Kukkoaho won his first medals at the
Finnish national championships (
Kalevan kisat) in 1970, when he won the
400 metres in 46.5 and placed second in the
200 metres in 21.7. His best 400 m time that year was 46.1, which equaled
Voitto Hellstén's national record from the 1956 Olympic semi-finals. In 1971 he was national champion in both events (20.8/46.9) and was selected for the 400 m and the 4 × 400 m relay for the
1971 European Championships in
Helsinki. In the
400 m he set a new Finnish record, 45.74, but still finished just out of medals in fourth. The Finnish relay team was disqualified in the heats. In the
individual race he qualified for the final, in which he placed sixth. In the
relay the Finnish team of
Stig Lönnqvist,
Ari Salin,
Ossi Karttunen and Kukkoaho ran 3:01.12, likewise placing sixth; At that year's
European Championships he again placed a close fourth in the
individual 400 m, missing out on a medal by 0.06 seconds; Kukkoaho won his final national individual title in 1976, winning the 200 m in his personal best time of 20.73; that spring, he ran the unusual distance of
300 metres in 33.2 for another still-standing national record. He returned to the Olympics in
1976 and the European Championships in
1978, but did not qualify for the finals. ==References==