To the top! Saga Vanninen continues his brilliant moves on the World Cup stage

Saga Vanninen posted her season’s best in the 60-meter hurdles. EPA/AOP

Finnish athletes are on fire on Friday Saga Vanninen (pentathlon), Eveliina Määttänen (800 m), Samuli Samuelsson (60 m) and Nathalie Blomqvist (1500 m).

In the 60-meter hurdles, where he started his career, Vanninen finished second in the United States in his event by Chari Hawkins after. The time of 8.33 was the seventh best of the group.

In the high jump, Vanninen took third place with a result of 179. The challenge was too tough with 182, which would have been a new record for Tampere Pyrinnö’s competitor. Vanninen was preceded in height by the late hockey legend Börje Salming’s daughter Bianca Salming (182) and Belgium Noor Vidts (179).

In the shot put race, Vanninen beat the others with his second attempt with a result of 14.91. In the third, the Finn still hit the winning kick with 15.01. When Vidts’s best time was 14.26, it meant that Vanninen rose from second place to the top of the entire competition after three events.

The last two sports of the pentathlon will be featured in the evening program. The long jump starts at 21:15 and the 800 meter run at 23:30.

Samuelsson and Määttänen qualified

Samuli Samuelsson, who ran fourth in his own heat, was left with a dream place in the semifinals. Samuelsson clocked a time of 6.72, when a six-hundredths higher result would have been required to qualify.

Eveliina Määttänen ran third in her heat with a time of 2:02.57. The quotation was exactly one second away from the Finnish record set at the beginning of February. The Swiss came to the finish line before the Finns Audrey Werro (2.01.83) and Australia Catriona Bisset (2.02,04).

Määttänen was in the time comparison place at the beginning, but the fall was confirmed after the next round.

– It was a really good experience running a valuable indoor track. Of course, it’s disappointing that I didn’t make the top two in my heat and get the direct continuation spot, Määttänen stated in an interview with Yle.

In the final results, Määttänen was 16th. 26 athletes competed in the heats.

Story corrected at 2:48 p.m.: Vanninen’s sport is a pentathlon, not a heptathlon, as the story originally incorrectly stated.