caught. On the other hand, the battle for the lesser medals was a close one, with only some 20 seconds separating 2nd from 5th place. Somewhat surprisingly, it was the first time a Kenyan runner has won gold in the marathon in the World Championships.
     
Finland's Janne Holmén ran an extraordinarily mature race, not deviating an iota from his advance plan of a steady pace of around 16.20-16.30 for each 5-kilometre section.
      The Finn stayed comfortably with the leading group for the first twelve kilometres, until the Kenyan pair of Kibet and William Kiplagat upped the pace and threw in a 15.48 split-time between 10km and 15km. Holmén recognised that his body was simply not going to live with this, and he willingly let them go.
      Although he had lost any hope of a medal by halfway, and the Finnish TV commentators were loudly lamenting his disappearance so early in the proceedings, Holmén had clearly made the right decision in sticking to his original race-strategy: in the later stages of the race he steadily picked off stragglers falling off the back of the former leading group and improved his position to come home 9th, as the second-placed European in a top ten dominated by four African and three Japanese runners.
      His finishing time was 2:19.36. It was also the best placing ever by a Finn in this event at the World Championships, first held in 1983.
     
Holmén had said before the competition that a time of around two and a quarter hours in the hot and humid conditions of the Osaka morning would take some beating, and he was right on the nose. Kibet's winning time was also the slowest-ever for a World Championship marathon.
      Holmén jocularly expressed the hope that he could finish in the first eight "as the top eight all win prize-money".
      Though he fell marginally short of this target, it was an immensely gutsy run, and he beat approximately 30 athletes whose fastest times on paper were better than he could boast.
     
In another 200 metres or so Holmén would also have overhauled Kenya's William Kiplagat. Kiplagat had earlier been in the leading trio with Kibet and Shami, but he folded completely in the last few kilometres and could barely stagger over the line in 8th before collapsing in a heap on the grass. A good many other fancied runners threw in the towel despite the apparently slow pace: the conditions were pretty brutal for everyone.
      Holmén, who actually rated his performance in Osaka above his 2002 European Championships victory in Munich, will continue his career towards next year's Olympics in Beijing.
      Francis Kirwa, the other Finnish entry, was among those who did not finish. He called it a day just before the 20km mark. Kirwa had complained of problems with his knee and stomach before the race.
     
Finland's other male performers on Saturday included the two shot-putters, Robert Häggblom Mika Vasara. Both failed to qualify for the final, with throws of less than 20 metres, well below their personal best.
      Olli-Pekka Karjalainen and David Söderberg were also in action later on, in qualifying for the hammer throw final.
      Karjalainen struggled with his technique but eventually managed to qualify 11th out of 12 for Monday's final, despite failing to reach the qualifying distance of 77.00 metres. Söderberg's best throw of 72.45 was never going to give him a chance of qualification.
     
Salla Rinne took part in the first day of the heptathlon. After four of the seven events she was in 19th place, but her total of 3,562 points so far keeps her on track to secure her target of breaking 6,000 points. Her personal record so far is 5,894.
      Rinne's most encouraging individual performance came in the shot-put, where she threw a personal best of 14.25 metres.
      The competition is currently led by Carolina Klüft of Sweden, who is unbeaten in this event over the past five years, including gold medals at two World Championships, two European Championships, and the Athens Olympics.
     

More on this subject:
 Athletics World Championships get under way in Osaka

Links:
  IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Osaka

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