Athletics EC Championships 7.6–12.6. Ylen channels. See the schedule and broadcast information of the games at this link.
In recent years, several Finnish siblings have been seen in prestigious athletics competitions, but it is rarer that they compete in the same sport.
Happy Andersson’s siblings Saga24 and Silja, 20 both jump from the pole. This is Saga’s fourth adult competition, but Silja is competing in the adult competition for the first time.
The last time the Finnish siblings competed in the same European Championships in Munich 2022. They were I guess siblings Evelina and James.
The last time two Finnish siblings were seen in the same sport was a hundred years ago. Competitors SpongeBob and Iivari Yrjölä represented Finland in Paris in 1924.
At the EC level, the previous medals achieved by the sisters who represented Finland were from 1934 – albeit in different sports.
Matti Järvinen won the EC gold in javelin and his brother Achilles Järvinen ran European Championship silver in the 400-meter hurdles at the same games.
What do Andersson’s sisters say about the idea of one day in the future taking a prize medal with a sister?
– I really believe that it would be possible. We are both determined, asserts Saga Andersson. The younger sister also gets excited about the idea.
– That would be the goal! Saga and I have sometimes thought that we could share the gold if we ended up with the same result, Silja enthuses.
For the time being, medal dreams are more of a dream than a reality for the sisters.
Pole vaulting at the cottage as a little girl
Andersson’s sisters jumped from a pole for the first time at the cottage with their father’s old pole over the plastic fence.
– I remember it clearly, when my father’s mother was filming and it always teased us, says Saga Andersson, who was around 7 years old at the time and little sister Silja was a little more than three years younger.
The sisters’ coach father Bjorn Andersson is the Kaleva Games medalist in the pole vault and his record is 543.
– It was important that they got the basics right and learned technical issues from an early age, says Björn Andersson, who thinks pole vaulting is one of the most technical athletics.
Saga’s first pole vault result in the Tilistopaja database is 198 cm. He jumped it in Porvoo at the age of 10.
– I don’t remember it, but I remember when I set the first age group Finnish record in Porvoo when I was 12 years old. The former was Minna in Nikkasesays Saga, who has just graduated as a tradesman.
Big sister Saga was a top talent in the junior leagues. At the age of 17, she jumped no less than 22 cm higher than the current ME woman Yelena Isinbayeva at the same age.
Silja’s first pole vault record was 144 cm at the age of 9, also from Porvoo.
– That sounds familiar. When we were younger, we went to a lot of competitions in Porvoo, recalls Silja, who now holds a record of 431.
Sisters support each other
The sisters talk a lot about pole vaulting and share joys and sorrows.
– It gives a lot when we do a lot together. There are things that are difficult to understand if you are not a pole vaulter yourself, says Silja, who was somewhat lucky to enter the European Championships in Rome as the last jumper.
Saga tells that in difficult situations you can rely on someone else or be of help to someone else.
It’s also fun to be on the same race trips with my sister.
– It’s quite a dream. Usually we have had the same room. The good thing about it is that you can borrow make-up removers from someone else, laughs Saga, whose sights are on the EC final in Rome. The result required there is 450, which is also his record height.
Silja, who is studying food science at the University of Helsinki, has been in the junior competition, but Rome is the first competition at the adult level.
– It came as a happy surprise. There are many of the best jumpers in the world. Maybe you can take a model from them as to how they behave in value competitions, Silja thinks about the future.
Finland has exceptionally four jumpers in the women’s pole vault at the European Championships, because the winner of the previous games Wilma Murto can join automatically. The fourth jumper is Elina Lampela.
The women’s pole vault qualifying competition starts on Saturday at 11:40.