Vesa Rantanen
Encyclopedia
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
pole vault
Pole vault
Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long, flexible pole as an aid to leap over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, as well as the Cretans and Celts...
er.
He competed at the World Championships in 1997
1997 World Championships in Athletics
The 6th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece between August 1 and August 10, 1997. In this event participated 1882 athletes from 198 participant nations...
and 1999
1999 World Championships in Athletics
The 7th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Estadio Olímpico, Seville, Spain, between the August 20 and August 29....
, the 2002 European Championships
2002 European Championships in Athletics
The 18th European Athletics Championships were held from 6 August to 11 August 2002 in the Olympic Stadium of Munich, Germany.-Track:1994 |1998 |2002 |2006 |2010 |...
and the 2004 Olympic Games
Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's Pole Vault
The Men's Pole Vault event at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 25 and August 27....
without ever reaching the final.
His personal best vault is 5.72 metres, achieved in July 2001 in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. The Finnish record currently belongs to Jani Lehtonen
Jani Lehtonen
Jani Lehtonen was a Finnish pole vaulter.He finished eleventh at the 1990 European Championships, eighth at the 1992 European Indoor Championships and fifth at the 1993 World Indoor Championships,...
with 5.82 metres.