Aku Partanen

Veli-Matti "Aku" Partanen (born 28 October 1991, in Lappeenranta) is a Finnish racewalker who competes mostly at the 50 kilometres race walk. Partanen's club is Lappeenrannan Urheilumiehet.

Aku Partanen
Personal information
Born	(1991-10-28) 28 October 1991 (age 31) Lappeenranta, Finland
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)^[1]
Weight	55 kg (121 lb)^[1]
Sport
Country	Finland
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	50km Race Walk
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	20 km: 1:21:26 (2023)

Partanen competed at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, where he was 41st at 50 kilometres.^[2] At the 2014 European Championships, in 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 held in Berlin, Germany.^[3] He did not finish his race.^[3] In 2019, he competed in the men's 50 kilometres walk at the 2019 World Athletics Championships held in Doha, Qatar.^[4] He did not finish his race.^[4]

Partanen's original name was Veli-Matti, but he changed his name to Aku because everyone called him Aku.^{[citation needed]}

In 2021, he represented Finland at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he finished 9th in the men's 50 kilometres walk and set a season best of 3:52:39.^[5]

Records edit

^ ^a ^b "European Athletics - Athlete: Veli-Matti Partanen". european-athletics.
^ ^a ^b "Veli-Matti PARTANEN | Profile | iaaf.org". www.iaaf.org.
^ ^a ^b (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Men's 50 kilometres walk – Final" (PDF). 2019 World Athletics Championships. (PDF) from the original on 24 July 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
^ . Olympics. Archived from the original on 2021-07-22. Retrieved 2021-08-07.

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