Sampo Lehtola

Lappeenranta, Finland - The men’s Javelin Throw highlighted the finale of Vattenfall Elite Games in Lappeenranta, Finland on Saturday (13). The fight for three spots for Team Finland in Daegu went on until the very last throw of the competition. Newcomer Sampo Lehtola took the surprise victory with his last effort of 83.77m leaving other top Finns Antti Ruuskanen, Jarkko Koski-Vähälä and Tero Pitkämäki far behind.

"It's hard to be analytical at this point, it just happened," Lehtola said.

Pitkämäki, the 2007 World Champion, returned to action after two weeks of recovery from a hamstring injury, but had difficulties with his technique and struggled with the 80-metre barrier. Ruuskanen and Koski-Vähälä improved throw by throw and led the race in the last round with 81.11m and 80.95m, respectively. Lehtola, the last thrower of the competition, had already improved his PB to 79.14m in the second round, but that was not enough for the new Finnish javelin talent. He got everything right on the last throw and improved his PB by more than four meters. Before this season Lehtola’s career best was 77.19m. In July he improved to 78.50m and placed sixth in the European U23 Championships.

"My legs worked really well today and I could feel on the run-up that something big was happening," Lehtola said few minutes later.

With his throw Lehtola secured his selection to the Finnish team for the World Championships. The two other javelin throwers on the team are national champion Ari Mannio and Pitkämäki, who believes he is getting better after recent difficulties.

"Besides the hamstring problem I’ve had a lung infection and a flu, which forced me to withdraw from the national championships last weekend. Today I felt better, but not quite the best," Pitkämäki said, adding that he believes his shape will improve a lot before the World Championships.

via: IAAF