Polish heptathlete Adrianna Sulek (© AFP / Getty Images)
European indoor silver medallist Adrianna Sulek-Schubert and Germany’s Felix Wolter lead the entries for the Wiesław Czapiewski Memorial – a World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting – in the Polish town of Naklo nad Notecia this weekend (31 August – 1 September).
Sulek-Schubert, who was formerly coached by Czapiewski, won the inaugural edition of this meeting in 2022 with 6290 – which remains the meeting record – and then went on to finish fourth at the World Championships that year in a Polish record of 6672.
At the start of 2023 she finished second at the European Indoor Championships with 5014 – a mark that exceeded the previous world indoor record, but was bettered on the day by gold medallist Nafi Thiam’s 5055 world record.
Sulek-Schubert cut her 2023 season short when she discovered she was pregnant. She gave birth in February 2024 and returned to competition just four months later, scoring 6033 in her first heptathlon since childbirth. She went on to place 12th at the Olympic Games in Paris with a season’s best of 6226.
The 25-year-old will now look to cap her season in winning ways and will start as the favourite in the heptathlon.
Two other women in the field – Ukraine’s Yuliya Loban and Poland’s Edyta Bielska – have PBs in excess of 6000 points, while a third, Hungary’s Szabina Szucs, is just four points shy of that mark.
Loban, the World University Games silver medallist, finished sixth at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year, but is yet to complete an outdoor heptathlon this year. Szucs, the 2021 world U20 bronze medallist, started her outdoor campaign with a PB of 5996 and she would dearly love to end the season as a member of the 6000-point club.
Seven men with PBs in excess of 8000 points will line up for the decathlon in Naklo nad Notecia this weekend.
Felix Wolter, who finished second in Ratingen in June with a season’s best of 8226, is the leading entrant. The German set his PB of 8299 last year, and he’ll have one eye on the meeting record of 8041.
But so too will the likes of Lithuania’s Edgaras Benkunskas and Czechia’s Vilem Strasky, both of whom have bettered 8000 this season.
Estonian duo Risto Lillemets and Taavi Tsernjavski should also put up a good fight, as should Hungary’s Zsombor Galpal, Poland’s Pawel Wiesiolek and Italy’s Lorenzo Naidon.
