Martti Vainio

Martti Olavi Vainio (born 30 December 1950) is a Finnish former long-distance runner. In Finland he is recognized as the last of the great runners of the famous "V-line", the previous ones being Juha Väätäinen, Lasse Virén, and Pekka Vasala. Each of them won at least one gold medal either at the Summer Olympics or the European Athletics Championships in the 1970s. Vainio's accomplishments are tarnished though, for testing positive for PEDs on at least two occasions. One of those events was the 1984 Olympic Games where he was disqualified and stripped of his medal and later suspended from sport.

His achievements in major athletic championships include gold in the 10,000 metres race at the 1978 European Championships in Athletics in Prague and bronze in the same distance at the 1982 European Championships in Athletics in Athens. At the 1983 World Championships in Athletics he finished in fourth place in the 10,000 metres race, but claimed the bronze in the 5000 metres in a close finish decided by a lunge over the finish line.

Career

Early career 1972–77

Martti Vainio started systematic training at the age of 20 in the autumn of 1971 with his coach Aulis Potinkara. He received his first national championships medal in 1974 when he finished third in 5000 metres after Seppo Tuominen and Rune Holmén. In the same year he ran his first 10,000 m race with the result 29:09.6. He broke the 29-minutes barrier for the first time in 1976. The same year he was second at the Finnish Championships in Athletics in 10,000 metres after Pekka Päivärinta and was selected to his first Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. However, he did not qualify for the 10,000 metres final, finishing as the second fastest runner to be eliminated from the final. He won his first Finnish Championship in 1977 when he beat Kaarlo Maaninka by 0.9 seconds in 10,000 metres.

Years of success 1978–82

Vainio used strategy in the 1978 European Championships 10,000 metres race, spending most of the race drifting off the lead pack until the 8,500-metre mark. Due to the fast and steady pace, the other runners – some of them presumably better kickers than Vainio – had exhausted themselves, and Vainio only needed to sprint the last lap in 58.4 seconds to win the race. Especially notable was Brendan Foster falling from the lead to fourth place in the last 130 metres. His winning time 27:30.99 improved his personal best by 28.7 seconds. Later at the same championships Vainio was sixth in the 5,000 metres race. At the Track & Field News annual world ranking Vainio was second in 10,000 metres after world record breaker Henry Rono, and tenth in 5000 metres.

Because of his international breakthrough, Vainio was one of the potential gold medal candidates prior to the 1980 Summer Olympics. Vainio was also known for his tough training programs, and during the winter 1980 he ran over 300 kilometres per week during his four-month-long training camp in New Zealand. Vainio has stated that he started to use hormones in the autumn of 1982 to avoid the detrimental effects of overtraining in his preparation for the first World Championships in Helsinki, the capital of his home country, Finland. According to Vainio, the first hormone ampullas were obtained from Palermo in the autumn of 1982. with a time of 13:16.02. In July, he competed only three times; twice in the Finnish Championships on 6–8 July in Kajaani, where he took the gold medals in both the 5000 (13:24.99) and 10,000 metres (28:06.85), and the third time improving his 3000 metres record to 7:44.42 in Varkaus on 12 July. According to a Vainio interview in 2004, he took his next injection after the Rotterdam Marathon around 10 July, and was sure that this time period would be long enough to allow metabolism to take its effect and ensure a negative test at the Olympics. However, Vainio considers himself to be the second best runner in the 10,000 metres race despite his failed drug tests. At the Track & Field News annual world ranking, Vainio was recognized as the seventh best runner in 10,000 metres.

In 1988 Vainio ran 10,000 metres in 28:02.04 at the Bislett Games, but that was not enough to convince the Finnish Olympic Committee, and he was not picked for the Olympics team.

Masters World Records 1991

Vainio returned to the track once again in 1991. He ran the age group M40 Masters world record in 3000 meters 8:05.08 in Mikkeli on 12 June. Later, he also improved the 10,000 metres world record 28:30.88 at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo on 25 June. At the World Masters Athletics Championships in Turku, he won the M40 10,000 metres with the result 29:16.88.

He won five Finnish Championships in 5000 metres (1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1987) and nine in 10,000 metres (1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1987 and 1988). He won the Finnish Championship in cross country running four times in 1981, 1983, 1986 and 1987.

After his sports career, he worked in the travel industry.

Martti Vainio is not related to long-distance runner Alisa Vainio and their family names have different origins.