Jan Zelezny (CZE) (© Getty Images)
Czech Jan Zelezny, the Javelin Throw World record holder, will start coaching Finland’s 2007 World champion Tero Pitkämäki this autumn.
Pitkämäki, 28, did not qualify for the final at the IAAF World Championshipsin Daegu, after a difficult season in which he suffered from a lower back muscle injury in June and bacterial infection in July.
Failure to qualify had never before happened to Pitkämäki, 2008 Olympic bronze medallist and twice a European medallist, at any major international championships.
Pitkämäki talked to Zelezny in Daegu and asked if he would assist him, with the three-time Olympic and World champion responding that he had first to consult his current group of athletes. Zelezny did just that and his pupils gave the green light to the arrangement and so Zelezny, said yes.
“It is great that the borders between our countries don’t set any limits for this kind of co-operation. Unbelievable, that we´ll get this opportunity,” confirmed Pitkämäki.
Zelezny will continue as the coach of the Czech throwers Barbora Spotakova, Petr Frydrych, Vitezlav Vesely and Jakub Vajdlech, and will join Pitkämäki’s current coach Hannu Kangas in training the 28-year-old Finn.
Pitkämäki and Kangas will have their first meeting with Zelezny in Prague in early October.
“Then we´ll make the decisions for training in the next winter season. I think, I’ll take part in some training camps in the Czech Republic, and we’ll work together in a long camp in warm conditions, too. Hannu will be in charge of my training in Finland,” says Pitkämäki.
Zelezny believes that taking Pitkämäki as a part of his group will be a win-win situation for all sides.
“Already in my own career I believed in the power of training as a group,” said Zelezny. I’ve always seen Tero as a very special and talented javelin thrower, who has been a bit different from the other top throwers.”
“I was very impressed when he set 91.33m and won the IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco in 2005. I can see in Tero a lot of the same good and strong things I had, I’m eager to take this challenge and I’m sure I can help him. Although this season was so difficult for him, he still has huge potential in him,” confirmed Zelezny.
Pitkämäki set his PB of 91.53 in 2005. He hasn´t thrown over the 90m line since 2007 when his season’s best was 91.27 and threw 90.33m as his winning mark in Osaka World Championships. This season Pitkämäki’s best was 85.33m, thrown when winning at the Shanghai Diamond League in May. In Daegu he placed 17th at the qualification with a result of 79.46.
A-P Sonninen for the IAAF