Tapio Korjus (born 10 February 1961, in

Vehkalahti Vehkalahti () is a former municipality surrounding the town of Hamina in south-eastern Finland. At the beginning of 2003 Hamina and Vehkalahti combined to form a new town of Hamina. History These southern parts of Karelia are known to be the ol ...

) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

former

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the wom ...

er. Born in

, he was one of the leading representatives of javelin throwing in his home country in the 1980s, but did not attain international success until 1988. At the Summer Olympics held in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, Korjus held the silver medal position for most of the contest. However, with the last throw of the competition, he threw for 84.28 meters, which meant gold for Korjus. The silver medal was eventually won by a young

Jan Železný Jan Železný (; born 16 June 1966) is a Czech former track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He is a World and Olympic champion and holds the world record with a throw of . Widely considered to be the greatest javelin throwe ...

, who went on to be one of the dominant javelin throwers of all time. After that stunning triumph Korjus quickly disappeared from the scene, having no more success. After his active career he has coached other javelin throwers like Mikaela Ingberg.IAAF profile fo
Mikaela Ingberg
/ref>

References

1961 births Living people People from Hamina Finnish male javelin throwers Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Finland Finnish athletics coaches Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Finland Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Sportspeople from Kymenlaakso {{Finland-athletics-bio-stub