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World Athletics Combined Events Tour

Chari Hawkins in the heptathlon 200m in Arona

Damian Warner in the decathlon discus in Gotzis

Simon Ehammer, Damian Warner and Pierce LePage in the 100m in Götzis

Commonwealth champion Lindon Victor broke his own Grenadian record with 8550 to win the decathlon at the Decastar meeting in Talence on Sunday (18), winning the overall men&rsquo;s title in the World Athletics Combined Events Tour in the process.
The women&rsquo;s Decastar heptathlon title, meanwhile, went right down to the wire as Emma Oosterwegel of the Netherlands and Ivona Dadic of Austria ended in a tie for victory, both women scoring 6233.
Victor was contesting his fourth decathlon of the year, having finished second in G&ouml;tzis and fifth at the World Championships before his triumph at the Commonwealth Games, but he showed relatively little sign of fatigue in Talence at this late stage of the season.
The 29-year-old opened his campaign with a wind-assisted 10.61 (3.1m/s) in the 100m, finishing second to Germany&rsquo;s Manuel Eitel with 10.44. Switzerland&rsquo;s Finley Gaio was third in 10.63.
Gaio leapt into the lead after the long jump, soaring 7.76m. That was seven centimetres farther than USA&rsquo;s Steven Bastien, his mark a PB, while Victor recorded 7.49m and Eitel 7.29m.
Come the shot put it was Victor&rsquo;s turn to launch ahead thanks to a 15.75m throw, almost a metre farther than any of his rivals. France&rsquo;s Makenson Gletty recorded 14.88m and Eitel a 14.86m PB. Lithuania&rsquo;s Edgaras Benkunskas topped the high jump with 2.08m, while Estonia&rsquo;s Risto Lillemets and USA&rsquo;s Jack Flood both cleared 2.05m and Victor 2.02m.
Victor ended day one with a win in his 400m heat, clocking a PB of 48.20 for the day&rsquo;s third-quickest time behind Germany&rsquo;s Malik Diakite (47.74) and Gaio with (48.19), giving the Grenadian an overnight score of 4438 and a 128-point lead over Gaio.
Victor&rsquo;s strong series continued on Sunday, starting the day with a 14.70 run in the 110m hurdles, just a few hundredths shy of his season&rsquo;s best. Gaio, an international-standard hurdler in his own right, dominated that event with a 13.68 run, giving him a brief lead before slipping down the leaderboard over the course of the day.
But Victor responded in the next event, throwing 51.00m &ndash; the best mark of the day &ndash; in the discus to regain the lead. Eitel remained in contention too, throwing 43.53m.
Victor equalled his 4.80m season&rsquo;s best in the pole vault and followed it with a 66.01m throw in the javelin, another strong event for the Grenadian, giving him a lead of almost 400 points going into the final event. &nbsp;Eitel remained in second place, following his 4.80m vault and a 60.51m javelin throw. Lillemets, meanwhile, climbed up to third place thanks to a 5.00m vault and 59.82m javelin throw.
Diakite was a comfortable winner of the 1500m, but all eyes were on Victor and whether he&rsquo;d do enough to break his own national record. He pulled out a lifetime best of 4:43.74, bringing his score to 8550 &ndash; an 11-point improvement on his previous best.
Eitel and Lillemets held on to their podium places, finishing second and third respectively with scores of 8193 and 8149. France&rsquo;s Makenson Gletty was close behind in fourth (8141).
In the heptathlon, 2018 world indoor pentathlon silver medallist Dadic started with 13.81 in the 100m hurdles, won by France&rsquo;s Esther Turpin in 13.51 from Oosterwegel, the Olympic bronze medallist, in 13.66.
Sweden&rsquo;s Bianca Salming topped the high jump, clearing 1.86m as USA&rsquo;s Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler managed 1.80m and Dadic and Turpin both went over 1.77m. Next up was the shot put, Switzerland&rsquo;s Geraldine Ruckstuhl leading the way with a PB throw of 14.68m, adding 10 centimetres to her previous best. Salming had the second best mark of 14.41m, while Oosterwegel threw 13.75m and Dadic 13.68m.
The day came to a close with the 200m, Dadic clocking 24.11 to give her a day-one score of 3689, 112 points ahead of Salming. Oosterwegel, meanwhile, was further down in fifth, almost 200 points adrift of the leader.
Dadic extended her lead in the first event of the second day, leaping 6.01m in the long jump. Oosterwegel recorded a best of 5.92m, moving her into second place overall.
But everything changed in the javelin. Oosterwegel launched her spear out to a lifetime best of 55.47m and catapulting herself into the lead, nine points ahead of Dadic, who threw 43.92m.
Dadic knew she had to finish a stride ahead of Oosterwegel in the final event, the 800m, to claw back the points deficit and regain the lead. And she did indeed finish ahead, clocking 2:11.12 to Oosterwegel&rsquo;s 2:11.78, but it was &lsquo;only&rsquo; enough to bring her level with the Dutch all-rounder, both women scoring 6233. Salming held on to third place with 6028.
The performance also elevated Oosterwegel up to third in the overall Combined Events Tour standings.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-combined-events-tour/calendar-results/7171048/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a>

Victor sets Grenadian record of 8550, Dadic and Oosterwegel tie with 6233 as the World Athletics Combined Events Tour comes to a close in Talence

Victor wins Decastar decathlon, Dadic and Oosterwegel tie for heptathlon title

The Decastar in Talence welcomes athletes for the final World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting of the season this weekend (17-18), when a number of leading heptathletes and decathletes will be looking to end the year on a high.
Nine heptathletes with 6000-point-plus PBs and 12 athletes who have broken 8000 points in the decathlon will compete at the Stade Pierre Paul Bernard, scene of Kevin Mayer&rsquo;s world decathlon record of 9126 in 2018.
This time the fields feature Olympic bronze medallist Emma Oosterwegel and Commonwealth champion Lindon Victor as they look to move up the World Athletics Combined Events Tour standings, currently topped by Simon Ehammer and Adrianna Sulek.
Netherlands&rsquo; Oosterwegel will want to rebound after the European Championships in Munich, where her competition came to a premature end when she fell in the 100m hurdles. That came after a seventh-place finish at the World Championships in Oregon, where the 24-year-old scored 6440, 150 points off her PB set when claiming bronze at last year&rsquo;s Olympics.
Among her competition in Talence will be Austria&rsquo;s Ivona Dadic and Switzerland&rsquo;s Geraldine Ruckstuhl. Like Oosterwegel, the European Championships did not go to plan for Dadic as she was disqualified in the 200m and the 2018 world pentathlon silver medallist will be looking to complete her first heptathlon of the year. Her PB stands at 6552 from 2018. Ruckstuhl, the 2019 European U23 champion, will also be looking to finish her first heptathlon of the year when she returns to the scene of her 6391 PB set in 2018.
Other athletes with PBs over 6000 joining them are USA&rsquo;s 2019 NCAA champion Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler, France&rsquo;s Esther Turpin, Ukraine&rsquo;s Daryna Sloboda, Sweden&rsquo;s Bianca Salming, Czech Republic's Dorota Skrivanova and Italy&rsquo;s Sveva Gerevin.
In the decathlon, Grenada&rsquo;s Victor is back in action, fresh from winning his second Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham. The 29-year-old scored 8233 for that win, which followed his 8474 points for fifth at the World Championships in Oregon. His national record of 8539 was set in 2017 and he has surpassed 8300 points in each season that he has contested the decathlon since.
In Talence, Victor will go up against Germany&rsquo;s 2017 world decathlon bronze medallist Kai Kazmirek, USA&rsquo;s Steven Bastien, Czech Republic&rsquo;s Adam Helcelet, Sweden&rsquo;s Marcus Nilsson, Norway&rsquo;s Markus Rooth and France&rsquo;s Axel Hubert.
Kazmirek, who scored his 8580 PB when finishing fourth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, topped the standings in the Combined Events Challenge last year. This season he was unable to finish his competition in Ratingen but went on to finish fifth in Gotzis, 12th at the World Championships and eighth at the European Championships.
Bastien was sixth in the heptathlon at the World Indoor Championships and set his decathlon PB of 8485 in Eugene last year, while Helcelet was 11th in Munich and set his best of 8335 in 2017.
Nilsson, meanwhile, proved his strong form at the European Championships, setting a PB of 8327 to finish fourth, and will be looking to build on that in Talence. European U23 bronze medallist Rooth also set his PB this year, the 20-year-old scoring a national record of 8307 when winning in Grosseto in May, while Hubert returns to action for the first time since Arona in June, having set his PB of 8260 in 2020.
Other entries with 8000-point-plus PBs on their CVs are Germany&rsquo;s Manuel Eitel, Estonia&rsquo;s Risto Lillemets, France&rsquo;s Makenson Gletty, Germany&rsquo;s Malik Diakite and USA&rsquo;s Jack Flood.
Also joining them is Belgium&rsquo;s 2021 European U20 champion and world U20 silver medallist Jente Hauttekeete, who scored 7814 in July.
As well as the top $30,000 prizes, there are also wild card entries for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 on offer for winners of this season&rsquo;s World Athletics Combined Events Tour.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-combined-events-tour/standings/2022/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Current standings</a>

The Decastar in Talence welcomes athletes for the final World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting of the season

Oosterwegel and Victor in action as 2022 Tour ends in Talence

USA's Chari Hawkins and Sweden's Marcus Nilsson captured respective victories at the Meeting Internacional Arona Pruebas Combinadas Tenerife, the Spanish leg of the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold, held this weekend (4-5 June).
Hawkins&rsquo; overnight lead became even more significant after her close rival Naimh Emerson withdrew following the long jump, and she went on to win with a PB of 6243. Nilsson, meanwhile, cemented his win after an expected strong second day, scoring 8115.
The heptathlon kicked off with a clash in the 100m hurdles between Solene Ndama of France and USA's Hawkins, with the former prevailing &ndash; 13.24 to 13.30. Hawkins' compatriot Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler finished a distant third in 13.52.
Still rounding into form, Emerson managed a season's best of 14.23 for sixth but the 23-year-old proved to be the strongest in one of her favourite events, the high jump, sailing over 1.85m after a perfect card from 1.73m to 1.82m.
Hawkins, after a scare at 1.76m that saw her clear the bar at the third time of asking, managed a 1.85m PB to move into the overall lead ahead of Emerson and Claudia Conte of Spain.
The 2018 world U20 champion Emerson also took the shot put, opening with a 13.38m effort before improving her lifetime best by 17 centimetres to 13.82m. Hawkins was a close third courtesy of a 13.67m heave to comfortably maintain her lead, with Marijke Esselink of the Netherlands sandwiched between them (13.72m).
Hawkins strengthened her lead with a victory in the closing 200m, recording 24.69 clearly ahead of Emerson's 25.06, although Esselink took the previous heat in 24.79. At the end of day one Hawkins was a comfortable leader, 158 points ahead of Emerson, herself four points clear of Esselink.
In Sunday's first event, Conte overcame a foul and a botched attempt to land at 6.18m in the last round of the long jump. Hawkins and Emerson had to be satisfied with respective leaps of 5.98m and 5.93m, the Briton being narrowly surpassed by the Dutch Esserlink and threatened by Conte in the overall rankings.
A flare-up of a hamstring problem meant that Emerson withdrew from the competition before the javelin. Hawkins managed 42.88m, which was enough to maintain a comfortable 142-point lead over Conte, who threw 44.70m. Uzbekistan&rsquo;s Ekaterina Voronina moved up the standings thank to her 50.45m release.
Conte went out hard in the 800m, passing through the first lap in 1:02.70, but faded to second in 2:11.58. Hawkins was further back in 2:16.66, ending the competition with a winning score of 6243.
Conte finished second with 6174, while Esselink (6087) and Voronina (6072) were third and fourth respectively.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve loved it,&rdquo; Hawkins told DecathletesOfEurope. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s something special about the weather, the environment, the music, the people &ndash; it was really electric. I came in so focused and I was really glad I was able to do what I needed to do today.&rdquo;
<h2>Nilsson bounces back</h2>
In the decathlon, Brazil&rsquo;s Felipe Dos Santos confirmed his role as the strongest athlete in the opening events with victories in the 100m (10.64) and the long jump (7.33m).
Germany's Jannis Wolf took the runner-up place in the 100m (10.83), while Italy's Dario Dester came third in 10.93. Nilsson, meanwhile, was further down the standings in 13th overall with 11.43.
Dester climbed into second place overall after long jumping 7.29m, but Nilsson dropped further with a best of just 6.83m, almost half a metre down on his PB.
A 15.37m heave in the shot put from Nilsson put the Swede back in the frame, moving him up to ninth overall. He was still almost 200 points shy of leader Dos Santos, though, who managed 13.60m. Dester held on to second place after throwing 13.58m.
Dos Santos maintained the lead after clearing 1.98m in the high jump. Venezuela&rsquo;s Gerson Izaguirre matched that height and overtook Dester to move into second. Nilsson, meanwhile, also cleared 1.98m and climbed up to sixth place overall.
Dos Santos finally surrendered his lead in the final discipline of the day as Dester cruised to a lifetime best of 47.70 in the 400m, elevating the Italian up to first place overall with 4144 points at the half-way stage. Dos Santos and Izaguirre also surpassed 4000 points at the end of day one, while Nilsson held on to sixth place with 3931.
Izaguirre achieved his first individual discipline win in the opening event of the second day. The Venezuelan topped the 110m hurdles in 14.21, just 0.01 ahead of Dos Santos with Dester in third (14.43), just enough to hold on to the lead. Nilsson was further back in 14.73.
The Swede, just as he had done in the shot put on day one, clawed back even more points in the discus with his 47.61m heave being almost four metres farther than the next-best athlete in that event. Dos Santos reclaimed the lead after throwing 40.33m, but Dester, Izaguirre and Nilsson were all within 100 points of the Brazilian.
Nilsson, very much a &lsquo;second day&rsquo; performer, excelled in the pole vault and equalled his PB of 5.10m, taking the overall lead from Dos Santos, who managed 4.70m. Dester (4.80m) and Izaguirre (4.90m) also remained in contention with just 41 points separating the quartet going into the last two disciplines.
Confirming his status as the strongest all-round thrower in the field, Nilsson took the javelin with 59.28m to extend his lead. Dester (56.61m) and Dos Santos (56.02m) were relatively close behind, while Izaguirre managed 53.65m.
By this point, Nilsson &ndash; the 2010 world U20 bronze medallist &ndash; knew he had a good chance of winning as he was the strongest 1500m runner of the field. His target became improving on his PB of 8120, for which he would need a 4:19.32 clocking in the 1500m.
He went out hard and fell agonisingly short, but his 4:19.83 run was still enough to win with a score of 8115.
Dester finished in 4:39.70, giving him a score of 7903 for second place, while Izaguirre took third place with 7812.
Emeterio Valiente for World Athletics

Chari Hawkins takes heptathlon with 6243, Marcus Nilsson wins decathlon with 8115

Hawkins and Nilsson triumph in Arona

Many athletes will be in pursuit of World Athletics Championships Oregon22 qualifying standards at the 11th&nbsp;Meeting Internacional Arona Pruebas Combinadas Tenerife, a World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold event, taking place&nbsp;in the Canary Islands this weekend (4-5).
The targets for Oregon are 8350 points in the decathlon and 6420 in the heptathlon.
The 27-year-old Brazilian Felipe dos Santos has exceeded the 8000-point barrier four times, topped by his 8364 PB set in Sao Paulo in December 2020. Dos Santos' strongest events are the 100m, where he holds a 10.37 lifetime best, and the javelin, where he managed a PB of 61.33m in Bragan&ccedil;a Paulista last April, when he recorded 8004 points to win the contest on his 2022 decathlon debut.
French 25-year-old Axel Hubert boasts a career best of 8260 set in Aubagne almost two years ago and will be trying to finish his first decathlon since then, as he was forced to withdraw in G&ouml;tzis last year after only four events. Hubert has only competed in individual disciplines so far this season, topped by a javelin effort of 63.39m that is still some way off his formidable PB of 69.69m set in 2020.
The experienced German Matthias Brugger has surpassed the 8000 landmark on seven occasions, led by his 8304 performance in G&ouml;tzis in 2018. More recently, the 2016 world indoor heptathlon bronze medallist finished two decathlons last year with scores over 8000 points, but he got injured in the opening 100m in Ratingen last month and Arona should be a good test for the 29-year-old.
His fellow German Andreas Bechmann is very much in the the same boat, as the European U23 champion also dropped out in Ratingen. His withdrawal came after the shot put, in what was his first appearance of the season. Bechmann's strongest events are the long jump and the shot put, boasting respective lifetime bests of 7.72m and 15.81m, both set in Tallin en route to his European U23 gold. He also has a 2.10m high jump performance to his credit.
Marcus Nilsson will also be one to watch. The 31-year-old Swede has exceeded 8000m points twice in his career, holds a 8142 PB set in 2018 and showed interesting form last month in Ratingen, where he scored 7927 to place fourth. Nilsson should be aiming for his third 8000-plus effort in Arona, backed by a strong second day that includes performances such as 5.10m in the pole vault, 65.33m in the javelin and a 4:18:01 clocking in the closing 1500m.
Yet the most in-form decathlete on show this weekend seems to be Italy's Dario Dester as the 21-year-old, a fine fourth at last year's European U23 Championships, is fresh from a career best of 8109 points in Grosseto five weeks ago. The Italian managed five PBs on that occasion, with efforts such as 10.76 in the 100m and 7.61m in the long jump.
Another rising specialist is Venezuela's Gerson Izaguirre, the newly-crowned Iberoamerican champion from La Nuc&iacute;a a fortnight ago, when he improved his PB to 7827 points.
The women's competition will also be a wide open event, with half a dozen athletes capable of taking the win this weekend.
In terms of PBs, the list is headed by Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina. The 30-year-old managed a PB of 6346 last year in Tashkent, a few months prior to her 12th-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics where she fell 58 points short of her best. Voronina finished 15th in G&ouml;tzis last weekend with 5984 points.
USA's Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler boasts a 6291 lifetime best set last year in Azusa and the 25-year-old has another four 6100-plus performances to her credit, a 6198 score for second place in Fayetteville last month among them. The 100m hurdles is arguably her best discipline, having clocked 13.33 for the distance.
She will be joined by her compatriot Chari Hawkins, 12th at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and holder of a 6236 tally earlier that year at the US Trials, where she placed third. Hawkins opened this season with a 6032 performance in Fayetteville but did not complete her heptathlon last week in G&ouml;tzis as she didn't take part in the closing 800m.
Spanish fans will roar for Claudia Conte, the European U23 silver medallist. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6298a8dc722946a681bad0e6.jpg" alt="Spain's Claudia Conte" />
Spain's Claudia Conte (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
The Spaniard enjoyed a successful indoor season, capped by sixth place at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, where she set a PB of 4499. The 22-year-old contests her second heptathlon this season after a 5914 performance in Grosseto for third place, some 272 points off the 6186 score she managed in Tallinn. Conte's strongest event is the high jump, with a 1.88m clearance set last year in Arona where she placed fifth overall.
France's Solene Ndama should also be in the mix. The 23-year-old is the 2019 European indoor pentathlon bronze medallist and excels in the hurdles, an event in which she became the European U20 champion back in 2017 before focusing on the combined events. Ndama scored a below-par 3984 pentathlon in Aubiere this winter and Arona will be her debut in the seven-event contest this outsdoor season.
Britain's Niamh Emerson made a major breakthrough back in 2018 when she captured the world U20 heptathlon title in Tampere with 6253 points. In addition to that accolade, the then 19-year-old also claimed bronze at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, and at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in 2019 she was only beaten by her compatriot Katarina Johnson-Thompson. However, a series of injuries prevented her progression and the now 23-year-old will look to complete her first heptathlon since 2018. Her fellow Briton Ellen Barber (6028 PB) will also be in contention.
Watch out too for Sveva Gerevini as the 26-year-old Italian is in the form of her life having surpassed the 6000 landmark for the first time last month in Grosseto. She was runner-up there with 6011 points, helped by her performances in the opening and closing events as she recorded 13.60 and 2:09.81 for the 100m hurdles and 800m respectively.
Breaking the meeting records of France's world record-holder Kevin Mayer (8469 points in 2015) and Austria's Verena Mayr (6472 in 2019) won't be an easy task for the athletes assembled in Arona this weekend.&nbsp;
Weather forecasters predict a pleasant and sunny weekend, with temperatures reaching 24&ordm;C.
Emeterio Valiente for World Athletics

Many athletes will be in pursuit of World Athletics Championships Oregon22 qualifying standards at the Combined Events Tour Gold event.

Wide open combined events contests set for Arona

Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner achieved a record seventh victory at the Hypo Meeting in G&ouml;tzis while Olympic silver medallist Anouk Vetter became the first Dutch winner at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting on Sunday (29).
Warner trailed rising Swiss star Simon Ehammer on the first day as the world indoor silver medallist sailed out to a world decathlon best of 8.45m in the long jump. But Warner regained the lead at the start of day two and held on to the end, winning with 8797.
Vetter also only moved into the lead on Sunday as she chased world indoor silver medallist Adrianna Sulek for most of the two-day competition. But a meeting record of 59.81m in the javelin gave Vetter an unassailable lead ahead of the final discipline and she eventually won with 6693.
On the hunt for yet another G&ouml;tzis victory, Warner got his campaign off to a strong start with a 10.14 run, missing his 100m PB and own world decathlon best set in the same town in 2019 by 0.02. Ehammer also showed he meant business with a 10.46 PB, while Canada&rsquo;s Pierce LePage ran 10.35.
Next up was the long jump &ndash; Ehammer&rsquo;s time to shine. Just three weeks earlier, the 22-year-old had jumped 8.30m in Ratingen, improving the 8.28m world decathlon best that Warner set en route to his victory in G&ouml;tzis last year. It also broke the Swiss long jump record that had stood for almost 20 years and helped him on his way to a 8354-point national decathlon record.
Adding 15 centimetres to that mark, Ehammer achieved the best long jump in the world so far this season in the very first round and his delight was clear as he jumped out of the pit and started celebrating. That result launched him into the lead after two events and it was an advantage he wouldn&rsquo;t relinquish on day one.
Warner achieved the next best long jump mark of 7.93m and Estonia&rsquo;s Hans-Christian Hausenberg leapt 7.85m. LePage managed 7.49m but took no further part in the competition. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/629272f983337e439b66a048.jpg" alt="Simon Ehammer celebrates his 8.45m long jump in G&ouml;tzis" />
Simon Ehammer celebrates his 8.45m long jump in G&ouml;tzis (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
</div>
 Victor was strongest in the shot and wasn&rsquo;t too far off his PB with 16.28m as the only athlete to surpass 16 metres. Warner closed the gap on the leader with a 14.92m put to Ehammer&rsquo;s 14.42m.
USA&rsquo;s Hunter Price, making his G&ouml;tzis debut, cleared 2.09m to top the high jump results ahead of Estonia&rsquo;s world silver medallist Maicel Uibo (2.06m), as Warner and Ehammer both managed 2.03m.
Netherlands&rsquo; Rik Taam then stormed to a 400m PB of 47.28 and Warner powered to a time of 47.92. Ehammer&rsquo;s 48.44 saw him hold on to top spot overnight, but only just.
Warner finally regained his lead in the first event of the second day, though the gap between him and Ehammer in the 110m hurdles wasn&rsquo;t too significant, 13.48 to 13.75. Ehammer&rsquo;s Swiss teammate Finley Gaio was close behind with 13.86, enough to move up to third overall.
Warner extended his leading margin in the discus as his 48.24m effort was more than 10 metres farther than Ehammer&rsquo;s best (36.98m). But the big story in this event was Lindon Victor&rsquo;s monster heave of 54.85m &ndash; just 30 centimetres shy of the long-standing meeting record &ndash; which moved the Grenadian up to third overall. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/629390aac4732703b35c4275.jpg" alt="Damian Warner in the decathlon discus in Gotzis" />
Damian Warner in the decathlon discus in Gotzis (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
</div>
 Somewhat surprisingly for a decathlon pole vault competition, the positions of the top six athletes remained the same after the eighth discipline, though the margins changed slightly.
Warner and Ehammer equalled their respective PBs of 4.90m and 5.10m to remain in first and second place. Victor&rsquo;s 4.70m was enough to hold on to third, while Kazmirek &ndash; showing his best form for quite some time &ndash; scaled 5.00m to consolidate his fourth place position ahead of Gaio and Rik Taam. A 5.30m vault from world silver medallist Maicel Uibo, meanwhile, elevated the Estonian from 11th to seventh overall.
Heavy rain and hail started to fall before the javelin, but the conditions didn&rsquo;t seem to affect the performances. World champion Niklas Kaul topped the event with a season&rsquo;s best of 69.29m, moving him into the top five overall for the first time in the competition.
Warner held on to his comfortable lead thanks to a throw of 58.62m, giving him an overall tally of 8108 and a leading margin of 243 points with one discipline still to go. Ehammer set a PB of 55.98m, just enough to hold on to second place overall from Lindon Victor, whose 63.93m throw put him just seven points adrift of Ehammer overall.
Kaul, determined to put in a strong showing after aborting his past three decathlons, took on the leading duties in the 1500m and got progressively quicker en route to a 4:16.31 clocking. Further back, Warner cruised around in 4:38.65 to end the competition with a winning score of 8797, the third-best mark of his career.
At the back of the pack, Victor and Ehammer were locked in their own battle for second place. Victor held on for a 4:55.00 run while a struggling Ehammer finished in 5:08.51. It meant Victor took second place overall with 8447 and Ehammer placed third with a Swiss record of 8377.
Kaul&rsquo;s heroic run in the 1500m moved the German up to fourth overall with 8303, his best score since winning the world title in 2019. Kazmirek was close behind with 8272, also his best mark since 2019. Taam, meanwhile, added more than 100 points to his PB to place sixth with 8246.
<h2>Vetter betters Dutch record</h2>
World indoor bronze medallist Kendell Williams blasted to an early lead in the heptathlon, clocking 13.13 in the 100m hurdles as Vetter ran 13.28 and Sulek 13.61.
Sulek has improved her high jump PB indoors and out this year and she went higher still in G&ouml;tzis, clearing 1.92m on her third attempt after seven first-time clearances from 1.71m to 1.89m to get to that point. That performance took her into the lead overall, followed by Williams who was among three athletes to achieve a 1.80m clearance. Estonia&rsquo;s Liisa-Maria Lusti got closest to Sulek with a 1.86m PB. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62927319c51932482ad50522.jpg" alt="Adrianna Sulek in action in G&ouml;tzis" />
Adrianna Sulek in action in G&ouml;tzis (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
</div>
 Benin&rsquo;s Odile Ahouanwanou launched the shot 15.27m to top that event, while Germany&rsquo;s Vanessa Grimm recorded 14.96m, Vetter 14.88m and Finland&rsquo;s world U20 champion Saga Vanninen 14.58m. Sulek improved her PB to 13.79m and held on to her overall lead, with Vetter in second and Ahouanwanou moving up into third.
Another PB followed for Sulek as she ran 23.86 in the 200m to end the day with 3940 points. Britain&rsquo;s two-time G&ouml;tzis winner Katarina Johnson-Thompson, looking to complete her first full heptathlon since her World Championships victory in Doha in 2019, clocked the fastest time of 23.51, while Germany&rsquo;s Sophie Weissenberg recorded a PB of 23.67.
Vetter&rsquo;s 23.76 and Williams&rsquo; 23.77 secured them second and third place respectively overnight.
Vetter and Williams started the second day strongly, both leaping seasons bests of 6.47m in the long jump to close the gap on Sulek, who managed 6.28m.
But the tables turned in the javelin. Vetter opened with 47.14m, which would have been sufficient to overtake Sulek, whose opening throw of 38.66m remained her best of the day. But the Dutch all-rounder improved to 51.39m in round two and then a sensational 59.81m in round three, breaking Nafi Thiam&rsquo;s meeting record by almost half a metre. It&rsquo;s also the best ever throw within a 6000-point heptathlon.
Latvia&rsquo;s Laura Ikauniece (53.93m) and Emma Oosterwegel (52.53m) were the only other athletes to throw beyond 50 metres.
It meant that Vetter went into the 800m with a 372-point lead, essentially meaning the title was hers to lose. Competing in heavy rain and hail, Sulek won the fourth and final heat of the 800m in 2:13.80, but Vetter&rsquo;s 2:21.56 clocking sealed the crown with a score of 6693, adding four points to the Dutch record she set in Tokyo last year. Sulek was rewarded with a PB of 6429.
Grimm continued to put in a consistent series throughout the second day and emerged in third place with a PB of 6323, 22 points ahead of Multistars winner Annik Kalin. Johnson-Thompson finished down in seventh place with 6174, behind Oosterwegel (6265) and Britain&rsquo;s Holly Mills (6260).
<h3>Leading results</h3>
Heptathlon 1 Anouk Vetter (NED) 6693 2 Adrianna Sulek (POL) 6429 3 Vanessa Grimm (GER) 6323 4 Annik Kalin (SUI) 6301 5 Emma Oosterwegel (NED) 6265 6 Holly Mills (GBR) 6260 7 Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) 6174 8 Odile Ahouanwanou (BEN) 6173
Decathlon 1 Damian Warner (CAN) 8797 2 Lindon Victor (GRN) 8447 3 Simon Ehammer (SUI) 8377 4 Niklas Kaul (GER) 8303 5 Kai Kazmirek (GER) 8272 6 Rik Taam (NED) 8246 7 Maicel Uibo (EST) 8067 8 Hunter Price (USA) 7996

Warner scores 8797, Vetter breaks Dutch record with 6693

Warner wins again, Vetter victorious in Götzis

Damian Warner may have earned the biggest accolade in the sport with his Olympic decathlon title last year, but his reign as king of combined events began long before that with his historic streak of victories at the Hypo Meeting in G&ouml;tzis.
The Canadian all-rounder will return to the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting this weekend (28-29) in pursuit of a record-extending seventh victory. He&rsquo;ll take on a strong field that includes world champion Niklas Kaul and rising Swiss star Simon Ehammer, who pushed Warner all the way at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 earlier this year.
World champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, meanwhile, leads the heptathlon field. The Briton faces Olympic silver medallist Anouk Vetter, world indoor bronze medallist Kendell Williams and the returning Laura Ikauniece, among others.
Warner will be contesting his first decathlon of the year, but the vastly experienced 32-year-old rarely shows any sign of early season rust. He went into the World Indoor Championships off the back of just one low-key hurdles race, yet emerged from Belgrade with the gold medal and a national record of 6489, elevating him to No.2 on the world indoor all-time list.
He opened his outdoor season last month with a 49.07m throw in the discus, one of the best marks of his career, and a wind-assisted 20.63 run over 200m, which suggests his form is as good as it has been in the past 12 months &ndash; the same form that carried him to a 8995 victory in G&ouml;tzis last year and a 9018 triumph at the Olympics, making him just the fourth man in history to surpass 9000 points in the decathlon.
There may not be anyone else in the field who can match that overall score, but there are several athletes who&rsquo;ll push Warner in each individual discipline. Ehammer, for example, broke Warner&rsquo;s world decathlon best in the long jump earlier this month, soaring out to 8.30m en route to his triumph in Ratingen. The 22-year-old is also a strong sprint hurdler, so will likely be close to Warner in that discipline too. And the strong line-up in G&ouml;tzis could be just what Ehammer needs to improve on his recent Swiss decathlon record of 8354.
Kaul hasn&rsquo;t quite regained the form he showed when winning the world title in 2019 with 8691, but the 24-year-old has come relatively close to his PBs in the 110m hurdles, pole vault and long jump so far this year. Given the strength of the field, this is about as good a test as he&rsquo;ll get ahead of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
His German compatriots Arthur Abele and Kai Kazmirek are very much in the same boat when it comes to trying to recapture their best form. Abele, the European champion, last completed a decathlon back in September 2018. Kazmirek didn&rsquo;t finish in Ratingen earlier this month or at the World Indoor Championships, but he was seventh in G&ouml;tzis last year and went on to place 14th at the Olympics.
Warner&rsquo;s strongest opposition this weekend could come from his fellow Canadian Pierce LePage. The 26-year-old placed fifth at the 2019 World Championships and at last year&rsquo;s Olympics, scoring a PB of 8604. LePage, who finished second to Warner in G&ouml;tzis last year, set a discus PB of 51.38m last month and an indoor shot put PB of 15.81m earlier in the year, so appears to be in top form.
World silver medallist Maicel Uibo of Estonia and Lindon Victor of Grenada, both vastly experienced and formidable competitors, should also be in the mix this weekend. Meanwhile, world U20 champion Frantisek Doubek of the Czech Republic will contest his first decathlon since becoming a senior athlete.
A lot has happened since Johnson-Thompson won her second Hypo-Meeting title in 2019.
The Briton won the world title a few months later, battled injuries for much of 2020 and 2021 but made it to the startline of the Olympic heptathlon in Tokyo and was competitive in the first three events, only for another injury to strike at the mid-way point of the competition, forcing her to withdraw. Since then, she has also relocated to the US to join a new training group.
She accepted a wildcard invitation to compete at the World Indoor Championships but ultimately wasn&rsquo;t quite at a point where she was competitive and so withdrew before the 800m. Her early season results outdoors have been a bit more promising, including a wind-assisted 6.41m leap at the recent Wanda Diamond League meeting in Birmingham.
This weekend the 29-year-old hopes to achieve her first completed heptathlon since her World Championships victory almost three years ago, and she&rsquo;ll face a strong field.
Dutch duo Anouk Vetter and Emma Oosterwegel will be formidable opponents. Vetter, the Olympic silver medallist, has shown strong form in individual disciplines already this year, including wind-assisted marks of 13.16 in the 100m hurdles and 6.58m in the long jump, plus a 15.24m throw in the shot put.
Olympic bronze medallist Oosterwegel, meanwhile, ran a wind-assisted 13.44 in the 100m hurdles and threw well beyond 50 metres in the javelin last weekend. No Dutch athlete has ever won in G&ouml;tzis, but there&rsquo;s a chance that drought could end this weekend.
Ikauniece will also be one to watch. The 2015 world bronze medallist finished second to Johnson-Thompson in G&ouml;tzis in 2019 but was then forced to withdraw from the World Championships due to injury. She hasn&rsquo;t started a heptathlon since June 2019, but she returned to competition this year and recently threw 13.90m in the shot and 52.14m in the javelin, suggesting she&rsquo;s in good form ahead of this weekend.
Cuba&rsquo;s Yorgelis Rodriguez, like Johnson-Thompson, also crashed out of the Olympic Games last year, but she&rsquo;s usually a strong opponent in any heptathlon.
Poland&rsquo;s Adrianna Sulek and USA&rsquo;s Kendell Williams, the world indoor silver and bronze medallists respectively, will also be in action this weekend. Sulek recently won in Bydgoszcz with 6290 but she hopes to get closer to &ndash; or even beyond &ndash; the World Championships qualifying standard of 6420 this weekend. Williams, as the winner of the 2021 Combined Events Tour, has already got a wildcard entry for the World Championships.
Others to look out for include recent Multistars winner Annik Kalin of Switzerland, world U20 champion Saga Vanninen of Finland, Ireland&rsquo;s Kate O&rsquo;Connor and Britain&rsquo;s Holly Mills.
<h3>Leading entries</h3>
Women Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) 6981 Laura Ikauniece (LAT) 6815 Yorgelis Rodriguez (CUB) 6742 Anouk Vetter (NED) 6689 Kendell Williams (USA) 6683 Emma Oosterwegel (NED) 6590 Annik Kalin (SUI) 6398 Ekaterina Voronina (UZB) 6346 Vanessa Grimm (GER) 6316 Adrianna Sulek (POL) 6315 Kate O&rsquo;Connor (IRL) 6297 Sophie Weissenberg (GER) 6293 Odile Ahouanwanou (BEN) 6274 Saga Vanninen (FIN) 6271
Men Damian Warner (CAN) 9018 Niklas Kaul (GER) 8691 Arthur Abele (GER) 8605 Pierce LePage (CAN) 8604 Maicel Uibo (EST) 8604 Kai Kazmirek (GER) 8580 Lindon Victor (GRN) 8539 Simon Ehammer (SUI) 8354 Pawel Wiesiolek (POL) 8333 Tim Nowak (GER) 8229 Niels Pittomvils (BEL) 8222 Joseph Delgado (USA) 8161 Risto Lillemets (EST) 8156 Rik Taam (NED) 8107

Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner and world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson lead the competitive fields

Warner seeks seventh victory, while Johnson-Thompson returns to Götzis

World indoor silver medallist Adrianna Sulek led the Wiesław Czapiewski Memorial heptathlon from start to finish while Czech decathlon champion Ondrej Kopecky broke the 8000-point barrier for the first time at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting in Bydgoszcz on Sunday (15).
Sulek&rsquo;s winning score of 6290 was just 25 points shy of her lifetime best. Kopecky, meanwhile, gave himself an early birthday present &ndash; he turned 24 the day after the competition &ndash; and added more than 400 points to his PB with his 8041 tally.
Sulek was the only heptathlete to dip inside 14 seconds in the 100m hurdles, opening her account with 13.70. An outdoor PB of 1.87m in the high jump increased her lead over Dorota Skrivanova of the Czech Republic.
The Pole came within one centimetre of her PB in the shot put (13.20m) and rounded out her first day with a 24.34 clocking in the 200m, giving her a leading score of 3777, more than 250 points ahead of Skrivanova, who was just ahead of Sulek in the 200m (24.32).
Skrivanova &ndash; who finished fifth at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade &ndash; topped the long jump with a leap of 6.24m, while Sulek managed 6.14m. But Sulek increased her lead in the javelin, throwing 40.37m to Skrivanova&rsquo;s 32.91m.
Poland&rsquo;s Edyta Bielska dominated the 800m and ran 2:07.48, with Skrivanova (2:10.29) and Sulek (2:11.25) relatively close behind. Sulek&rsquo;s clocking brought her winning tally to 6290, while Skrivanova was rewarded with a PB of 5926.
&ldquo;Were it not for the fact that this was the Wieslaw Czapiewski Memorial, I would have run the 800m in about 2:15, just enough to hold on to victory, but since this competition is in memorial of my former coach, there was no room for poor results,&rdquo; said Sulek, who was coached by Czapiewski up until his death in 2019. &ldquo;I decided to run my lungs out and fight in the 800m. My score may have been just short of my PB, but I know that I gave 100% today. And in the near future I&rsquo;ll be faster and stronger.&rdquo;
Kopecky got off to a strong start in the decathlon, winning the 100m in 11.06 and the long jump with a PB of 7.47m. Poland&rsquo;s Pawel Wiesiolek (14.85m) and Lithuania&rsquo;s Edgaras Benkunskas (14.64m) applied pressure in the shot put, but Kopecky&rsquo;s 13.46m heave was enough for the Czech all-rounder to maintain his lead.
Wiesiolek took no further part in the competition, but Benkunskas took the lead after clearing 2.04m in the high jump. Kopecky managed 1.89m but rebounded in the 400m with a big PB of 48.54, giving him a first-day score of 4057, 66 points ahead of Benkunskas.
The lead duo were close in the first event of the second day, Benkunskas winning the 110m hurdles from Kopecky, 14.32 to 14.35. But Kopecky pulled ahead in the discus (44.06m) and pole vault (5.10m).
Benkunskas gained a bit of ground in the javelin, throwing 61.11m to Kopecky&rsquo;s 57.86m, but the Czech leader had a comfortable lead going into the 1500m and duly won that event in 4:43.42, gaining the overall victory with 8041. Benkunskas finished second with 7689.

Sulek scores 6290, Kopecky sets big PB of 8041

Sulek and Kopecky dominate in Bydgoszcz

Results including a world decathlon best of 8.30m in the long jump helped Simon Ehammer on his way to a Swiss record of 8354 points, while Sophie Wiessenberg maintained her lead to win the heptathlon ahead of her German compatriot Carolin Schafer at the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting this weekend (7-8).
On the first day of the World Athletics Combined Events Gold fixture, Ehammer returned to competition for the first time since taking world indoor silver in Belgrade and broke the Swiss long jump record that had stood for almost 20 years, giving the 22-year-old a lead that he would not relinquish.
His competition had started with a 10.65 run in the 100m &ndash; the fastest of the day &ndash; before he followed it with his record-breaking leap.
On a day when most other jumpers struggled to produce big marks &ndash; the next-best athlete, Malik Diakite, jumped 7.35m &ndash; Ehammer improved with each round, opening with 7.69m, improving to 7.97m and then finishing with his mammoth effort.
Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner owned the previous world decathlon best with the 8.28m he jumped en route to his victory in G&ouml;tzis last year. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Simon Ehammer. 8,30 Meter. ACHT METER DREISSIG!!! Der Zehnkampf von Ratingen von Disziplin zu Disziplin: <a href="https://t.co/dyWbjfWuxQ">https://t.co/dyWbjfWuxQ</a><a href="https://twitter.com/WorldAthletics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WorldAthletics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EuroAthletics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/decathletes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@decathletes</a> <a href="https://t.co/uhT0jCav57">pic.twitter.com/uhT0jCav57</a>
&mdash; leichtathletik.de (@dlv_online) <a href="https://twitter.com/dlv_online/status/1522916331653419010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
 Another meeting record fell in the next event, this time thanks to Nico Beckers, who heaved his shot out to a lifetime best of 16.63m. Overall leader Ehammer threw an outdoor PB of 14.68m, but world champion Niklas Kaul and 2017 world bronze medallist Kai Kazmirek &ndash; as had been the case in the first two disciplines &ndash; finished further down the field, throwing 13.73m and 13.78m respectively, some way off their best form.
German champion Tim Nowak moved up the field after the high jump, thanks to his outdoor PB clearance of 2.07m. Ehammer was close behind, scaling 2.04m to maintain his overall lead.
In the 400m, the final decathlon discipline of the first day, Kaul and Kazmirek took a few strides out of their blocks once the gun had fired but then stepped off the track. Kaul later explained that he had a headache and felt dizzy.
Ehammer clocked a solid 48.30 to bring his score to 4583 &ndash; 125 points up on the pace from his 8231 PB score from two years ago. Germany&rsquo;s Malik Diakite uncorked a huge PB of 46.76 in the 400m to break the meeting record.
Beckers finished the first day in second place overall with 4320, some 263 points adrift, while Marcel Meyer was third with 4111.
Ehammer picked up from where he left off at the start of day two, going quickest by a big margin in the 110m hurdles with 13.75.
Sweden&rsquo;s Marcus Nilsson was the dominant force in the discus, throwing 46.88m for a mark more than two metres further than any of his rivals. Another PB performance helped Ehammer to maintain his lead, the Swiss rising star throwing 39.13m to add almost three metres to his previous best.
Ehammer was then among the three athletes to soar clear at 5.00m in the pole vault, with Nowak matching his outdoor PB and Nilsson also managing the height. The leader remained on target for a Swiss record, with two events to go.
Germany&rsquo;s Jan Ruhrmann was a class apart in the javelin, adding three metres to his PB with 66.75m, as Ehammer threw 53.01m.
As they lined up for the 1500m, the Swiss record and a qualifying score for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 remained in reach for the leader. Running 4:57.55, Ehammer crossed the finish line victorious &ndash; improving the Swiss record by more than 100 points and surpassing the standard for Oregon by four points.
Nilsson ended his strong second day with the fastest time of 4:20.02 and moved up a place into fourth (7927) behind Ehammer, Nowak (8160) and Beckers (7940).
&ldquo;Those were two incredibly beautiful days,&rdquo; said Ehammer. &ldquo;A great start to the season in a great atmosphere. The long jump was of course the best &ndash; I didn't think I could jump 8.30m at such an early stage.
&ldquo;It was my first decathlon since 2020, so of course it's awesome to start with a Swiss record and World Championships standard.&rdquo;
He will next compete in G&ouml;tzis later this month.
&ldquo;I know that I can do even more in all disciplines and that I want more."
<h2>Weissenberg reigns in&nbsp;Ratingen</h2>
In the heptathlon, 2019 European U23 silver medallist Weissenberg held a narrow lead overnight but with just 76 points separating the top three contenders, there was still everything to play for.
At the start of day one, 2017 world silver medallist Schafer&nbsp;took an early lead after running 13.57 in the 100m hurdles. France&rsquo;s Leonie Cambours was close behind with 13.58 and Weissenberg was third overall with 13.78.
Cambours then cleared 1.80m in the high jump, giving her the overall lead from Weissenberg, who managed 1.77m. A 1.71m leap from Schafer meant she dropped down the standings briefly.
USA&rsquo;s Shaina Burns entered the fray with a 14.70m heave in the shot, elevating her to fourth overall, close behind Weissenberg (who threw 13.59m), Schaefer (13.98m) and Cambours (12.04m).
Weissenberg extended her lead thanks to a 24.03 clocking in the 200m &ndash; the fastest of the day &ndash; giving her a bit more breathing room over Schafer (24.40) and Cambours (24.44). Weissenberg ended the day with 3696, while Schafer&nbsp;was second (3643) and Cambours third (3620).
Weissenberg is the 2016 world U20 long jump silver medallist and she showed her strength in that discipline at the start of day two, leaping 6.21m. That was the second-best mark behind Lovisa Karlsson&rsquo;s 6.27m &ndash; the performance moving the Swedish athlete into fifth place. Weissenberg remained at the top of the standings, while Cambours overtook Schafer&nbsp;and moved into second place.
A 48.00m javelin throw by Weissenberg was the best of the competition and Schafer regained second place with one event to go, throwing 47.81m &ndash; 170 points separating the top two.
A time of 2:17 was needed in the 800m for Weissenberg to improve her overall PB and while that was out of reach, she did more than enough for victory and ran 2:18.72 for her 6273-point score &shy;&ndash; a qualifying standard for the European Championships on home soil.
Schafer&rsquo;s 2:13.95 PB contributed to her 6170-point tally for second place, while Cambours was third with 5933.
"I'm incredibly happy, because I didn't think I would win in Ratingen,&rdquo; said Weissenberg. &ldquo;The atmosphere was incredibly good.&rdquo; Her aim now will be the World Championships standard of 6420 in G&ouml;tzis.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-combined-events-tour/calendar-results/7174019/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a>
&nbsp;

World indoor silver medallist leaps world decathlon best of 8.30m in long jump

Ehammer nails huge leap in Ratingen while Weissenberg wins heptathlon

Germany&rsquo;s world champion Niklas Kaul and 2017 world silver medallist Carolin Schafer lead the fields for the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting this weekend (7-8), when the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold series moves on to the German town for the event's 25th anniversary celebrations.
Kaul will go up against his compatriot Kai Kazmirek, world indoor silver medallist&nbsp;Simon Ehammer&nbsp;and five other decathletes to have surpassed 8000 points, while six heptathletes &ndash; including Schafer with her 6836 PB &ndash; have broken the 6000-point barrier in the seven-event discipline.
Athletes will have the qualification standards for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 and European Championships in Munich in their sights, with the respective marks for the global event being 8350 for the decathlon and 6420 in the heptathlon.
<h2>Kaul vs Kazmirek in top domestic clash</h2>
Kaul gained a surprise gold at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019, aged just 21. Two-and-a-half years later he will start his combined events season on home soil in Ratingen in a year that offers a world title defence in Oregon and a continental championships on home soil.
The now 24-year-old is entitled to a wild card entry for Oregon as the defending champion but Kazmirek is in a similar position as the winner of the 2021 Combined Events Challenge. Should they both wish to compete, it will be down to the German Athletics Federation to decide which wild card entry to accept, so both athletes will be using Ratingen to demonstrate their form and secure precious world rankings points.
The European Championships on home soil is understandably a big goal, however, and Kaul was fourth at the 2018 edition, also held in Germany. The 2016 world U20 champion achieved his 8691 PB when winning his senior world title in Doha but has completed just one decathlon since then, scoring 8263 in G&ouml;tzis last year.
With his place for the Olympic Games in Tokyo all but secured, he decided to end his competition early in Ratingen last year. He also did not complete the full 10 events in Tokyo but that was due to injury. This will be Kaul&rsquo;s first decathlon since then and he started his season with a 4.90m pole vault clearance, 14.60 110m hurdles and 45.22m discus throw at a meeting in Frankfurt at the start of this month.
Kazmirek, meanwhile, scored his 8580 PB when finishing fourth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and then last year topped the standings in the Combined Events Challenge following a season that included an 8190 score in G&ouml;tzis and 8184 win in Ratingen. He competed at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March but was unable to finish due to stomach problems.
Rising star Ehammer was runner-up in that Belgrade heptathlon, securing silver behind Olympic champion Damian Warner with a 6363-point Swiss record. Last year&rsquo;s European U23 long jump champion returns to decathlon action in Ratingen, looking to improve on his 8231 PB from 2020 and having been unable to complete his competition in G&ouml;tzis last June.
As well as his world silver medal win, the 22-year-old&rsquo;s performances during the indoor season included a 8.26m long jump - the furthest ever leap recorded in an indoor heptathlon &ndash; in Aubiere in January.&nbsp;
Lining up alongside them will be Germany&rsquo;s Mathias Brugger (8304 PB), who returns to competition for the first time since the Ratingen meeting in June last year, plus Tim Nowak (8229 PB), Andreas Bechmann (8142 PB) and Sweden&rsquo;s Marcus Nilsson, who achieved his PB of 8120 points in Ratingen in 2018.
<h2>Schafer heads heptathlon</h2>
Schafer had been due to compete in Ratingen last June en route to the Olympic Games, but unexpected vaccination side effects put paid to the 2017 world silver medallist&rsquo;s plans. The 30-year-old still managed to compete in Tokyo, however, and achieved 6419 points to finish seventh, two spots behind her placing at the Rio Games five years earlier. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/627441a5a718173532db78e9.jpg" alt="Carolin Schafer competes in Tokyo" />
Carolin Schafer competes in Tokyo (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Now she does return to Ratingen, and this will be her first heptathlon since Tokyo, where a javelin PB of 54.10m were among her results.
Like her training partner Kaul, Schafer also started her season in Frankfurt a few days ago and clocked 13.70 in the 100m hurdles, while she also threw the javelin 49.73m. Her 6836 PB was achieved when finishing second in G&ouml;tzis in 2017, the same year as her first win in Ratingen. She retained her title in 2018 and then claimed bronze at that year&rsquo;s European Championships on home soil in Berlin.
Belgium&rsquo;s Hanne Maudens will also be among those looking for a strong performance in Germany. The 25-year-old, who claimed bronze medals at the 2016 World U20 Championships and 2019 European U23 Championships, set her 6252 PB in G&ouml;tzis in 2018. She focused on the 400m last year &ndash; improving her PB to 53.06 &ndash; but made a combined events comeback during the indoor season.
Joining them will be Germany&rsquo;s 2019 European U23 silver medallist Sophie Weissenberg, who set a series of PBs &ndash; in the 60m hurdles, high jump and shot put &ndash; indoors earlier this year. Ratingen will be her outdoor season debut and she also plans to compete in G&ouml;tzis &ndash; another Combined Events Tour Gold meeting &ndash; in June. Her 6293 PB was set in the Austrian town in 2019.
Other athletes on the entry list to have surpassed 6000 points so far are French champion Leonie Cambours (6192 PB), who finished seventh in the pentathlon in Belgrade, plus Germany&rsquo;s Anna Maiwald (6119 PB) and Britain&rsquo;s Katie Stainton (6029 PB).
<a href="https://www.leichtathletik.de/termine/top-events/mehrkampf-2022-ratingen/live-ergebnisse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Live results</a> | <a href="https://www.leichtathletik.de/termine/top-events/mehrkampf-2022-ratingen/livestream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Live stream</a>

Germany’s 2019 world champion Niklas Kaul and 2017 world silver medallist Carolin Schafer lead the fields for the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting.

Kaul, Ehammer and Schafer star in Ratingen

Markus Rooth overtook compatriot Sander Skotheim in the final three disciplines to take a narrow decathlon victory at Multistars, while Annik Kalin dominated the heptathlon at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting in Grosseto on Sunday (1).
Rooth&rsquo;s winning score of 8307 was a Norwegian record, and Skotheim&rsquo;s runner-up tally of 8298 also exceeded the previous national mark. Kalin, meanwhile, set a Swiss record of 6398 to win by almost 400 points.
European U20 silver medallist Skotheim, still a teenager until the end of May, held the overnight lead after setting PBs in all five events in what is his first senior decathlon. But the 19-year-old was overtaken by his marginally older compatriot as both men produced huge PBs.
Kalin, meanwhile, led the heptathlon from the first event and smashed her PB by more than 200 points.
Skotheim started as he meant to go on, setting a 100m PB of 11.17, but several men were quicker. France&rsquo;s Arthur Prevost was the quickest overall in that event, clocking 10.66, while Italian indoor heptathlon record-holder Dario Dester set a PB of 10.76. Estonian champion Kristjan Rosenberg finished third in 10.85 ahead of his compatriot Risto Lillemets (10.90).
Skotheim leapt up the standings after the long jump as he produced the best marks of the day: a wind-legal PB of 7.74m (1.3m/s) and a marginally wind-aided 7.77m (2.1m/s). At the end of the event Skotheim was third in the overall standings behind Dester, who equalled his 7.61m PB, and Norway&rsquo;s Markus Rooth (7.70m).
Pieter Braun, the 2015 European U23 champion, topped the shot put after setting a PB of 15.67m, elevating him to third overall. Rooth improved his outdoor PB to 14.25m to take the lead from Dester, who improved his PB to 13.90m.
After setting a shot put PB of 13.81m, Skotheim added six centimetres to his high jump PB &ndash; substantial in decathlon terms &ndash; with a 2.16m clearance. With just two other men jumping higher than 2.00m, it gave the young Norwegian a comfortable lead of 127 points over his compatriot Rooth and Dester, both of whom cleared 1.95m. Braun cleared 1.92m and slipped to fourth.
Skotheim ended the day with a fifth PB, clocking 48.76 for 400m to bring his day-one tally to 4370. With Dester running 47.76, it meant Skotheim&rsquo;s winning margin reduced slightly to 108 points over the Italian, who currently sits in second place. Rooth and Braun, who ran 49.52 and 48.71 respectively, remain in third and fourth overall.
Prevost, as was the case in the 100m, was the fastest overall in the 400m, running 47.60 to elevate him to fifth overall in the standings.
Skotheim&rsquo;s run of PBs continued on day two as he clocked 14.81 (-0.6m/s) in the 110m hurdles, but his lead was reduced to just 41 points as Dester ran 14.40 and Rooth clocked 14.46. Brazil&rsquo;s Jos&eacute; Fernando Ferreira Santana was fastest overall with 14.27, while Braun recorded a solid 14.58 but then withdrew from the competition with a foot injury.
As was the case in the hurdles, Skotheim&rsquo;s throw in the discus (43.67m) was a PB by default as it was the first time he had contested that discipline with senior implements. It kept him afloat in the lead, but Rooth overtook Dester after throwing 45.80m to the Italian&rsquo;s 41.65m PB.
The pole vault was a turning point, namely for 20-year-old Rooth, who scaled a lifetime best of 5.05m. Skotheim managed just 4.65m, and the 40-centimetre differential proved costly for the teenager as Rooth moved into the lead.
Prevost was second best in the pole vault with 4.95m, while Dester vaulted 4.65m and remained in third place.
Skotheim narrowed the gap on Rooth after throwing a PB of 61.55m in the javelin. Rooth managed 60.83m, while Santana topped the event with 62.70m, moving up to sixth overall.
Rooth went into the final discipline with a 34-point advantage &ndash; worth roughly five seconds in 1500m terms. Skotheim went for it and, working off the likes of Dester, produced a huge PB of 4:29.11. But Rooth also uncorked the run of his life and stayed within a few seconds of his younger compatriot, setting a PB of 4:33.08.
It meant Rooth held on for victory and was rewarded with a national record of 8307. Skotheim&rsquo;s score of 8298 &ndash; the second-best mark in history by a teenager &ndash; also exceeded the previous Norwegian record of 8228, set by Martin Roe at the 2018 edition of Multistars in Florence.
&ldquo;Grosseto is my lucky place,&rdquo; said Rooth, who becomes the third Norwegian to win the Multistars decathlon after Lars Rise in 2016 and Roe in 2018 and 2021. &ldquo;I had a great decathlon with some ups and downs. I am super excited, especially with my PB in the long jump and in the pole vault. I came from behind. I am not a first-day guy, but I tried to catch up at the end. I am now qualified for the European Championships in Munich and I would be excited with a good performance there.&rdquo;
Dester finished third with 8109, improving his own Italian U23 record and moving to second on the Italian all-time list.
<h2>Heptathlon masterclass from Kalin</h2>
The 22-year-old was the fastest in the 100m hurdles, winning in 13.43 (-1.1m/s) &ndash; just 0.06 shy of her PB &ndash; to take an early lead. Italian indoor record-holder Sveva Gerevini improved her PB to 13.60 to finish second overall.
Poland&rsquo;s Paulina Ligarska topped the high jump with a PB of 1.83m, moving her from 14th to second overall. Kalin, meanwhile, cleared 1.77m which was enough to hold on to pole position.
Ligarska kept up the pressure on Kalin, winning the shot put with 14.00m. But Kalin added 62 centimetres to her PB, throwing 13.81m to maintain a 23-point lead over Ligarska. Compatriot Geraldine Ruckstuhl, the 2019 European U23 champion, threw 13.88m.
Kalin ended the day with a 24.50 run over 200m, just 0.04 shy of her PB and almost a second quicker than Ligarska&rsquo;s 25.48 effort. It brought Kalin&rsquo;s day-one score to 3715, remaining on course for a significant heptathlon PB. Gerevini&rsquo;s 23.93 was the fastest 200m clocking of the day, moving the Italian up to third place overall.
Kalin started the second day on a high note, long jumping 6.55m &ndash; just one centimetre shy of her PB and her best ever within a heptathlon &ndash; to extend her overall lead. Ligarska, however, recorded three fouls and exited the competition. It meant Gerevini &ndash; who set an outdoor PB of 6.12m &ndash; moved up into second place overall.
Kalin set a javelin PB of 49.11m to remain on course to break the Ruckstuhl&rsquo;s Swiss record of 6391. Austria&rsquo;s Chiara Schuler set a PB of 50.34m to move up into second place while Spain&rsquo;s European U23 silver medallist Claudia Conte matched Kalik&rsquo;s 49.11m and moved into fourth place overall. Gerevini slipped down to third after throwing 38.44m. Two-time Multistars winner Sofia Ifantidou was the best performer in the event with 51.39m.
Kalik&rsquo;s 2:20.45 clocking in the 800m brought her winning score to 6398. Although it was just 22 points shy of the World Championships qualifying mark, she achieved her other target of breaking the Swiss record.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing. I&rsquo;ve not been able to take part in any heptathlon competition since 2020 because of a back injury,&rdquo; said Kalin, whose next heptathlon will be in G&ouml;tzis at the end of this month. &ldquo;Every event was good; I had no down event. I achieved the qualifying standard for the European Championships in Munich and this performance should be enough to qualify for the World Championships in Eugene.&rdquo;
Gerevini finished second to Poland&rsquo;s Edyta Bielska in the 800m, 2:08.66 to 2:09.81, to set a lifetime best of 6011, becoming the first Italian heptathlete since 2003 to break 6000 points. Conte completed the podium with 5914.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a step forward in my career,&rdquo; said Gerevini. &ldquo;It means a lot to add more than 100 points to my previous PB. I was not in my best shape because of a small injury problem. My goal is to break Gertrud Bacher&rsquo;s Italian record.&rdquo;
Diego Sampaolo for World Athletics

Norwegian decathlon record of 8307 for Markus Rooth, Swiss heptathlon record of 6398 for Annik Kalin

Rooth and Kalin break national records at Multistars

Six decathletes with 8000-point-plus PBs and seven athletes who have broken 6000 points in the heptathlon will battle at the 35th Multistars, the first Gold level meeting of the 2022 World Athletics Combined Events Tour, in Grosseto this weekend (30-1).
Dutch world seventh-place finisher Pieter Braun tops the decathlon list, while Swiss record-holder Geraldine Ruckstuhl leads the heptathlon entries.
Having previously been hosted in Desenzano del Garda, Florence and Lana &ndash; with Spain's Maria Vicente and Norway's Martin Roe claiming victory in the northern Italian town in 2021 &ndash; this year the event takes place in Grosseto for the first time. As well as victory, the respective World Athletics Championships Oregon22 standards of 8350 for the decathlon and 6420 in the heptathlon will also be among the targets for the leading entries.
Braun achieved his 8342-point PB when finishing third behind Damian Warner and Maicel Uibo at the 2018 edition of the G&ouml;tzis Hypo Meeting. He went on to place seventh at the following year&rsquo;s World Athletics Championships in Doha but was unable to finish his heptathlon competition at the European Indoor Championships in Torun the following year due to an ankle problem. His last completed decathlon was the World Championships in 2019, as he gets ready to make a 10-event return following injury struggles and having been forced to withdraw from the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
He will be joined by five other athletes who have surpassed 8000 points in the senior event: Estonia&rsquo;s Kristjan Rosenberg, Risto Lillemets and Taavi Tsernjavski, plus Axel Hubert of France and Venezuela&rsquo;s Georni Jaramillo.
Rosenberg, last year&rsquo;s Estonian champion, will be looking to go one better than his runner-up Multistars finish in 2019, while Lillemets is the 2020 national champion who went on to finish fifth at the 2021 European Indoor Championships, and Tsernjavski claimed his two Estonian titles in 2015 and 2018.&nbsp;
Hubert, who achieved 8000 points for the first time at his own organised decathlon competition in 2020, has since improved to 8260, while 2019 South American champion Jaramillo has a best of 8048.&nbsp;
Last year&rsquo;s European U20 silver medallist Sander Skotheim of Norway also has a PB over 8000 points, achieved in the U20 event, and he makes his senior decathlon debut in Grosseto.
Italy&rsquo;s Dario Dester returns to combined events action after his 10th-place finish in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22. Competing on home soil, he will be joined by his teammate in Belgrade, Sveva Gerevini, who finished ninth in the pentathlon after improving the national record to 4451 earlier in the season. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626a6300b177135b9cf18bf0.jpg" alt="Italy's Sveva Gerevini at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22" />
Italy's Sveva Gerevini at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Sixth in that global competition in Belgrade was Spain&rsquo;s Claudia Conte, and she also competes in Grosseto. Her PB of 6186, achieved when she claimed European U23 silver last year in Tallinn, puts her second on the Multistars entry list behind Ruckstuhl.
Ruckstuhl, meanwhile, achieved her 6391-point national record in Talence in 2018 and the following year became the European U23 champion and finished ninth at the World Championships in Doha. Like Braun, injury also denied her the chance to compete at the Tokyo Olympics and in Grosseto she makes her return to competition for the first time since last June.
Alongside Ruckstuhl and Conte are five other heptathletes to have achieved 6000 points in their careers so far: Switzerland&rsquo;s Annik Kalin, Puerto Rico&rsquo;s Alysbeth Felix Boyer, Sofia Ifantidou of Greece, Poland&rsquo;s Paulina Ligarska and Myke van de Wiel of Netherlands.
Kalin, the 2019 European U20 bronze medallist, achieved her 6170 PB in 2020, while Puerto Rican record-holder and Olympian Felix Boyer&rsquo;s best of 6124 came in Cali in 2016. Two-time Multistars winner Ifantidou&rsquo;s 2012 PB is 6109, while Ligarska scored 6028 last year and Van de Wiel 6012, also in 2021.
<a href="https://multistars.it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Entry lists</a>

Six decathletes with 8000-point-plus PBs and seven athletes who have broken 6000 points in the heptathlon will battle at the 35th Multistars

Braun and Ruckstuhl lead fields for Multistars in Grosseto

Hans-Christian Hausenberg led an Estonian heptathlon top three on home soil, while Poland&rsquo;s Adrianna Sulek improved her pentathlon world lead at the Indoor Combined Events meeting &ndash; a World Athletics Combined Events Tour Silver event &ndash; in Tallinn this weekend (5-6).
Continuing Estonia&rsquo;s strength in the combined events, Hausenberg &ndash; the 2015 world U18 decathlon bronze medallist &ndash; had the heptathlon competition of his life to score 6143 points, breaking the 6000-point barrier for the first time. Risto Lillemets also beat 6000 points, scoring 6006 for second place, while Taavi Tsernjavski was third with 5840 points.
Their compatriot Maicel Uibo, the 2019 world decathlon silver and 2018 world indoor heptathlon bronze medallist, was also among those in action &ndash; his results including a 2.19m high jump clearance &ndash; but his competition came to an end when he was unable to record a mark in the pole vault.
Just a single point separated the top two in the pentathlon, with Sulek improving her world-leading score with a PB of 4598 points for a narrow win ahead of Britain&rsquo;s Holly Mills, who also achieved a personal best with her 4597 tally. That score adds 29 points to the previous world lead Sulek had set at the X-Athletics meeting in Aubiere the weekend before. Ukaraine&rsquo;s Yuliya Loban was third in Tallinn with 4482 points.
Hausenberg opened his campaign with a 60m win in 6.85, close to his PB of 6.82 from 2019, and maintained his lead with an outright long jump personal best of 7.92m. After 14.04m in the shot put &ndash; an event in which Vitaliy Zhuk of Belarus threw 16.46m &ndash; Hausenberg cleared 1.98m in a high jump topped by Uibos&rsquo;s 2.19m. At the end of day one, Hausenberg led with 3492 points ahead of Uibo&rsquo;s 3409.
Hausenberg started day two with a 60m hurdles PB of 7.96 and then cleared 5.22m in the pole vault before clocking 2:58.45 in the 1000m for his 6143-point PB score which places him fourth on this season&rsquo;s top list.
Portugal's Abdel Kader Larrinaga was fourth with 5810 points and Poland's Rafal Horbowicz fifth with 5556.
In the pentathlon, it was Mills who got off to the strongest start as she clocked an 8.17 PB, while Sulek ran 8.41. Sulek was ahead after the high jump thanks to her PB 1.87m clearance, while Mills managed 1.72m after feeling some discomfort in her knee.
Loban led the shot put with a 14.75m throw, with Mills managing 13.10m and Sulek 12.53m. Mills then leapt 6.37m in the long jump and Finland's Maria Huntington led after four events following her leap of 6.26m, with Sulek &ndash; who recorded 6.15m &ndash; sitting third behind Loban and Mills in fourth. Mills then went quickest in the 800m with 2:12.54, while Sulek clocked 2:14.32 to win the competition by one point.
Huntington was fourth with 4476 points and Poland's Paulina Ligarska fifth with 4301.
World Athletics
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-combined-events-tour/calendar-results/7166580/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indoor Combined Events Tallinn results</a>

Hans-Christian Hausenberg led an Estonian heptathlon top three on home soil.

Calendar
Date	Meeting	Venue	Country
28–29 JAN 2023	Meeting X-Athletics Combined Events	Stadium Jean-Pellez, Aubiére	FRA
04–05 FEB 2023	Indoor Combined Events Tallinn 2023	Lasnamäe Kergejõustikuhall, Tallinn	EST
12–13 APR 2023	Mt. SAC Relays	Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Walnut, CA	USA
29–30 APR 2023	GardaStars by 36th Multistars	Stadio Tre Stelle, Desenzano del Garda	ITA
06–07 MAY 2023	10th Kinami Michitaka Memorial Athletics Meet	Yanmar Stadium Nagai, Osaka	JPN
17–18 MAY 2023	Portarathlon	Municipal Stadium, Naxos	GRE
27–28 MAY 2023	Hypomeeting	Mösle-Stadium, Götzis	AUT
27–28 MAY 2023	Meeting Elite Défi Athlon de Montpellier	Stade Philippides, Montpellier	FRA
10–11 JUN 2023	Sweden Combined Events Challenge	Ryavallen, Borås	SWE
17–18 JUN 2023	Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting	Stadionring, Ratingen	GER
22–23 JUL 2023	Wiesław Czapiewski Memorial	Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak Stadium, Bydgoszcz	POL
23–24 SEP 2023	Décastar	Stade Pierre Paul Bernard, Talence	FRA

Hall scores 6988 to win Götzis heptathlon, LePage takes decathlon

Warner and Vetter defend titles against strong fields in Götzis

Tilga breaks Multistars record with 8482 in Desenzano del Garda

Brooks and Hawkins head heptathlon, Rooth to defend decathlon title at Multistars

Sulek and Victor confirmed winners of World Athletics Combined Events Tour

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