Puerto Rican decathlete Ayden Owens-Delerme (© AFP / Getty Images)
Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delerme won the decathlon on his Decastar debut, while Colombia’s Martha Araujo clinched her second consecutive heptathlon crown at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting in Talence on Saturday and Sunday (5-6).
Owens-Delerme scored 8478 to triumph by 242 points ahead of defending champion Johannes Erm of Estonia, while Araujo retained her title ahead of USA’s Taliyah Brooks and Michelle Atherley by scoring 6451.
Owens-Delerme took an early lead in the decathlon with a 10.48 run in the 100m, but Kendrick Thompson of The Bahamas moved into top spot after the long jump, leaping 7.70m to Owens-Delerme’s 7.44m.
The Puerto Rican regained pole position thanks to a 16.13m heave in the shot put, but again it was short-lived as France’s Teo Bastien jumped to the top of the standings after clearing 2.06m in the high jump.
Owens-Delerme ran a meeting record of 46.43 in the 400m to finish the day with a leading tally of 4469 and that was a position that he wouldn’t relinquish. Thompson covered a lap of the track in 48.56 to move into second place, while Erm’s 48.13 was one of the fastest of the day and the Estonian sat in fourth place overnight behind Bastien.
Owens-Delerme picked up from where he left off, winning the first event of day two – the 110m hurdles – in 13.72. Thompson clocked 14.19 and Bastien 14.26 and that meant they held on to their podium positions after six events, remaining ahead of Erm and Belgium’s Jente Hauttekeete, who were separated by just two points at that stage.
Estonia’s Rasmus Roosleht left it late but after two fouls he managed 47.77m from his third and final attempt in the discus to top that event and move into fifth place overall behind Owens-Delerme (44.38m), Bastien (43.58m), Erm (46.02m) and Thompson (39.98m).
Hauttekeete was in sixth place and Germany’s 2019 world champion Niklas Kaul was seventh, but that would prove to be the final event for Kaul as he did not return for the pole vault, javelin or 1500m.
Erm, Hauttekeete, Bastien and Estonia’s Risto Lillemets all managed 4.93m in the pole vault but Owens-Delerme held on to top spot after clearing 4.73m – 178 points ahead with two events to go.
Thompson was the sole athlete to surpass 60 metres in the javelin, throwing 61.44m, and that moved him back up to fourth overall behind leader Owens-Delerme, who managed 55.50m in the wet conditions, plus Bastien (55.84m) and Erm (53.53m).
Owens-Delerme closed his campaign with one final win, clocking 4:29.78 in the 1500m, to take him to a tally of 8478. Erm ran 4:32.45, contributing to his 8236 points for second place, while Thompson’s 4:39.73 moved him up one more place and on to the podium with a final score of 8177.
Hauttekeete (8123), Bastien (8102) and Lillemets (8020) also broke the 8000-point barrier, Bastien doing so for the first time to improve on his previous PB of 7976 from 2023.
The women’s heptathlon got off to a strong start with Atherley equalling the meeting record of 12.88 in the 100m hurdles. Her US compatriot Brooks was marginally behind in 12.91, with Araujo also breaking 13 seconds (12.97).
World U20 champion Jana Koscak moved up the standings after the high jump with her 1.82m leap being the best of the day, but a 1.79m clearance from Brooks kept the world indoor bronze medallist in the lead. Araujo and Atherley were third and fourth overall, within touching distance of Koscak.
Koscak took a brief lead after the shot put, thanks to the Croatian’s throw of 13.91m. Brooks threw 13.39m and held on to second place overall, ahead of Araujo (13.55m). Austria’s 2019 world bronze medallist Verena Mayr (14.70m) and Germany’s Vanessa Grimm (15.03m) were among the leading performers in the shot put and they moved into fourth and fifth overall.
Brooks regained her lead in the final discipline of the first day, the 200m, running a solid 23.87 to bring her leading tally to 3850. Araujo ended with 24.11, giving her a score of 3791 – slightly ahead of her pace from Götzis, where she set her recent South American record of 6475 to finish third. Koscak’s 24.94 kept her in contention, while Lithuania’s Beatrice Juskeviciute (23.64) and Atherley (23.66) made up some ground.
Brooks and Araujo were separated by just seven centimetres when the action resumed on day two with the long jump – Brooks leaping 6.33m and Araujo 6.40m. With Koscak managing 6.10m, there was no change to the top three overall.
As expected, Araujo showed her strength in the javelin and she soared into the lead with a throw of 49.44m. That put her 142 points ahead of Brooks (40.14m) with one event to go, while Juskeviciute moved up to third overall thanks to her 47.20m throw and she sat just eight points ahead of Koscak (43.10m) – 5373 to 5365.
Atherley topped the final event – the 800m – by running 2:06.68 and that pushed her on to the podium with 6283 points. Brooks and Araujo respectively ran 2:15.02 and 2:19.09, and that was enough for them to clinch the top two spots – Araujo successfully defending her title with 6451 points, the second-best tally of her career, and Brooks scoring 6365, also her second highest ever performance. Juskeviciute finished fourth with 6271.
