Veli-Matti "Aku" Partanen (born 28 October 1991, in

Lappeenranta Lappeenranta (; sv, Villmanstrand) is a city and municipality in the region of South Karelia, about from the Russian border and from the town of Vyborg (''Viipuri''). It is situated on the shore of the Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland, and ...

) 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 ...

racewalker Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asse ...

who competes mostly at the

50 kilometres race walk The 50 kilometre race walk was an Olympic athletics event that first appeared in 1932 and made its final Olympic appearance in 2021. The racewalking event is competed as a road race. Athletes must always keep in contact with the ground and the ...

. Partanen's club is Lappeenrannan Urheilumiehet. Partanen competed at the 2013 World Championships in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, where he was 41st at 50 kilometres. At the 2014 European Championships, in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

, Partanen was 18th. His time was 3:52:58. In 2018, he competed in the men's 50 kilometres walk at the

2018 European Athletics Championships The 2018 European Athletics Championships were held in Berlin, Germany, from 6 to 12 August 2018. The championships were part of the first European Championships with other events happening in the United Kingdom. For the second Championships in ...

held in Berlin, Germany. He did not finish his race. In 2019, he competed in the men's 50 kilometres walk at the

2019 World Athletics Championships The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athletics. It was held betw ...

held in Doha, Qatar. He did not finish his race. Partanen's original name was Veli-Matti, but he changed his name to Aku because everyone called him Aku. In 2021, he represented Finland at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, where he finished 9th in the men's 50 kilometres walk and set a season best of 3:52:39.

Records

: 3.49.02 ( Dudince 2015)

References

External links

* 1991 births Living people People from Lappeenranta Finnish male racewalkers World Athletics Championships athletes for Finland Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Finland Finnish Athletics Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from South Karelia {{Finland-athletics-bio-stub