European indoor and outdoor silver medallist Sander Skotheim broke the European heptathlon record at the Tallinn Combined Events meeting, a World Athletics Combined Events Tour Silver meeting, on Sunday (2) afternoon.
With a gritty last lap in the 1000m, Skotheim stopped the clock at 2:37.85 which brought his total up to 6484 points to eclipse Kevin Mayer’s previous European record set in 2017 by five points and move to fifth on the world all-time list.
Skotheim was particularly brilliant in the long jump, accruing a dizzying 1110 points with an effort of 8.19m in the long jump before bolstering his European record intentions further with a timely 5.25m clearance on his third attempt in the pole vault.
Skotheim confirmed that he won’t be contesting any more combined events competitions before the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships from 6-9 March but he is planning to compete in individual events at next weekend’s Nordic Indoor Match and at the Norwegian Indoor Championships.
Finnish record and world lead for Vanninen
World indoor silver medallist Saga Vanninen from Finland won the pentathlon with a national record and world leading score of 4843 points, adding almost 200 points to her previous mark of 4677 points.
Vanninen concluded her competition brilliantly, setting outright lifetime bests of 6.48m in the long jump and 2:11.70 in the 800m, the latter shaving more than two-and-a-half seconds off her previous mark of 2:14.36.
Vanninen has strong ties with Tallinn. She won her European U20 heptathlon title in the Estonian capital in 2021 and the 21-year-old is now coached by Estonian decathlon legend Erki Nool who won the 2000 Olympic decathlon title.
The top three in the pentathlon all came away with national records. Kate O’Connor improved her Irish record to 4683 points with world U20 heptathlon Jana Koscak - who cleared 1.91m in the high jump - third, improving her Croatian record to 4478 points.
Like Skotheim, Vanninen has confirmed that she is planning to contest the pentathlon at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn in March.
Steven Mills for European Athletics