Finland

Nurmi Reigns Supreme on the Cross-Country

The grappling for the Finnish Athletics Championships commenced in May, when men gathered in Jyväskylä to measure their worth in the noble art of cross-country running. Paavo Nurmi notched a sixth national XC title to his belt.

The course around the Harju ground demanded three loops of just under three kilometres. Volmari Iso-Hollo, a compositor from Kerava, sliced the wind as the first ring fell behind him. Thereafter, Nurmi showed a clean pair of heels, carving out a half-minute gap to Armas Kinnunen, who had been galloping on his home turf.

"The track could have been a shade tougher," grumbled Nurmi at the finish line, exuding the vigour of a man in fine spring fitness. He also dropped a hint to the press regarding a shift to longer hauls: "One could, perhaps, attempt a time on a slightly longer distance as well."

Akilles Järvinen Tussles for a World Record

The championships resumed at Papula in Viipuri in mid-July. A world-leading mark smashed onto the scene in the steeplechase, a discipline rarely run in the early 1930s. Olympic champion Toivo Loukola rampaged to the front on the very first lap and held the lead to the end. The stopwatch clicked to a halt at 9:27.8; not even the rain drumming on his neck could dampen his pace. Verner Toivonen chugged into second place with the second-fastest time in the world stats, 9:32.2. Future Olympic champion Volmari Iso-Hollo abstained, saving the second steeplechase of his career for the Los Angeles Games.

An audience of eight hundred at Papula kept a keen eye on Akilles Järvinen’s decathlon. The most devoted stats-hounds logged Järvinen’s marks into black-covered notebooks, comparing them against the figures Paavo Yrjölä had piled up a week prior in Denmark during his short-lived and unofficial world record bout (8117.300).

Järvinen’s grind through the ten disciplines proceeded according to budget. The shot put glided a fraction below par, but in the high jump, he scissor-kicked his way over 180 (5-11). In the 400, the closing event of the first day, he clocked a domestic best of 50.0. A mere 51.1 would have sufficed to keep pace with Yrjölä.

The tempo remained ferocious on the second day. The hurdles were dispatched in 15.4, the javelin hurled 58.15 (190-9). Before the final event, the 1500, a torrential downpour began to lash Viipuri. It failed to brake Järvinen’s scorching pace. He punched a time of 4:55.4 onto the board. The total score snapped into place at a world record of 8255.475. Yrjölä’s result was eclipsed by 138 points. Future Los Angeles javelin silver medallist Matti Sippala toiled in Viipuri to secure points worthy of second place.

The fresh world record holder appeared relatively assured of his condition before the fray: "I did ponder that 8000 points shouldn't be an impossibility for me, even today. It was rather amusing that I surpassed myself in a couple or three events."

The field announcements in Papula functioned splendidly. Armas Wahlstedt, manager of the Viipuri broadcasting station and future head coach of the national team, had rigged up loudspeakers on the field.

Matti Järvinen Whips Out a World Record – Not Logged as a Finnish One

Of the Järvinen brothers, Matti continued the family’s world record festivities a month later, when the main contests were fought in Tampere. The world's premier athlete of 1930 launched the stick further than anyone had officially done before: 71.70 (235-2). He took his run-up on the grass, ten meters adjacent to the slick official runway. 

Järvinen had already hurled 72.38 (237-5) in Stockholm in July, but that mark was not ratified as an official world record. As a Finnish record, however, it stood.

Järvinen’s heave remains, to date, the only world record ever set at the Kaleva Games (the main contest of the Finnish Championships). The performances of Matti and Akilles marked one of the rare occasions—if not the only one—where brothers have ascended to world records in the same year and in the same national championship series.

The 5000  witnessed an anticipated duel, where the world’s best long-distance runners of 1929, Lauri Virtanen and Toivo Loukola, took each other's measure. The game was decided on the home straight. Loukola began to claw back Virtanen’s forty-metre lead, but the worsted tape met Virtanen too soon. He  punched the seventh-fastest figures of the season's world stats into the clock: 14:50.0. Loukola lagged a little over a second behind.

Loukola also embarked on the 10,000, where he could do nothing against Paavo Nurmi. The "Phantom of Turku" tore open a gap of nearly a minute to Loukola.

Akilles Järvinen also harvested medals in individual events. He bagged the 200 and 400 and placed second in the 100. On the half-lap, the fresh decathlon world record holder dusted Anton Husgafvel, one of the elite Finnish sprinters of the 1920s, right in the bend.

The Amsterdam 1500m Olympic medallists, Harri Larva and Eino Purje, could not be coaxed to the same starting line. Purje won the 1500, and Larva, for the third consecutive time, took the 800 in a listless group sprint down the final straight. Both led their respective races from the gun to the tape.

Larva responded without affectation when inquired why he skipped the 1500: "I have no desire to go and lose at that distance, seeing as I am not in my prime condition."

Erik Wilén’s already bulging medal collection grew richer. The Paris silver medallist snagged the brightest decoration in the 400-metre hurdles. Martti Jukola, a pioneer of radio sports commentary running in his final Kaleva Games, collected the bronze. In the sprint hurdles, the scepter had passed to Bengt Sjöstedt, who hijacked his fourth consecutive Finnish championship in the event. Wilén hurdled to second.

Mäkinen Cashes In

Heikki Mäkinen bounded to number one in the triple jump with a personal best of 14.85 (48-8½). Three-time Olympic medallist Vilho Tuulos had to settle for tenth place on his home field with a modest measured result. With a foul jump, however, Tuulos did sail to roughly the same post codes as the business student Mäkinen.

The winner was branded "raw" by the press, even though he had slipped the brightest medal into his vest pocket. "Mäkinen jumps with uncommonly even steps, but does not yet obtain the necessary elasticity in them to carry over 15 m," lectured a Finnish sports journal.

Media history was also made at the Kaleva Games in 1930. They were commentated for the first time via the new medium of radio. Several newspapers positioned loudspeakers in the open windows of their offices, allowing even those who had neglected to purchase their own wireless apparatus to listen in.

The Kaleva Bowl, awarded  to the winner of the club-level competition, was carted back to the offices of Helsinki Kisa-Veikot for the second time running.