If the 2023 indoor season for pentathlon was characterised by Anna Hall, Adrianna Sulek-Schubert and Nafi Thiam pestering the world record, then 2024 was characterised by a suite of athletes launching themselves into the 4500+ sphere.
Last weekend in Clermont Ferrand, two of those athletes were in action, Sveva Gerevini of Italy and Szabina Szucs of Hungary. This weekend, another four are competing in the Tallinn combined events meeting: world indoor silver medallist Saga Vanninen of Finland, Yuliya Loban of Ukraine, Bianca Salming of Sweden, and Paulina Ligarska of Poland.
Yuliya Loban won this event in 2024 ahead of Salming and Vanessa Grimm of Germany. From the perspective of an observer, she’s an engaging athlete to watch. One is left in no doubt about her opinion on any performance, including in relation to her monster shot put. In Tallinn in 2024 the tears were all of happiness as she landed a lifetime best of 4537 to win the competition.
Her season stalled after that highlight, participating in Glasgow with a solid 4402 to finish sixth, but then a DNF in Rome and a fall in the hurdles in Ratingen stymied any chance of Olympic qualification.
Likewise, Bianca Salming too had a super early indoor season, scoring 4453 and 4533, the latter in Tallinn, but couldn’t quite repeat those scores at the World Indoors. Her outdoor season was steady, with a few DNFs, but she wasn’t in a position to follow through on the promise of those early months.

After several seasons dominating the international U20 scene, Saga Vanninen confirmed her step up into senior world class in 2024, landing the World indoor silver medal with a score of 4677 and making her first Olympics. She is now training with Erki Nool (alongside Yuma Maruyama) and spending part of her time in Tallinn, so this will be a “home” competition of sorts for Vanninen.
But, just a few weeks into the 2024-2025 indoor season, the standout performance has been from Liisa-Maria Lusti of Estonia. The 20-year-old placed fourth at the World U20 championships in Cali in 2022 and scored 4125 and 4250 in the pentathlon in 2023 and 2024 respectively. She has also ticked participation in Götzis off her bucket list. For the summer season of 2024, she focused on long jump.
However, Lusti returned to the combined events in 2025 with an early world lead of 4522. It seems that Estonia’s female combined eventers are now starting to gather in numbers. Previously, recently retired Grit Sadeiko, and Mari Klaup, carried the flag pretty much on their own. But Lusti, alongside 2021 World U20 silver medallist and 2023 NCAA champion Pippi Lotta-Enok, and Katre Sofia Palm – KSP is competing in Tallinn and brings a PB of 4315 – are helping to reduce the asymmetry between the two events. Indeed, Enok just scored 4411 this weekend to break the University of Oklahama school record.
Sweden’s Lovisa Karlsson comes to Tallinn fresh from an inspired competition in Clermont Ferrand last weekend, where she set a meeting record in the hurdles and added over 100 points to her previous pentathlon best. Her score of 4365 to place third in France behind Sveva Gerevini and Celia Perron builds on her significant progress in 2024 where – after fighting hard for her right to compete – Karlsson shone at the European Championships in Rome.

It seems like Jana Koscak has been around for ever, but she is still only 18, turning 19 this year. Nevertheless, the Croatian is a veteran of international combined events competition. After a shaky season in 2023, she returned to win her first World U20 title in Lima last summer, and just missed out on Olympic qualification.
Ireland’s Olympic heptathlon representative Kate O’Connor makes her debut at this meeting, seeking to improve her national record of 4396 she achieved in Clermont Ferrand a few years ago. From the UK, Abi Pawlett had a useful run through a few events at the recent England Athletics championships and returns to the meet where she scored her PB of 4419 in 2024, which led to her being awarded the discretionary place at the World Indoors in Glasgow. Pawlett then went on to secure the “Rookie of the Year” title at Götzis in 2024. Pawlett is joined in Tallinn by Jodie Smith, who also competed in Götzis last year.
Edyta Bielska of Poland, Andrea Medina of Spain and Krista Sprude of Latvia complete the international line up, and Marite Ennuste and Anabel Sarapuu the Estonian contingent.
The meeting will be streamed on the European Athletics website.
Words and photos: Gabby Pieraccini