[1] He repeated as 800 m champion in 1974,[1] but was not expected to even make the final at that year's European Championships in Rome.

[2] At the European championships he placed third in his heat (1:48.7) and fourth in his semi-final (1:47.7); he was the last athlete to qualify for the final.

[1] At the 1978 European Indoor Championships in Milan he won gold in the 800 metres, ahead of East Germany's Olaf Beyer;[4] as of 2014[update], his winning time of 1:47.36 still remains the Finnish indoor record, though Wilson Kirwa and Ari Suhonen have run faster on oversized tracks.

[5] At the 1978 European outdoor championships in Prague Taskinen again took part in the 800 metres, but was eliminated in the semi-finals.

[3] In 1979 Taskinen experimented with the 400 m hurdles, representing Finland in that event at the Finland-Sweden Athletics International and winning silver in it at the national championships.