Felix Wolter at the Czapiewski Memorial (© Organisers)
Germany’s Felix Wolter and Poland’s Adrianna Sulek-Schubert lived up to expectations as the pre-event favourites for the Wiesław Czapiewski Memorial as they claimed victories at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting in the Polish town of Naklo nad Notecia on Sunday (1).
Wolter scored a meeting record of 8068 after being pushed all the way by Japan’s Yuma Maruyama and Estonia’s Risto Lillemets, both of whom also scored in excess of 8000 points.
Sulek-Schubert, meanwhile, retained her title from 2022 with 6007 to win comfortably from Ukraine’s Yuliya Loban.
Wolter led from the outset, clocking 10.63 in the 100m and leaping 7.64m in the long jump, the best marks of the day for those disciplines. His opponents made a dent on his lead in the shot put as the German managed 13.49m while Zsombor Galpal topped the event with 15.09m.
A 1.94m leap in the high jump kept Wolter in the lead ahead of Czechia’s Vilem Strasky and Maruyama, then he ended the first day with a 48.39 victory in the 400m to increase his lead to 120 points.
Wolter started the second day with a 14.52 run in the 110m hurdles, an event in which Lorenzo Naidon (14.12) and Maruyama (14.20) produced the fastest times.
Lithuania’s Edgaras Benkunskas, the strongest thrower in the field, topped the discus with a PB of 49.89m, while Wolter managed 44.06m. Lillemets then climbed up the leader board into fifth after clearing 5.00m in the pole vault with Wolter – still the overall leader – vaulting 4.70m and Maruyama managing 4.80m.
Benkunskas, Lillemets and Maruyama all threw beyond 60 metres in the javelin to make a small dent on Wolter’s lead. But his 56.43m throw kept him in pole position going into the 1500m.
Naidon was the fastest in the final discipline (4:31.99) and he was closely followed by Lillemets (4:32.24) and Maruyama (4:36.59) but Wolter did enough to hold on to his lead (4:43.61), ending with a score of 8068.
Maruyama scored 8021 for second place, just ahead of Lillemets (8012).
Like Wolter, Sulek-Schubert led the heptathlon from start to finish.
Adrianna Sulek-Schubert at the Czapiewski Memorial (© Organisers)
The European indoor silver medallist opened with a 13.44 victory in the 100m hurdles and then cleared 1.77m, the best of the day, in the high jump.
Yuliya Loban produced the best throw in the shot put, 14.86m, but Sulek-Schubert’s 13.75m kept the Pole in the lead. Sulek-Schubert then increased her leading margin to 166 points at the end of the first day thanks to a 24.28 victory in the 200m.
Sulek-Schubert and Loban produced the exact same mark in the long jump, 5.79m, then the Ukrainian out-threw Sulek-Schubert in the javelin by almost five metres, 42.22m to 37.81m, but it wasn’t enough to displace the leader.
A 2:16.95 run in the 800m sealed the victory for Sulek-Schubert, giving her a winning score of 6007. Loban was second with 5861.
