Lifting Himself to New Heights : Burroughs’ 18-Year Pole Vault Mark Is Shattered by Finland’s Sallinen, Who Has Scaled 16-4 3/4

Finnish athletes have won more Olympic gold medals in distance races and the javelin than any other nation. But ask around Burroughs High these days and some folks might guess that Finland exports pole-vaulters.

The reason rests with Esa Sallinen, an exchange student from Porvoo, outside Helsinki, who has not only shattered the 18-year school record in the event but has become one of the premier vaulters in area history.

Sallinen, an 18-year-old senior, got the school’s attention earlier this season when he broke Jon Switzer’s mark of 15 feet 7 inches, set in 1976. In a dual meet at Burbank High last month, Sallinen vaulted 16 feet 1/4 inch.

He has since cleared 16 feet or higher in three consecutive meets, and won the Foothill League title last week at Birmingham High with a mark of 16-4 3/4. Not only is that a league record but it ranks fourth on the all-time regional list and second on this season’s state list behind Scott Slover (17-0) of San Jose Leland High.

Sallinen is also an accomplished triple-jumper. During the same meet in which he broke the school pole vault mark, he recorded a personal best of 43-6.

“He’s extremely exceptional and it’s directly related to his speed,” said Mike McHorney, who coaches field events at Burroughs. “He’s so much faster than any of the other vaulters we’ve had. I expect him to do more before the season is over. I really feel he can break 17.”

Sallinen, who will compete in the Southern Section Division I preliminaries Saturday in Long Beach, also is among the team’s best long-jumpers (top mark of 20-10) and he runs the first leg of Burroughs’ 400-meter relay team, which was undefeated in league competition.

“He’s a power runner and he has a smooth, long-gaited stride,” Burroughs sprint coach Todd Dellutri said. “He usually runs down everybody’s first runner.”

But Sallinen’s specialty is the vault. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound senior picked up the sport as a 13-year-old in Finland. By the time he moved to California in August as part of a student exchange program, he ranked fourth in his country in the 18-and-under division with a personal best of 15-5.

His future might rest in America. He will return to Finland in June to complete high school because his credits at Burroughs are not honored in his homeland, but he has attracted the attention of the track programs at UCLA and Tulane.

“I would like to come back for college,” Sallinen said. “There are no college sports in Finland so I would like to go here.”

Sallinen loves the United States. He studied English for eight years in Finland, so he didn’t face a language barrier.

And teen-age life in Finland resembles its American counterpart, he said.

In addition, he said he feels so comfortable with his host family (McHorney, his wife and three children) that he seldom misses home.

Sallinen hooked up with McHorney through Ron Morris, a 1960 Olympic silver medalist pole vaulter, who knows a friend of Sallinen’s father.

When Sallinen’s father, an engineer, inquired about sending his son to America, Morris immediately referred him to his longtime friend, McHorney.

So what was the toughest adjustment to California?

“The smog and the heat,” Sallinen said laughing. “It was really hard to breathe the first few days. In Finland it gets close to zero and the summer is only three months. Here it’s always like summer.”

Sallinen, modest and shy about his accomplishments, has made a lot of noise in the Burroughs program.

Krose believes Sallinen has a bright future in the sport.

“He’s exceptional and he will probably be an Olympic decathlete,” Krose said. “He can do it because he’s got great technique. He’s going to score a lot of points. He’s definitely decathlete material.”

Before adding seven events to his track schedule, however, Sallinen has other items on his plate.

“I plan to open a Taco Bell in Finland,” he said with a smile. “I love Mexican food and we don’t have it there. It’s the best.”