While the European Indoor championships heptathlon on Friday and Saturday was a rematch between the three world indoor medallists, in Sunday’s pentathlon we will have a fresh dynamic. New favourites, new rivalries and some new faces.
FROM TORUN TO TÜRKIYE
The 2023 European Indoor Championships were in Istanbul, the first after the Covid-ravaged iteration of 2021 in Poland. But the scene for the greatest pentathlon in history was set weeks before the show rolled into Türkiye from Torun.
When Adrianna Sulek-Schubert scored 4702 in the first week of February in Tallinn, she said she wanted to break the world record. She improved her score to 4860 at the Polish championships a few weeks later. Across the Atlantic, Anna Hall had similar plans. When she scored 5004 at the US championships, it brought Natalia Dobrynska’s world record out of the realms of aspiration, and into reality.
Onwards to Istanbul and what Adrianna said, Adrianna did, scoring 5014 and breaking the record as she crossed the line in an inspired 800m. But just a few steps behind her loomed the shadow of Nafi Thiam, and the greatest heptathlete of our time seized the world record for her own.
FROM GLASGOW TO GELDERLAND
In Glasgow last year at the World Indoor Championships, another Belgian won the world title. Noor Vidts’ effortless competence brought her quietly, and unfussily, to the top of the podium for the second time. Behind her, Finland’s Saga Vanninen pieced together a strong performance to take silver in a PB of 4677. Sveva Gerevini was within grasp of her first major international medal, when an outstanding improvement over 800m from young Sofie Dokter catapulted the Netherlands over Italy and into bronze medal position.
Vanninen, Gerevini and Dokter return to Apeldoorn, but without Thiam, Vidts and Sulek-Schubert controlling the structure of competition, we’ll have a new dynamic in play.
Vanninen has been the stand-out performer in the 2024-25 indoor season thus far, adding over 160 points to her personal best with a world lead of 4843. Working with Erki Nool in Tallinn is reaping rewards, most notably in the carefully balanced trade- off between her power in the shot and her speed in the 800m. Nool’s approach has been to reduce the focus on the shot – where there is limited room for improvement – and collect the points Vanninen had been losing with a relatively slow 800m. She has gone from 2:22 in 2022 to 2:17 in 2023, 2:14 in Paris and now 2:11 in Tallinn.
The fast and furious pace of the pentathlon means there is much less opportunity to build up a safety net of points, and so each of the five events really needs to count. By making all five count, Vanninen has taken herself to a higher level. And of course, the men’s heptathlon in Apeldoorn, where nine men ran under 2:40 and the first five all set national records, demonstrates the importance of tending to the final event, rather than simply hanging on for dear life.
Vying with Vanninen for the most improved athletes of the year so far are Kate O’Connor of Ireland and Paulina Ligarska of Poland. Just two years ago, O’Connor took the Irish national pentathlon record to 4396 in Clermont Ferrand, and her 300-point improvement to 4683 makes her a serious contender for medals.
Paulina Ligarska is a prolific competitor, and she has already done three pentathlons this season. She scored 4452 in Tallinn, improved that to 4500 at the Copernicus Cup, and at the Polish champs she scored a lifetime best of 4615. That latest score was significant because European Athletics have set the entry standard at 4600, with all other places filled by ranking. Ligarska’s score of 4500 would have placed her sixth on the season top list (and fourth among those interested or eligible to attend) but she couldn’t be sure that she would qualify by ranking.
ANOTHER QUALIFICATION MESS
The field is 14, as it was in Istanbul, as a direct consequence of athletes writing to European Athletics to lobby for an increase in 2021. However, the continued use of inflated entry standards and rankings just does not work for indoor competitions. Rankings are almost entirely based on outdoor scores, and – as in the men’s event – different athletes often shine over a different number of events. The result is that the field includes only three with automatic qualification – Vanninen, O’Connor and Ligarska – and only a further three who feature in the top 14 of European scores this season. A far cry from the intended 50% by entry standard, 50% by rankings.
The highest profile casualty is the World U20 heptathlon champion Jana Koscak, of Croatia. Koscak is something of a poster-athlete for European Athletics, with her achievements (rightly) regularly celebrated. Ahead of the meeting in Tallinn last month, European Athletics promoted her as “one to watch.” They were right. She improved the Croatian national record to 4478 and currently has the sixth best score in the world in 2025 of those interested and eligible for Apeldoorn.
So, it is a little embarassing that European Athletics’ own qualification rules exclude Koscak. The same fate has befallen Estonia’s Liisa Maria Lusti, who scored 4522 this year, but is not ranked high enough to be included. Similarly, the new Estonian record holder Pippi Lotta Enok scored 4593 in the USA. Fortunately for Enok her priority is her NCAA commitments, but it’s just as well, because the world number four in pentathlon in 2025 wouldn’t have been eligible for the European Championships.
THE CONTENDERS
Sveva Gerevini won the first major international meeting of the year, with victory at X-Athletics in Clermont Ferrand. Her deadly 800m – on this occasion a PB of 2:08.33 – gave her victory ahead of Celia Perron of France and Lovisa Karlsson of Sweden. Not too far from her own national record of 4559, she has a great chance of a medal if she can build on her early season promise.
Both Perron and Karlsson are in the field too, via rankings. Perron competed at the world indoors in Belgrade in 2022, and while she’s had ups and downs since then, her 2025 indoor season has been super, scoring 4455 in Clermont Ferrand, and improving that further to a PB of 4471 at French nationals. Karlsson had a lovely run in Clermont Ferrand too, starting off with an 8.12s hurdles PB and despite being overtaken by Gerevini in the final event, came away with an improved indoor best of 4365.
Germany’s Sandrina Sprengel won the German championships this season in a PB score of 4455 and while the 20-year-old has plenty of experience at this level of competition – she won Ratingen in 2024 – this will be the first senior international championships for the 2023 European U20 heptathlon champion.
Ukraine’s Yuliya Loban has had two DNFs in two pentathlons this year but has a chance at redemption thanks to her qualification based on ranking.
SURPRISE PACKAGES
All the other athletes in the field have competed only in individual events this season, so we’ll learn what sort of form they bring as the competition unfolds on Sunday, and whether any surprise packages await.
The home favourites, 2021 Olympic bronze medallist Emma Oosterwegel and 2024 world indoor bronze medallist Sofie Dokter, will mean a rowdy atmosphere at the Omnisport Arena if the crowd’s reaction to teammate Jeff Tesselaar is anything to go by.
Dokter ran a tenacious 800m in Glasgow to claim her medal and will likely have her eyes on something of a different colour if she can repeat her best of 4600+. Oosterwegel cannot draw on her mighty javelin indoors, but one doesn’t get an Olympic medal without being strong across all events, although her PB, set in 2020, is only 4306. They’re joined by Marijke Esselink, who has had a disrupted season so far, withdrawing from the competition in Clermont Ferrand, and managing only 4089 at the Dutch championships, but the home advantage will go a long way to helping her back towards her best of 4477.
Verena Mayr of Austria had been due to compete in the early season pentathlons but was unwell and had to postpone the start of her competitive until the Austrian championships, where she did a range of individual events. In 2024, she was one of a swell of athletes in the 4500+ zone and if she has recovered fully, she will be a powerful challenger for medals.
Jade O’Dowda of Great Britain has been able to translate her super 2024 heptathlon season into qualification for the European Indoors, her first time at these championships. Her pentathlon PB of 4262 dates to 2021, but with her improvements across events since then – including in the 60mh recently – she should expect to be alongside her peers over five events.
Finally, Beatrice Juskevicuite of Lithuania completes the field. While she hasn’t done a full pentathlon yet this year, she has already competed at these championships in the 60m hurdles – improving her personal best to 8.14s in the process.
Written by/all photos by Gabby Pieraccini
