Tiina Lillak is pictured above during the Javelin final at the 1983
World Championships in Helsinki, the place of her birth. She produced a
magnificent final round effort of 70.82m to snatch the Gold medal from
Britain's Fatima Whitbread. The inset picture shows a delighted Tiina on
a lap of glory in front of her hometown crowd.
On 29th July 1982 in Helsinki, Tiinna broke the world record with a
throw of 72.40m. She retained the record for just over a year before it
was broken by Sofia Sakorafa of Greece on 26th September 1982 with a
throw of 74.20m. Just 10 months later on 13th June 1983 Tiina broke
Sofia's record with a throw of 74.76m on home ground again in Tampere,
Finland. These two world records by Tiina were the fist ever to be set
by a Finnish woman thrower.
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