Tennis: Champion inspires Olympian effort

Jarkko Nieminen and Pekka Vasala enjoy a break during the Open. Picture / Greg Bowker

Jarkko Nieminen found support from an unexpected but welcome quarter in his golden Heineken Open run this week.

Finnish Olympic athletics great Pekka Vasala and his wife, Anja, were courtside for their countryman's straight sets quarter-final triumph over Chilean hope Nicolas Massu and returned yesterday for his semifinal win over Belgian Olivier Rochus.

They will be back again today as courtside guests for the final.

Their association goes back to the days when a young Nieminen spent time at the forest-surrounded Vieruwzlin Sport Institute, an hour north of Helsinki, at which Vasala is managing director.

A few kilograms on from the heady days when he ran to the top as the 1972 Olympic 1500m champion in Munich - beating the equally great Kip Keino and New Zealand's Rod Dixon - Vasala retains a keen interest in Finnish sport and a love affair with New Zealand.

"Like athletics, tennis is not regarded as a big sport in Finland where ice hockey, cross-country skiing and ski jumping are the very popular," said Vasala, who is relishing Auckland's warmth after leaving home and a metre of winter snow.

Vasala competed in the 1500m at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

And finished where? "Last." In the final? "No the heats," he laughed.

Four years later he and fellow Finn Lasse Viren, both with coaching assistance from Arthur Lydiard, shocked the world with Viren completing the 5000m/10,000m double - a feat he repeated four years later in Montreal.

Viren these days is in the Finnish parliament.

"I came here to compete in 1973 and then retired in 1974," said Vasala, a long-time friend of leading Auckland athletics administrator Graham Davy.

The Vasalas' son, Antti, had a year at Auckland Grammar School in the mid-80s, winning the cross-country championship.