Kūla won his second major championship medal, a bronze, at the Helsinki World Championships in Athletics of 1983. His best throw in the rainy final was 85.58 meters, only two centimeters short of American Tom Petranoff's silver throw. This was the smallest margin possible at the time not relying on second-best throws as a tie-breaker, as javelin throws have only been officially measured with one centimeter accuracy since 1998. Petranoff, who had thrown a new world record of 99.72 earlier that year, and the eventual winner Detlef Michel of East Germany had been the pre-meet favorites.