European and world indoor pentathlon champion Saga Vanninen was crowned Finnish Athlete of the Year at the Finnish Athletics Federation's (SUL) Athletics Gala in Helsinki on Tuesday (11) evening.
After winning two titles during the indoor season, Vanninen successfully defended her heptathlon title at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen where she amassed a championship record of 6563 points, breaking the Finnish record which had stood since 1991.
Vanninen went on to finish seventh at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo and the Finn has already resumed full training under the watchful eye of Erki Nool, the 2000 Olympic decathlon champion.
"The World Championships in Tokyo left me quite hungry so now I'm very motivated to train. I wanted to get back to training pretty quickly in the autumn. I felt like I didn't need to have so much of a period off.
"We're going to be training in pretty much the same way as last year but now we'll be doing more jumps. Last year, I still had a bit of a back problem in the autumn. Now I'm able to train intact, so that way I have a better starting point," said Vanninen.
Vanninen is currently on a warm weather training stint in Potchefstroom in South Africa alongside fellow heptathlete Pippi Lotta Enok and Estonian pole vaulter Allika Inkeri Moser and her attention is already turning to the indoor season which will culminate with the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland from 20-22 March.
"We haven't talked about it in more detail yet but there will probably be two [main] competitions in the indoor season. The World Indoor Championships are the main focus and there will probably be another competition in Tallinn," said Vanninen.
