Javelin school gathers over 200 participants to Pihtipudas

There are over 200 young javeling throwers signed up for Pihtipudas Javelin Carnival’s javelin school. With competition throwers there will be over 250 throwers and coaches gathering up to Pihtipudas. Over 60 of them come from abroad, which is the biggest amount ever.

Javelin Carnival starts on Wednesday 29 June with competitions for age groups from 9 to 15 years old. Competitions continue on Thursday for 17-22 years old, and javelin school starts for the younger ones on Thursday, too.

In the latest years there have been more and more foreign throwers coming to Pihtipudas. The biggest group of javelin throwers come from Great Britain. And, it’s especially the Finnish javelin throwing culture that brings them here.

– Being able to immerse yourself in the Finnish Javelin culture for 1 week each year is hugely inspiring and powerful. This rubs off on coaches, athletes and parents that travel with us to the Carnival. This in turn starts to help the momentum build in the UK, tells javelin coach David Parker.

On Saturday javelin school students will meet Antti Ruuskanen, as well as, Uwe Hohn, the holder of the longest official javelin throw ever.  On the same day, there will be also a lecture given by Åsmund Martinsen, the coach of Andreas Thorkildsen.

The main competitions on Sunday will be lacking of throwers, as the best European throwers will concentrate for the European Championships the next week. Still, womens’s A-final will be very good with a few outside Europe throwers as Li Lingwei (65,11 m), the winner of Pihtipudas 2015 Kelsey-Lee Roberts (63,92 m) and Kathryn Mitchell (66,10 m).