Esa Markku Juhani Utriainen (born 20 November 1953) is a Finnish former javelin thrower. He was Finnish champion in 1979 and placed 12th in the 1983 World Championships in Athletics. He remains active in the sport as a coach.
Utriainen was born in Virtasalmi (now part of Pieksämäki) on 20 November 1953. [1] He was a finalist at the Finnish championships in 1977 and 1978 before winning in 1979; his winning throw, 90.94 m, remained his personal best. [1] Track & Field News ranked him in the world's top 10 twice (in 1979 and 1981), with a peak ranking of No. 7 in the latter year. [2] In 1983 he represented Finland at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki; he qualified for the twelve-man final, but placed last in it. [3]
After his athletic career he became a coach, originally in Finland; later, he coached the national javelin teams of South Korea and Britain. [4] In 2015 he became the coach of Qatar's javelin team. [4]
His daughter Sanni Utriainen, also coached by her father, won the World Junior Championship in 2010. [4]
Ilse Kristiina ('Tiina') Lillak is a Finnish former javelin thrower. She is the 1983 world champion and 1984 Olympic silver medalist. She also twice broke the world record, with throws of 72.40 metres in 1982 and 74.76 metres in 1983. The latter distance ranks third on the all-time list with the old javelin model.
Martti Olavi Vainio is a Finnish former long-distance runner. In Finland he is recognized as the last of the great runners of the famous "V-line", the previous ones being Juha Väätäinen, Lasse Virén, and Pekka Vasala. Each of them won at least one gold medal either at the Summer Olympics or the European Athletics Championships in the 1970s. Vainio's accomplishments are tarnished though, for testing positive for PEDs on at least two occasions. One of those events was the 1984 Olympic Games where he was disqualified and stripped of his medal and later suspended from sport.
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