Vanninen believes that he will still reach Sofie Dokter.
Saga Vanninen is chasing gold from Espoo. PDO
Saga Vanninen is having a furious fight for gold in the heptathlon of the under-23 European Championships.
Vanninen is second in the competition in Espoo after four events with 3,826 points. Above, only 13 points away is the Netherlands Sophie Dokter.
Vanninen’s Opening Day was successful, but Dokter’s was even better. On Friday, there will still be competitions in the long, javelin and 800 meters.
– Sofie is a bit on top of her neck now, but especially with the height, anything can happen. I feel that Sofie is still up for grabs, but there will be a tough race, the Finn estimates.
– I don’t know how much I am behind my own record series. In principle, that is still quite possible.
Vanninen ran the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 13.50, jumped a height of 177, pushed the shot put with a record of 15.36 and ran the 200 meters in a time of 24.32.
Pressure in the ball
The ball result was particularly convincing when you consider that it came on the last attempt under a lot of pressure. Vanninen’s first two thrusts went completely wrong.
– I got myself together, he sighed with relief.
Vanninen’s series is very even so far.
– I am happy that the height has clearly progressed. Now there were pretty even jumps. Three pretty good attempts out of 180. It’s a little sad that it didn’t go over, but it’s gone for the better if you think about the future.
Suomalaistahtih gets to enjoy the support of the home crowd in Espoo. The ease of the home matches and the short journey even seemed a little strange to the competitor at first.
– Before the race, you didn’t get quite the same feeling as if you were on a trip. But it’s a really cool race here and the public gets along well, so in the end there’s quite a lot of benefits, Vanninen said.