Thorkildsen aims at Euro hat-trick

Andreas Thorkildsen

Norwegian javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen has won the gold medal in his event at the last two European Athletics Championships.

He will go for his third consecutive continental title this summer in Helsinki, a rare feat in any discipline and one that has only been achieved twice before in the javelin, by Janis Lusis and Steve Backley.

Thorkildsen will also be competing in the ‘home’ of javelin throwing and is looking to deny Finland’s local hero Tero Pitkämäki a title on home soil but he is still relishing the challenge.

“I’ve had good winter preparations so hopefully things will go well for the Europeans,” Thorkildsen told European Athletics.

“They (Finnish athletics fans) really like their javelin and that makes it a lot of fun to throw there because they will cheer really loudly for you.

“Right now it’s hard to pick who is going to be dominating at the Europeans. Tero has got a great capacity, I’ve got a pretty decent capacity too. Mattias (Germany’s 2011 world champion Mattias De Zordo) is making it interesting this year, a couple of Czech guys are also making it interesting, so you never know and that’s the fun thing about sports,” added Thorkildsen.

Thorkildsen also won at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games and he is looking to defend that crown as well in London this summer.