Finland’s Wilma Heltelä (Murto) returned to form with the equal second highest vault of her career for victory in the Fly Athens, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting, on Sunday (4) evening.
Vaulting against the backdrop of the Panathenaic Stadium which hosted the 1896 Olympic Games, Heltela soared over 4.81m on her second attempt for victory over New Zealanders Imogen Ayris and Olivia McTaggart, both of whom cleared 4.71m to finish second and third on countback.
Heltelä hadn’t cleared any higher than 4.60m in her seven competitions this year prior to this evening but the 28-year-old delivered a performance of the highest vintage, clearing 4.61m on her first attempt and then 4.71m on her second attempt.
With three vaulters still remaining in the competition, Heltelä broke the deadlock with her third season’s best of the evening, clearing 4.81m on her second attempt before taking three attempts at a prospective Finnish record of 4.86m.
Heltelä's Finnish record of 4.85m dates back to the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich - on an evening in which she equalled or broke her national record three times to win the title - and she has put herself back in the medal discussion for the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham from 10-16 August.
Heltelä climbs to equal third on the 2026 European list behind Great Britain’s world indoor champion Molly Caudery (4.85m) who will miss the remainder of the season due to injury and Russia’s Polina Knoroz (4.91m), another absentee from Birmingham 2026.
"A really happy and enthusiastic feeling, and a little relieved too," said Heltelä after the competition as quoted by Finnish Athletics.
"Yes, the competition was a sign that the wings are carrying a little again. I've been waiting for a day like this for a long time. This is quite an emotional thing. My running and jumping haven't felt like that in many years, and those numbers are quite pleasing. It's a kind of comeback feeling."
20-year-old Apolena Svabikova vaulted a lifetime best of 4.51m to finish seventh and Aikaterini Stefanidi, who has won medals at the last five editions of the European Athletics Championships, continues her comeback with a 4.31m clearance to finish tenth.
In a high quality men’s pole vault which saw seven athletes clear 5.81m or higher, Chris Nilsen from the United States turned the tables on France’s Thibaut Collet just four days after Collet defeated Nilsen at the Perche des Alpes in Grenoble.
Both athletes cleared 5.91m with Nilsen taking the win on countback courtesy of a first-time clearance. Collet needed all three attempts to clear the same height which also corresponded to a season’s best.
Home favourite and last year’s winner Emmanouil Karalis vaulted sparingly, clearing 5.61m and 5.81m on his first attempts before exiting the competition with three failures at 5.91m but not without showing the sizeable crowds who congregated around the pole vault set-up that he has the capacity to jump well in excess of 6.00m again this summer.
Karalis came exceptionally close to clearing 5.91m on his third attempt but dislodged the bar on the way down.
Heltela's highest career vaults
4.85m – Munich 2022
4.81m – Kuortane 2024
4.81m – Athens 2026
4.80m – Istanbul 2023
4.80m – London 2023
4.80m – Budapest 2023
4.80m – Rouen 2024
4.77m – Lausanne 2023
4.75m – Kuortane 2023
4.75m – Turku 2023
4.75m – Liévin 2024