Kai Kazmirek charged into day two of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Ratingen the same way he left day one: at full speed, towards a second World Championships standard and onwards to an Olympic standard. And in the heptathlon, Verena Preiner led from start to finish to claim Ivona Dadic’s Austrian record.

In the sunshine of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Ratingen, German’s Kai Kazmirek was in superb form, less than 100 points behind his score from Rio at the end of day one and entertaining his home crowd with a lifetime best long jump, and a new meeting record in the 400m. He was pushed all the way by France’s Basile Rolnin, who set personal bests in four of his events. As did Verena Preiner, who at the end of the first day leads her compatriot Ivona Dadic in the heptathlon.  

World silver medallist Carolin Schäfer and 2015 Hypomeeting winner Kai Kazmirek will return to the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Götzis on 25-26 May.

Decathletes – they’re an injury-prone lot at the best of times, athletes who put their bodies through the ringer by juggling training loads for 10 different events.

In part three of our 2016 year-end review series, statisticians A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava look back on the best combined events performances of the year.

Jessica Ennis-Hill and Kai Kazmirek are the overnight leaders after the first day of action at the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on Saturday (25).

With Olympic selection deadlines fast approaching, the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on 25-26 June is set to be the last chance for some of the biggest names in combined events to book their tickets to the Rio Olympic Games.

Last year’s winners, Germany’s Kai Kazmirek and Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton, will return to the famous Mosle Stadium to defend their titles at the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis, part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Saturday and Sunday (28-29).

As has become tradition, Germany’s top combined events exponents will be making their way to the Hypo-Meeting, part of this year's IAAF Combined Events Challenge, in the Austrian town of Gotzis on 28-29 May.

Germany’s Kai Kazmirek put together a world-leading heptathlon total of 6111 points at the International Combined Events Meeting in the Estonian capital of Tallinn on Sunday (14).

Germany’s leading decathletes and heptathletes will be hoping to impress on home soil at the Erdgas Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on Saturday and Sunday (27-28).

Germany’s Kai Kazmirek and Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton hung on to their overnight leads with strong second days to emerge triumphant at the 41st Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, the third leg of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Sunday (31).