Jaakko Tommi Kristian Evilä (born 6 April 1980 in

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

) is a Finnish former

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

er. He gained fame following his surprise bronze in the 2005 Helsinki World Championships, which was Finland's only medal in the championships. He won the bronze medal in a wind-aided 8.25 metre jump. Before the 2005 World Championships he had finished tenth at the 1998 World Junior Championships and fourth at the 2005 European Indoor Championships. He then improved his personal best jump to 8.19 metres in August, and finished sixth at the 2005 World Athletics Final. Years troubled by injuries then followed. He did achieve a wind-aided result of 8.41 metres at the 2007 Finland-Sweden international. In June 2008 he set a Finnish national record of 8.22 metres in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

. He competed at the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

, but did not reach the final round. In 2009, Evila rediscovered some of his best form. He competed in the 2010 Finnish Elite Games and came close to winning the jackpot, having won the long jump at four out of five meetings. It was not to be, however, as he finished third in the final competition. This dropped him into fourth place overall and

Levern Spencer Levern Donaline Spencer, SLC SLMM (born 23 June 1984 in Cacao Babonneau, Castries ) is a Saint Lucian retired athlete and high jumper. Spencer was a four-time Olympian for Saint Lucia and competed in eight World Championships. She was ...

St. Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...

topped the rankings to win the prize.Sonninen, A-P (2010-08-22)
Spencer takes the Finnish Elite Games jackpot in Joensuu

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

. Retrieved on 2010-08-24.

Competition record

References

* 1980 births Living people Athletes from Tampere Finnish male long jumpers Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Finland World Athletics Championships medalists 20th-century Finnish people 21st-century Finnish sportsmen Finnish Athletics Championships winners {{Finland-athletics-bio-stub