Top talent Saga Vanninen, 19, can make history in Finnish athletics at the World Junior Championships – the young 7-athlete also has another bold goal

A septuagenarian Saga in Vannis, 19, has a chance for a rare Finnish achievement in the Under-20 World Championships starting on Monday in Cali, Colombia. Vannis can become the first Finn to win two world junior championships in athletics.

The athlete representing Tampere’s Pyrintö at the club level won last year’s age group World Championship gold in Nairobi, Kenya. In the same year, he also reached the championship in the European Youth Championships held in Tallinn with his record score of 6,271.

In heptathlon, only Sweden’s match legend has reached two World Youth Championship golds Carolina Klüft in 2000 and 2002.

Vannen’s coach Matti Liimatainen according to the report, the young athlete traveled to Colombia in good health. The heptathlon will be contested in Colombia on Wednesday and Thursday. The last event, 800 meters, starts at 2:00 a.m. on Friday, Finnish time.

Vanninen is the number one name in this year’s world statistics for his age group, with the second best score of his career, 6,193. With Sandrina Sprengel has accumulated 6,015 points.

In Nairobi, 5,997 points were enough to win.

– Of course, the athlete goes in pursuit of the championship. It’s not impossible, but it will be a tougher race than last year in Nairobi. If there are no problems with the step marks, he is in the winning fight.

Before this year, Vanninen had only reached the 6,000 point mark in his record match. This summer, Vanninen has competed in two 7-match competitions, where 6,000 points have been broken in both.

Vanninen last competed in Midsummer in Oulu, where he produced the second best series of his career, 6,193. The basic level of the athlete born in 2003 has indeed gone up.

According to Liimatainen, the coach and the athlete did not go into this summer with very high expectations. The athlete’s hamstring, which had symptoms last year, was operated on at the end of the summer. The hamstring didn’t bother me anymore in the winter, but changes were made to the content of the training.

In Vanninen’s training last winter, the focus was more on quantity than power. An athlete’s strength is based, among other things, on hard power output.

– It has been practiced very little now. It has been left for future years. Let’s use it when needed.

The features have still progressed. Vanninen’s challenge has been speed.

– Strength levels even increased, although that was by no means the goal. It feels like the power grabs the dirt as he just walks past the pole. The speed is pretty close to the same level as last year.

In Liimatainen’s opinion, Vanninen is in record shape at Cal. He is fourth in Finland’s all-time statistics. Finland’s record is A Swedish fairy tale 6,404 played at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo.

– It would require a lot of success. It can’t handle any bad type, Liimatainen says about the possible new SE series.

Vanninen, who broke the result limit, has also been selected for the European Championships in Munich. The match of the Junior World Championships ends on Thursday. It is 13 days until the beginning of the heptathlon of the European Championships.

Vanninen himself has already spoken since the beginning of the year that he is also aiming for the European Championships. Even though two sevens matches in two weeks seems wild, according to Liimatainen, it is not a problem in terms of recovery.

– The plan at the moment is to go to the European Championships, if the time difference recovers to a reasonable extent. From what I have talked with the experts of the Finnish Sports Federation and the Olympic Committee, the young athlete has the opportunity to recover from the time difference.

– A difference of almost two weeks is not bad in itself. A female athlete can do it. The women’s match is so much easier than the men’s decathlon, says Liimatainen.

The European Championships trip is intended to prepare young athletes for next year’s World Championships in Budapest.

– The European Championships are a suitable place for a young athlete to go to prestigious competitions for adults. However, everything is different in adult value competitions from the moment the gathering starts. The coaches are really far from the stands. No one is tying shoelaces, Liimatainen says.

A pole vaulter is also competing for last year’s medalists in Cali Juho Alasaari. He is defending silver. Last year, he ran to victory in the 400-meter hurdles Heidi Salminen on the other hand, had to leave the competitions aside because of the corona virus.