2025-03 WC Nanjing - Women's Pentathlon

The competition

Saga Vanninen (FIN) won the women's pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing in March with 4821 points, 79 clear of Kate O'Connor (IRL). Both finished under their own PB series, and the one athlete on the podium who beat hers did it by 89.

Taliyah Brooks (USA) led after the hurdles and Timara Chapman (USA) after the high jump, by four points. Vanninen took the lead in the shot and held it through the long jump and the 800m.

Vanninen's shot decided it. She was 25 points under her series after the hurdles and level with it in the high jump, then put 15.81 out for 915 points and a lead of 78. The long jump cost 49 against her series and 2:15.28 in the 800m another 44, and neither was enough to matter. Her 4821 is 101 short of the 4922 she scored at Apeldoorn earlier the same month.

Kate O'Connor ran the closest competition to her own history of the three: two points up in the hurdles, 38 down in the high jump, 22 up in the shot, 15 up in the long jump, and 40 given back over 800m, for 39 under her series at the end. Her 4742 is 39 short of the 4781 she also scored at Apeldoorn in March.

Taliyah Brooks was third and the only one of the three above her series. Almost the whole of it came from one throw: 14.39 in the shot was worth 161 points more than her series holds. She lost 76 in the high jump and 42 in the long jump and took 37 back over 800m, finishing 89 above her series with 4669, a personal best over a 4580 that had stood since March 2017.

Behind the medals the pattern held: Vanessa Grimm (GER) fourth 13 under her series and Célia Perron (FRA) seventh 38 under, with nobody in the top ten more than 89 above.

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