Jenna Kokkonen

Happy birthday to Finland’s national team sprinter Jenna Kokkonen, a Finnish Championship medallist over 200m and a member of Finland’s European Championships squad.

Jenna’s 11.61 over 100m and her 24.29 indoors over 200m are the marks of a sprinter operating right at the top of Finnish athletics, and she has gone quicker still with the wind behind her — 11.52 in the final of the Kalevan Kisat, which is the meeting every Finnish athlete circles on the calendar a year in advance. She took bronze there over 200m in Joensuu, ran for Finland in the annual match against Sweden, was named to the national squad for the European Championships in Munich, and has been honoured as her home region’s athlete of the year.

Her own description of what makes her fast is a good one: springy, forward-driving footwork, with the jumping power she built as a long jumper carried straight over into the sprint. That is the profile of an athlete who was found rather than manufactured — she was spotted by a coach at inter-school meets in Lieksa and turned into a national-team sprinter from there.

She races now for Joensuun Kataja, having come up through Kajaanin Kipinä in Kajaani, and in a country where sprinting has to fight distance running for oxygen, she has made herself impossible to overlook.

Hyvää syntymäpäivää, Jenna! Paljon onnea ja menestystä — ja paljon sisua uuteen kauteen. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇫🇮