Paavo Nurmi Games Event by Preview
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The Paavo Nurmi Games, set to take place in Turku on Tuesday, promise an exciting lineup featuring several World champions. This prestigious World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting is named after the legendary Finnish runner, Paavo Nurmi, and continues to attract top-tier athletes from around the globe.
The men’s javelin throw will be the highlight of the Paavo Nurmi Games. As in the case of any top athletics meetings in Finland, the javelin throw is the most popular athletics disciplines.
Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra from India will clash against European silver medallist Julian Weber, two-time world champion Anderson Peters from Grenada, 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott from Trinidad and Tobago, last year’s world silver medallist Arshad Nadeem from Pakistan, world under 20 silver medallist Max Dehning from Germany and Oliver Helander from Finland, who will receive a strong support from the local crowd.
Chopra will use the Paavo Nurmi Games as a preparation for the Olympic Games in Paris. The Indian thrower returns to Turku, where he finished runner-up in 2022 with 89.30m in a competition won by Finnish thrower Oliver Helander with 89.83m. Chopra became the first Indian track and field athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. He claimed the world gold medal with 88.17m in Budapest and set a PB of 89.94m at the Diamond League meeting in Stockolm.
Weber won the European silver medal in Rome 2024 with 85.94m, finished first at the European Championships in Munich 2022 with 87.66m and placed three times fourth at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021 with 85.30m, and in the past two editions of the World Championships in Eugene 2022 with 86.86m and in Budapest 2023 with 85.79m.
Dehning improved his PB by 11 metres to 90.20m in Halle last February setting the world seasonal lead.
Women’s hammer throw:
World champion Camryn Rogers will take on European champion Sara Fantini from Italy, three-time Olympic champion and world record holder Anita Wlodarczyk from Poland, Finnish record holder Krista Tervo, who threw 74.69m in Lathi this year and 2022 European champion Bianca Ghelber.
Rogers finished second at the World Championships in Eugene 2022 and won the world gold medal in Budapest last year with 77.22m. The Canadian thrower won two competitions this year in Walnut with 76.30m and Eugene with 77.38m.
Fantini won the European gold medal with 74.18m in front of her home fans in Rome after finishing third at the European Championships in Munich, and reaching two world championships finals (fourth in Eugene 2022 and sixth in Budapest 2023). She set the Italian record with 75.77 in Madrid in 2022.
Wlodarczyk won three Olympic gold medals, four world titles and four European titles and set the world record with 82.98m in Warsaw in 2016. The Polish legend made a successful come-back at the European Championships in Rome, where she won the bronze medal with her seasonal best of 72.92m.
Men’s 100 metres:
Olympic 100m and 4x100 relay champion Marcell Jacobs will run for the second time in his career at the Paavo Nurmi. The Italian sprinter won the 100 metres in the 2020 edition of the Turku meeting in 10.11. This year he won his second consecutive European gold medal in Rome in 10.02 ahead of his teammate Chituru Ali in front of his home fans and finished third in Ostrava in 10.17 and fourth in Oslo in 10.03.
Jacobs will go head to head against his training partner André De Grasse, European silver medallist Chituru Ali from Italy, and Reece Prescod. De Grasse won the Olympic gold medal in the 200 metres in a national record of 19.62. De Grasse beat Jacobs twice this year in Gainesville in 10”11 in a close photo-finish and in Ostrava in 10.10. The Canadian sprinter completed the double in Ostrava by winning the 200 metres in 20.09.
Ali improved his indoor PB to 6.53 in the semifinal of the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow and won the European silver medal in the 100m behind Jacobs in Rome on 8 June in a PB of 10.05.
Reece Prescod will return to Turku, where he finished second in 10.14 in last year’s edition of this meeting. The British sprinter set a seasonal best of 10.00 in London on 2 June and a PB of 9.93 at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava in 2022.
Women’s 100 metres hurdles:
Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn from Puerto Rico will clash against 2019 world champion Nia Ali, 2022 European champion Pia Skryszovska from Poland and 2022 world silver medallist Britany Anderson from Jamaica.
Camacho Quinn won two back-to-back Diamond League races this season in Xiamen in 12.45 and Suzhou in 12.63 ad finished second in Eugene in 12.45. The Puerto Rican hurdler won in Heusden Zolder last Saurday in a wind-assisted 12.56.
Skryszowska finished third in the Diamond League meeting in Doha in 12.53 and won the European silver medal in Rome 2024 in a PB of 12.42.
Ali, Olympic silver medallist in Rio de Janeiro 2016, set a seasonal best of 12.44 this year in Gainesville and won her most recent race in Taipei in 12.80.
Anderson has made her come-back from injury this year with a win in Savona in 12.88 and finished third in Nancy in 12.97.
Men’s 110 metres hurdles:
Jamaica’s Omar Mcleod will face Eduardo Rodrigues from Brazil. McLeod, Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and world gold medallist in London 2017, won two races in Italy in Savona in 13.37 and Lucca in 13.47 and finished third in Nancy in 13.45. The Jamaican hurdler set a national record of 12.90 in Kingston in 2017.
Rodrigues won the Ibero American Championships in 13.24 earlier this year.
Women’s pole vault:
Reigning world outdoor champion Nina Kennedy from Australia will highlight the women’s pole vault.
Kennedy shared the world gold medal in Budapest with Katie Moon with 4.90m last year. The Australian athlete also won the Diamond League Trophy with 4.81m in 2022 and improved the national record to 4.91m in Zurich in 2023.
Kennedy will take on 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Eliza McCartney from New Zealand, who won the world indoor silver medal with 4.80m in Glasgow 2024 and the national title with 4.70 in Wellington last spring, and Alysha Newman from Canada, who improved her national record to 4.83m in Clermont Ferrand last February.
Women’s triple jump:
Shanieka Ricketts from Jamaica will take on Tugba Danismaz from Turkey, European indoor gold medallist in Istanbul 2023 and European outdoor silver medallist in Rome 2024 with 14.57m. Ricketts won two world silver medals in Doha 2019 and Eugene 2022 and improved her lifetime best to 15.03m at the 2023 Diamond League Final in Eugene.
Women’s high jump:
Eleanor Patterson from Australia leads the line-up in the women’s high jump. Patterson won the world outdoor gold medal in Eugene 2022 with 2.02m. This year the Australian jumper finished second at the Australian Championships with 1.95m and third at the Diamond League meeting in Doha with 1.91m.
Men’s 800 metres:
Olympic finalist Gabriel Tual from France will be aiming to continue his winning streak following his European gold medal in Rome in 1:44.87. Tual set his PB of 1:44.23 at the Paris Diamond League meeting last year.
Tual will take on Ben Pattison from Great Britain, world bronze medallist in Budapest 2023, Andreas Kramer from Sweden, world indoor silver medallist in Glasgow 2024, and Kenya’ Ferguson Rotich, Olympic silver medallist in Tokyo 2021.
Women’s 800 metres:
Catriona Bisset from Australia, Oceanian record holder with 1:57.78 in Chorzow in 2023 and fifth at the World indoor Championships in Belgrade 2022, will line up against her compatriot Claudia Hollingsworth, winner at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne and national under 20 record holder with 1:58.40 in Adelaide this year at the age of 19, Gabriela Gajanova from Slovakia, European silver medallist in Rome 2024 in 1:58.79, and Vivian Chebet from Kenya, second at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi in 1:58.26.
Men’s 400 metres hurdles:
Estonia’s Rsmus Magi will return to the venue where he improved his national record to 47.82 in 2022. Magi reached two Olympic finals in 2016 and 2021 and finished fourth at the European Championships in Rome in 48.13. Magi will go head-to-head against Wilfried Happio, fourth at the World Championships in Eugene and European silver medallist in Munich in 2022, and Berke Akcam from Turkey, world under 20 champion in Nairobi 2021 and fifth at the European Championships in Rome 2024 in 48.17.
