Finland’s Silja Kosonen won the women’s hammer throw at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Wednesday, taking her first senior championship medal with a throw of 76.28 metres.
The 23-year-old produced the winning mark in the third round. The result also opened Finland’s medal account at the championships after Kosonen entered the final as one of the contenders for a podium place.
“It sounds a lot better than being forever fourth or close to the medals,” Silja Kosonen told Yle after the competition. “It is nice that I am now able to call myself a European champion.”
Kosonen had reached several major finals before Birmingham without winning a senior medal. She finished seventh at the 2022 World Championships, fourth in 2023 and fifth in 2025. At European level, she placed fifth in 2022 and fourth in 2024.
She also finished fifth at the Paris Olympics in 2024 with 74.04 metres, missing bronze by 23 centimetres.
Kosonen received her medal later on Wednesday as Finnish supporters in the stadium sang the national anthem. She told Yle that the ceremony carried particular meaning after years of work towards a senior medal.
“It meant a lot. We have worked for this,” she said. “It was nice that there were so many Finns and that I was able to give them a moment like this.”
Kosonen also thanked her coach, Jani Pihkanen, who has worked with her for eight years. Their partnership began when Kosonen was 15 and Pihkanen was 22.
Ilta-Sanomat reported that Kosonen made a change to her training programme last autumn when speed coach Mika Vakkuri joined Pihkanen’s team. Speed sessions, which had previously followed throwing or weight training, became separate workouts performed before other training.
Kosonen told Ilta-Sanomat before the final that the change had allowed her to devote more attention to speed and that her throwing had felt better.
Her career has remained centred on Raisio in south-west Finland. Kosonen first tried the hammer at the age of eight and later won world and European junior titles in 2021. She has continued training in Raisio rather than moving abroad.
HT