Day 7: M Decathlon, M 3000m Steeple

"For six days, the Lion of Finland sharpened its claws, and on the seventh, it struck." This is how a Finnish sports journal ceremoniously began its report on August 4 when the Finns won 83 percent of the medals on offer in Amsterdam. The Finns took the top two spots in the decathlon and swept the podium in the 3000-metre steeplechase.

The journal continued its pathos:

"The whole of Finland's 'Paavo' and 'Aki' and the magnificent winning trio of the steeplechase. These are achievements that, when told, make the heart warmly flutter beneath even the roughest exterior, and the mouth unanimously testifies: I am a Finn. Descendants of the same Hakkapeliittas as our famous Olympic boys."

Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, August 4, 1928

MEN'S DECATHLON
Yrjölä and Järvinen achieve a double victory for Finland

Akilles Järvinen. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.

A fierce battle for Olympic gold unfolded in the decathlon. Akilles Järvinen had lagged behind world record holder Paavo Yrjölä by almost a hundred points in 1927. By the time they reached Amsterdam, the scales had balanced. The scion of the Järvinen athletic family pressed the agile farmer from Hämeenkyrö, who was also in the form of his life, until the very end.

Yrjölä Bombs, Järvinen Almost Catches up by Running

The competition was a constant pendulum swing. Akilles put up strong results in running events and, after them, almost caught up with Yrjölä in total points, if not outright surged past him. Immediately in the next throwing event, Paavo retaliated with his bombs. The sprint hurdles, which started the second day, went so exceptionally well for Järvinen that he briefly took the lead in the overall standings. Yrjölä was not rattled but threw the discus five metres further than Järvinen, once again taking the top spot in total points.

Before the final event, the 1500, the game was pretty clear. For Yrjölä to win, American James Stewart would have had to beat the Hämeenkyrö man by 25 seconds. That was not believed to be possible.

Yrjölä needed a result of approximately five minutes for the world record to be broken. With a result as good as 4:44.0, a new world record of 8053.290 was scored as the total. At the same time, Yrjölä became the first to exceed 8000 points (using the 1921 scoring table).

To be precise, Yrjölä competed in 11 events. In the high hurdles, one hurdle was originally placed incorrectly. The heat had to be re-run. Yrjölä might have been slightly annoyed by the extra effort, although such emotional outbursts are rare in rural Häme. Fueled by grit, Paavo pulled off a personal best of 16.6, which allowed him to breathe down Järvinen's neck in the points standings immediately after the hurdles.

Yrjölä commented on his re-run to Finnish Helsingin Sanomat: "From the eighth hurdle onwards, I started to stiffen, but it still went well."

By Later Scoring Tables, Järvinen Would Have Won

Athletic history is full of ironic cases. Among the most peculiar is the fact that the decathlon scoring table saved Yrjölä. With later years' scoring formulas, Järvinen would have won the competition in Amsterdam and four years later in Los Angeles.

Akilles Järvinen's condition soared in Amsterdam: "When the discus flew further than before a couple of days ago, I knew that everything was as it should be." He also thanked Yrjölä, who, as an experienced man from Häme, took the competition calmly and instilled composure in Järvinen as well.

A strong quartet from the United States participated in the Amsterdam decathlon. Three of them occupied the places following the Finns. Ken Doherty, who won the bronze, later distinguished himself as a coach at the Universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania, and also visited abroad to discuss the secrets of track and field.

In Finland, the decathlon battle was followed via loudspeakers set up in front of newspaper offices. Reporters announced the latest telegrams from Amsterdam through megaphones. When Yrjölä threw the javelin "only" slightly under 56 metres, a deathly silence descended on the street. The atmosphere changed in a flash when the final results were clear, and the dense crowd was moved to sing the national anthem.

On site, however, the Finnish double victory was followed mainly only by journalists, coaches, and other necessary personnel. Due to the rainy weather, the audience stayed home on the second day of the competition.

The Amsterdam decathlon was one of the first athletic competitions to use electrical timing. It was not automatic but rather semi-automatic: a string was stretched between iron frames for each lane, which stopped an electric clock when the competitor crossed the finish line. In this way, each of the six runners got a time, which was important in the competition (in the Amsterdam Games, it was not possible to manually measure the time of each runner).

Results and reports

MEN'S 3000 METERS STEEPLECHASE
1–2–3 for Finland

Finland achieved a triple victory in the steeplechase. The dry and tenacious Toivo Loukola from Southern Ostrobothnia started to push hard around the halfway mark and broke away from the others. He leaped to a dominant victory with the world's best result of 9:21.60 (official world records were not yet recognized in the steeplechase at that time). Injured Paavo Nurmi remained to slow down the French. As the second to last lap began, the usually formidable "King of Runners," who was unusually ailing this time, shook off his Gallic pursuers. A little later, Finland's third representative, Ove Andersen, also bid them "au revoir." The triple victory for the men from the pine forests was clear.

Paavo Nurmi and Ville Ritola stood on the same starting line for the last time in the Amsterdam steeplechase. It was also the last Olympic competition for both of them. The race did not become a classic. Nurmi, suffering from a hip injury, merely ensured Finland's triple victory, and Ritola, with an ankle injury, had to withdraw. The carpenter from New York set off purely by animalistic grit. The man's ankle was swollen, so he had to jump over the water jumps with both feet until, on the second to last lap, he was forced to retire to the grass to rest.

Nurmi's ailing run was agonizing. "If someone else had been in my position today, I imagine the run would have been left undone!" the man stated after the race.