Laasma lifts Estonia with a fairy tale farewell

2011-07-25 18:10 by Administrator

Liina Laasma

Surely someone had written the script.

If they had, Liina Laasma followed it to perfection in Tallinn today as the host nation’s great medal hope delivered a fairy tale ending as she snatched the women’s javelin title with her very last throw of the penultimate event on the final day of the 21st European Athletics Junior championships.

Talk about leaving the best till last. It was Estonia’s only gold, indeed its only medal of the four day championships.

It was Laasma who captured the home fans’ hearts, as she produced the perfect ending to a hugely successful event.

In front of the biggest crowd of the championships, she’d struggled for five rounds to find her range and was lying out of the medals – way out, in sixth place with a best of just 54.01 – and had just one chance left.

But sometimes one chance is all you need, and with the competition dribbling to an uninspiring close, Laasma suddenly found a big throw when she needed it most. She summoned all her strength and unleashed the spear to 55.99 – leaping into first place by 16cm.

The crowd may have been small but the noise was deafening.

Laasma leapt in the air, rolled on the ground and ran to hug her coach before running across the infield with her nation’s flag wrapped around her shoulders.

“I still can't believe what I just did,” she said some minutes later when she eventually found her way to the mixed zone.

“To get the title with the final attempt, this is the greatest achievement of my life. Now I'm going to think about it for a while and just enjoy.”

As will the rest of Estonia.

source: european-athletics.org

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