Erki Nool admits to Urheilu that he is negotiating a coaching contract with Vannine. Olympic victory in 2028 is the goal, but first you have to learn to know your body.
11:38•Updated 12:37
Four-time winner of the junior championships, 7-player Saga Vannisen the coaching situation changed after the finished season, when the athlete and the coach Jesse Jokinen said that the cooperation that started in 2022 had ended.
The outdoor track season was difficult for Vanni because of chronic back pain, although the 21-year-old from Tampere won the first adult competition medal of his career in the spring and winter, the World Championship indoor silver in Glasgow.
Vanninen’s future coaching patterns have been surrounded by a smoke screen, which broke through on Friday. Estonian athletics legend Erki Nool54, admits to Urheilu that he is negotiating a coaching contract with Vanninen and his team. Nool won the 10-match Olympic gold in Sydney 2000 and achieved three other prestigious medals. Edmonton’s 2001 World Cup silver score of 8,815 points puts him 13th in the all-time record.
– Yes, we have been in contact, and there has been talk about coaching Saga. Within two weeks, things should be resolved, Nool said from Tallinn, where he has been working as a professional coach for a long time.
Sports school owner
He owns a sports school with 450 children. In terms of competitive sports, he coaches young pole vaulters and wrestlers, previously also sprinters. Nool gave a very strong demonstration of his coaching abilities already in 2003, a few years before the end of his own active career.
He coached an Italian pole vaulter Giuseppe Gibiliscowhen he won the World Championship gold in Paris.
Nool is one of those grown-up Estonians who can still communicate in excellent Finnish. During his active career, he trained a lot in Kuortane in Finland, but even more in Tampere, which is Vanninen’s hometown.
– If the cooperation starts, Saga is supposed to train for longer periods in Tallinn, where we have excellent indoor training conditions. I would go to Tampere, but I would probably need the help of a coach there.
Olympic gold goal
Erki Nool is not afraid of what the cooperation seeks: Olympic gold in Los Angeles 2028.
– Saga is then 25 years old and in his prime. Now, at the age of 21, he has already achieved very hard results (a record of 6391 points from 2023), but in every sport and general physique there is enough to improve, in match condition, so to speak.
The cooperation between Vannine and Estonian Nooli, who also pursued a political career in 2007 after his career, has also been facilitated by the Olympic Committee’s power sports representative Tommi Pärmäkoski. The training director of the sports association with a background in matches Jarkko Finni is very familiar to Nooli.
According to Erki Nooli, before the bank explodes, Vanninen should learn even better a vital skill for a multitasker: knowledge of one’s own body.
– Top sport is not easy. You don’t get to the top just by training, because everyone trains. You have to learn to know your body. Is this pain training pain or injury pain? How should you react to this? Saga is young, he can’t have learned everything yet.