Finland 

Suoknuuti’s Late Charge Claims Cross-Country Crown

The skirmishes for the 1927 Finnish Championships commenced in mid-May with the cross-country bouts in Inkeroinen. The field was, shall we say, somewhat depleted; several luminaries saw fit to bypass the event entirely, most notably the defending champion Paavo Nurmi, who evidently did not deign to grace the muddy tracks with his presence. In his absence, Elias Suoknuuti – competing on what was practically his own doorstep – pulverised the opposition. With a ferocious terminal burst, he capsized the hopes of Olympic veterans Eino Rastas and Väinö Sipilä, leaving them to contemplate the dust of a local hero.

A World Record by Yrjölä

A portion of the Finnish championships was served as a July appetizer at Helsinki’s Eläintarha Sports Ground. Paavo Yrjölä, a strapping son of the soil, had been grafting hard in preparation. Finding the facilities on his home farm somewhat lacking for the finer arts of hurdling and vaulting, he used to retreat to Tampere to furbish his technique.

After two days of relentless slogging, the Eläintarha turf bore witness to a new decathlon world record: a formidable 7,995.10 points. The elusive 8,000-point barrier (by the 1920 tables) remained unbreached by the cruelest of margins, a solitary tenth of a second. Rules of the era dictated that Yrjölä’s 11.7 dash should have been rounded up to 11.8, yet the Finnish officials, displaying a touch of patriotic "flexibility," plucked the points from the 11.7 column instead. Consequently, the morning papers were found boldly thumping their chests over the "first-ever 8,000-point haul." Trailing in Yrjölä’s wake was the future double Olympic silver medallist Akilles Järvinen, who toiled his way to second place, nearly a thousand points adrift of the leader.

Kinnunen: a World-Leading Solo over the Barriers

The steeplechase, an event often viewed with a certain sniffy disdain by the 1920s press, was monopolised by Armas Kinnunen. Having already made a nuisance of himself by harrying the great Nurmi in the previous year’s 5,000m, Kinnunen delivered a masterful solo performance. His winning time of 9:46.4 stood as the world’s finest outdoor mark for 1927 – though it must be noted that over in the States, Ville Ritola was clattering through a two-mile chase at a clip estimated to eclipse sub-9:40 for the metric distance.

Spirits Undamped by the Deluge

The grand finale of the championships shifted to the Turku Sports Park, which had been buffed to a high sheen the previous year. Despite a relentless downpour that threatened to wash the competitors away, some three thousand hardy souls dragged themselves to the stands on day one. By Sunday, the heavens relented, and six thousand spectators flocked to the park to train their eyes upon the action.

As the number of motor cars in Finland steadily climbed, it appeared that driving talent was struggling to keep pace; a few athletes even managed to deposit their contraptions into various ditches en route to Turku. Nor did the organisers escape the critics' nibs. The field event results were initially shrouded in silence, and the loudspeakers proved remarkably bashful. (A stark contrast to the modern era, where the equipment is routinely cranked to levels of pure lunacy.) The Helsinki press corps, pacing the stands with visible pique, eventually informed their readers that the entire affair had been conducted in a "decidedly antiquated, rustic fashion."

Nurmi Triumphs, Albeit with Laboured Grace

Paavo Nurmi graced his home turf to contest the 5000, duly dispatching the field with a solo effort in 14:54.4. To the eagle-eyed press, however, the "Man in Black" appeared to be wrestling with his rhythm; the usual feline elegance was replaced by a certain heavy-footedness, suggesting the great man was not quite in peak fettle.

Meanwhile, that habitual medal-hoarder from the capital, Erik Wilén, pilfered his fifth consecutive title in the "furniture-strewn" lap, the 400m hurdles. He was denied a clean sweep of the 400, however, as Erik "Åsa" Åström – already the 200 victor – sprung an ambush to snatch the flat 400 crown.

Kinnunen Bags the Metric Mile as the Titans Loaf

Armas Kinnunen joined the elite club of double-winners, plucking the 1500 trophy to go with his July steeplechase honours. His path was made somewhat smoother by the absence of the world-class milers, Nurmi and Eino Borg, who opted to sit this one out. Harry Lagerström (later Larva) faltered on his home track to finish third, though he would find a much grimmer resolve a year later in Amsterdam, where he famously snared Olympic gold over the European mile.

The world’s pre-eminent all-rounder, Paavo Yrjölä, fresh from hammering out a new decathlon world record, comfortably corralled the pentathlon. Having peaked a month prior, he wisely refrained from disembowelling himself for the sake of a few extra points.

The Radio Man’s Eccentric Double

Armas Wahlstedt (later Valste), the future kingmaker of Finnish athletics, secured a brace of victories in a most peculiar combination of disciplines. The top prizes for the high jump and shot put were duly carted off to Viipuri, where Wahlstedt, a keen radio amateur, served as the local station’s chief operator.

Then there was Vilho Tuulos, the "Wool-Socked Grasshopper," who bounded to a triple jump victory with a leap of 15.08 (49-5½) – a mark that saw him plummet into third place on the year's global rankings. The spectators were also quite taken with Erkki Järvinen and the law student Toimi Tulikoura, both of whom harvested medals with world-class figures. (In a curious historical footnote, Tulikoura’s son, Ilkka, would later turn surgeon and tinker with Sergey Bubka’s hind-paws to restore them to leaping condition.)

A Motor-Dealer’s Heavy Right Foot

The 800m saw Helsinki’s Harry Ekqvist pounce on his solitary individual national title. He would later reinvent himself as the journalist Harry Eljanko. The silver was claimed by the car salesman Frej Liewendahl, who became Finland’s second "Ambassador of the Automobile" on the track. The pioneer of the trade, of course, was Nurmi himself, who had begun peddling motors for a Turku dealership the previous year.

The standard of the javelin was saluted in the press as "magnificent," with five chaps launching the twig over the 60-metre mark. Eino Penttilä prevailed with a 63.80 (209-3) effort, while that grizzled veteran and Antwerp bronze-medallist, Paavo Johansson, unloaded 60.46 (198-4) throw in his twilight years – though even such a lusty heave wasn't enough to squeeze him onto the podium.

Finally, the Kaleva Cup, the ultimate prize for the club standings, was duly spirited away to the trophy room of Tampereen Pyrintö for the second year on the trot.