USA&rsquo;s Kendell Williams and Germany&rsquo;s Kai Kazmirek topped the end-of-season standings in the 2021 World Athletics Challenge &ndash; Combined Events.
Williams, who finished third in the 2019 edition of the series, won the overall title for the first time, tallying 19,574 points. Kazmirek, winner of this series back in 2016, landed his second title with a score of 24,500.
Rewarding season-long consistency at the highest level, the scoring system takes each athlete&rsquo;s three best marks from the series and combines the points into an overall score. Prize money is awarded to the top eight finishers at the end of the challenge. The athlete with the highest score wins US$30,000 and a wildcard entry to the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
Williams, 26, started her season with her first ever podium finish at the prestigious Hypo Meeting in G&ouml;tzis, scoring 6383. She followed it with a lifetime best of 6683 to take second place at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene. She went on to place fifth at the Olympic Games with 6508 &ndash; her highest ever score at a major championships.
&ldquo;Plenty to smile about this season,&rdquo; she said after the Olympic Games. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s always an honour to compete on the biggest stage and I&rsquo;m proud of the way I fought through two hard days of competition.&rdquo;
Williams has now secured a wildcard entry for next year&rsquo;s World Championships on home soil, so won&rsquo;t have to compete for a place on the team at the US Trials.
Spain&rsquo;s rising combined events star Maria Vicente finished second in the standings, following her national record of 6304 to win at the Multistars meeting in Lana, along with her 6274 score in Arone and 6117 performance at the Olympics.
Germany&rsquo;s Vanessa Grimm and Ratingen winner Georgia Ellenwood of Canada were close behind Vicente in the standings with just 60 points separating the trio. Benin&rsquo;s Odile Ahouanwanou, runner-up in Ratingen with a national record of 6274, was fifth.
Kazmirek&rsquo;s top score of the season came in his first decathlon of 2021 when he tallied 8190 to place seventh in G&ouml;tzis. He came close to matching that when winning in Ratingen with 8184, a performance which effectively sealed his place on Germany&rsquo;s Olympic team. He went on to place 14th at the Olympic Games in Tokyo with a score of 8126.
&ldquo;This win means a lot to me, because the victory brings with it a wildcard for the World Championships,&rdquo; said Kazmirek.
As he is one of two German athletes with a wildcard, along with world champion Niklas Kaul, it will be down to the German Athletics Federation to decide which wildcard entry to accept for the 2022 World Championships.
Adam Sebastian Helcelet of the Czech Republic achieved runner-up finishes in Lana (8025) and Arona (8058) before placing 16th at the Olympic Games in Tokyo with 8004, giving him second place overall in the challenge standings.
Norway&rsquo;s Martin Roe beat Helcelet in Lana to take victory with 8055, then placed fourth in Arona (8016) and 19th in Tokyo, finishing third overall in the standings. Sweden&rsquo;s Fredrik Samuelsson and Estonia&rsquo;s Taavi Tsernjavski took fourth and fifth respectively. 
<h2>Final standings</h2>
Women 1 Kendell Williams (USA) 19,574 2 Maria Vicente (ESP) 18,695 3 Vanessa Grimm (GER) 18,661 4 Georgia Ellenwood (CAN) 18,635 5 Odile Ahouanwanou (BEN) 18,284 <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-challenge-combined-events/standings/2021/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Complete standings</a>
Men 1 Kai Kazmirek (GER) 24,500 2 Adam Sebastian Helcelet (CZE) 24,087 3 Martin Roe (NOR) 23,934 4 Fredrik Samuelsson (SWE) 23,421 5 Taavi Tsernjavski (EST) 23,114 <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-challenge-combined-events/standings/2021/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Complete standings</a>

USA’s Kendell Williams and Germany’s Kai Kazmirek topped the end-of-season standings in the 2021 World Athletics Challenge – Combined Events.

Williams and Kazmirek win 2021 World Athletics Challenge – Combined Events

Germany&rsquo;s Kai Kazmirek and Canada&rsquo;s Georgia Ellenwood emerged the winners at the Stadtwerke Mehrkampf-Meeting, thanks to strong second-day performances at the World Athletics Challenge &ndash; Combined Events meeting in Ratingen on Sunday (20).
With many combined events athletes seeking a last-ditch attempt at boosting their Olympic selection chances, both the decathlon and heptathlon contests were highly competitive. Kazmirek, the 2017 world bronze medallist, lined up against world champion Niklas Kaul and many other talented German decathletes. The heptathlon, meanwhile, featured world bronze medallist Verena Mayr and 2013 world champion Hanna Kasyanova.
Andreas Bechmann took the overall lead after the second event of the decathlon, following a wind-assisted 10.78 clocking in the 100m and a 7.32m leap in the long jump. A 15.38m PB in the shot put meant he extended his overall lead, while Kazmirek &ndash; who had long jumped 7.38m before hurling his shot 14.31m &ndash; sat in second place, 14 points ahead of Poland&rsquo;s Pawel Wiesiolek.
Germany&rsquo;s Tim Nowak was the top performer in the high jump, banking valuable points with his 2.06m clearance and moving into third overall. Bechmann and Kazmirek both cleared 2.03m, meaning their positions remained the same.
Kazmirek made a small dent in Bechmann&rsquo;s lead in the 400m, clocking 47.26 to the leader&rsquo;s 47.68, but the latter maintained his overall lead, ending the first day with 4370. A 48.41 run from Wiesiolek moved the Pole up to fourth overall, 42 points shy of third-placed Nowak.
Kaul, as is often the case on the first day of a high-quality decathlon, was further down the standings in eighth, slightly below the pace he set in G&ouml;tzis last month.
It didn&rsquo;t take long for Kazmirek to overtake Bechmann on day two. The 0.74 difference between them in the 110m hurdles (14.50 and 15.24) was enough to transpose their positions in the overall standings.
They remained in those positions through the next three events as Kazmirek threw 41.89m in the discus, cleared 5.00m in the pole vault and threw 56.69m in the javelin. Bechmann managed 42.23m in the discus, vaulted 4.80m and launched his spear 53.35m.
Kaul also got off to a strong start on day two, clocking a PB of 14.38 in the 110m hurdles. He then followed it with 44.85m in the discus and 4.90m in the pole vault. But, perhaps sensing at this point that no other German decathlete would produce a big enough mark to affect Kaul&rsquo;s likely selection for the Olympics, the 23-year-old withdrew from the competition after eight disciplines.
Nowak, who had been sitting in third place after the discus, suffered a snapped pole in the pole vault and sustained a hand injury in the process, so he too was a non-finisher. And Belgium&rsquo;s Niels Pittomvils, who was in third place before the 1500m, opted against finishing the competition.
It left Kazmirek, Bechmann and Mathias Brugger as the leading contenders going into the final discipline. Brugger uncorked an impressive 4:20.45 to win the 1500m, enough to carry him to 8080 points and ahead of Bechmann on the leader board. But it wasn&rsquo;t quite enough to catch Kazmirek, whose 4:42.00 run gave him a final winning score of 8184. Bechmann eventually finished third with 7955.
<h2>Ellenwood excels on second day</h2>
On Saturday, Odile Ahouanwanou enjoyed one of her best ever starts to a heptathlon.
The 30-year-old from Benin set two national records in the first four disciplines, clocking 13.25 in the 100m hurdles and throwing 15.79m in the shot put.
Her series also included a 1.73m leap in the high jump and a 24.45 run in the 200m, giving her a day-one score of 3830 &ndash; 52 points ahead of the pace she set en route to her lifetime best of 6210, set when finishing eighth at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.
But Finland&rsquo;s Maria Huntington was within striking distance. The 24-year-old ran a slightly wind-assisted 13.16 (2.2m/s) to win the 100m hurdles, then topped the high jump with 1.82m to maintain her lead. A 12.50m throw in the shot put meant she surrendered her lead to Ahouanwanou, but she ended her day with a 24.70 run in the 200m to bring her overall tally to 3712.
Ellenwood was in contention after the first two events, having clocked 13.40 in the 100m hurdles and cleared 1.76m in the high jump. She dropped to seventh overall after 12.29m in the shot put and maintained that position after the 200m (24.29), ending the first day 204 points behind Ahouanwanou.
Mayr finished the first day one place ahead of Ellenwood, safe in the knowledge that she had some strong events to come on day two.
Huntington closed in on Ahouanwanou at the start of the second day, leaping 6.39m to the African champion&rsquo;s 6.07m. But a javelin PB of 48.02m kept Ahouanwanou in pole position going into the final event.
Ellenwood, who had achieved 6.20m in the long jump, was the top performer in the javelin, throwing a big PB of 48.57m to move into second place overall. She still trailed Ahouanwanou by 153 points, but also knew that she was a much better 800m runner than the long-time leader.
The 2018 NCAA champion went for it in the final event, winning in a PB of 2:11.45 to end with a lifetime best score of 6314. Ahouanwanou finished 14 seconds adrift and slipped to second place overall, but she was rewarded with a PB of 6274, an improvement on her own national record.
Mayr, as expected, excelled in the final two disciplines, moving from sixth to fifth and then to third, scoring 6254.
Vanessa Grimm came out on top in the battle of the Germans, finishing fourth overall with 6231, comfortably ahead of fifth-placed Anna Maiwald (6069).
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
&bull; <a href="https://www.leichtathletik.de/termine/top-events/mehrkampf-2021-ratingen/ratingen-2021-live" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a>

Germany’s Kai Kazmirek and Canada’s Georgia Ellenwood emerged the winners at the Stadtwerke Mehrkampf-Meeting, thanks to strong second-day performances at the World Athletics Challenge – Combined Events meeting in Ratingen on Sunday (20).

Kazmirek and Ellenwood victorious in Ratingen

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&rsquo;s Austrian record.
<h3>Kazmirek supreme while Rolnin collects a World Championships qualifier</h3>
Watched from the sidelines by 1996 Olympic decathlon silver medallist Frank Buseman, Kazmirek clocked 14.14 to win the 110m hurdles, just nine hundredths away from his PB of 14.05. Behind him, Basile Rolnin also continued his form from the first day, one hundredth off his own best, with 14.34. Mathias Brugger split the overnight leaders with 14.26, with Fredriech Pretorius in fourth with 14.41. Unfortunately, Gael Querin took a tumble at an early hurdle, although he continued with the competition.
After the sixth event, world bronze medallist Kazmirek had extended his lead over Rolnin to almost 200 points.
Rolnin and Brugger would be expected to bring superior discus distances to those of Kazmirek, and in the first round Rolnin threw 48.38m to lead the field, followed by Dennis Hutterer with 47.18m, Fredriech Pretorius with a PB of 43.63m and Brugger 43.36m. And that was the case until the final round when Kazmirek launched a throw of 44.71m, only a metre down on his lifetime best. But that spurred on Brugger to 44.54m and &ndash; for his fifth PB of the weekend &ndash; 50.62m for Basile Rolnin. The gap between first and second shrunk to just 73 points.
Just 20 centimetres separate the lifetime bests of Kazmirek and Rolnin in the pole vault, 5.20m and 5.00m respectively. But Rolnin could do no better than 4.50m, and Brugger no-heighted at 4.60m. With Kazmirek banking a safe early jump of 4.70m, his path was clear for the rest of the pole vault, and indeed the rest of the competition.
Felix Hepperle was the only other man to go over 5.00m, and then Kazmirek was on his own, equalling his season&rsquo;s best of 5.10m, and unsuccessful at two attempts at 5.20m and one at 5.30m. With Brugger out of contention, Pretorius moved up into third, just 21 points ahead of Hutterer.
Any list of best javelin throws usually features a number of Germans, and the decathlon javelin is no different. But while there was no Estonian equivalent of Magnus Kirt to spoil the party in Ratingen, there was a Frenchman and a South African.
Rolnin&rsquo;s first-round throw of 58.61m was a PB and would have been enough to lead the field until Fredriech Pretorius&rsquo; third-round throw of 59.25m. But Basile went out a 60.00m best in the second round, and another lifetime improvement to 61.60m in the third round &ndash; the sub-par pole vault long forgotten. Kazmirek threw 56.95m.
In the final event, Kazmirek hung on to the faster men in front of him and finished the 1500m in 4:41.72, enough to take him to a World Championships and Olympic qualifying score of 8444, the fourth highest mark of the year behind G&ouml;tzis winner Damian Warner and runner-up Lindon Victor, and Talence winner Pierce LePage.
&ldquo;Of course, I&rsquo;m happy,&rdquo; he said of his performance. &ldquo;Three disciplines were not so good, but the rest was fine. I have big problems with my achilles, and I took some ibuprofen, and then it worked better. I have to go to university and study, and then after that I&rsquo;ll go on holiday for four or five days, and then start training again.&rdquo;
But behind Kazmirek, Rolnin was being helped by teammate Querin to the performance of his life. Querin is capable of a time inside 4:10, but with his decathlon dead in the water after the hurdles, he paced and encouraged Rolnin to 4:50.53, giving him a tally of 8205, a PB by 118 points and a World Championships qualifying score.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s incredible, a beautiful story because my last decathlon was two years ago, here,&rdquo; Rolnin said of his pole vault experience.
&ldquo;There was an incident in the pole vault at the end of warm up. My hamstring hurt and I don&rsquo;t know what I can do at this moment. My coach said, &lsquo;ok, you will take a little way to jump and just need one more&rsquo;. And I said ok, it&rsquo;s possible, but I don&rsquo;t know if I can run! My physio stretched me, the third jump was good, and then I said &ndash; just javelin and the last race!&rdquo;
After finishing third behind Rolnin in 7872, Pretorius shared his plans for the year.
&ldquo;My coach just informed me we have a little event in Mauritius, to do three events and try and sort out some technical stuff with the hurdles and the javelin, to get a few extra points. After that it will be to the African Games in Morocco, and hopefully we can get a better score at the African Games, and then maybe qualify for Doha.&rdquo;
<h3>Preiner embraces her new role as leader</h3>
The long jump in the heptathlon had a low-key start, with swirling winds of some 3 metres per second in both directions. The first six-metre jump of the day came from Verena Preiner (6.16m), quickly followed by Nadine Broersen (6.02m) and 6.20m from Ivona Dadic. Broersen improved to 6.20m in the third round.
In the javelin, Preiner had the longest throw in the first round of 48.03m, ahead of the 50-metre-plus throwers Dadic (47.97m) and Broersen (46.65m). She edged closer to her lifetime best of 49.56m in the second round with 48.98m, while Dadic also improved to 48.40m. And then in the third round, Preiner improved again, beating her old best by two centimetres to register 49.58m.
Dadic, being coached throughout the event by the 2004 and 2008 Olympic javelin champion Andreas Thorkildsen, responded with 49.64m, just six centimetres farther than Preiner, with Broersen also improving to 47.32m in the final round.
Preiner continued to lead after six events, and going into the 800m, only 14 points separated her and Dadic. Broersen maintained her position in third, some 100 points ahead of Anna Maiwald and Mareike Arndt, themselves only separated by eight points. 
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Verena Preiner after the heptathlon 800m in Ratingen</div>
&nbsp;
Commenting on Dadic&rsquo;s javelin, Thorkildsen said: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s getting there, it&rsquo;s the first time I&rsquo;ve seen her in competition. In practice it&rsquo;s getting better. It&rsquo;s a long process of changing technique she&rsquo;s had for many years. With her physical abilities, it should be around 55m.&rdquo;
Preiner took the 800m by the scruff of the neck, running from the front and establishing several metres of a gap from Dadic by the time they had run 100m. She increased that lead to 10 metres by the bell, and by 600m it was over, as Dadic was being caught by Yuki Yamasaki, and eventually passed by both Arndt and Maiwald.
Preiner was rewarded with an 800m PB of 2:07.74, her second lifetime best heptathlon score of the season with 6591, and the addition of 39 points to Dadic&rsquo;s Austrian record. Dadic finished with a season&rsquo;s best of 6461. It was the first time Preiner had finished ahead of Dadic in a combined events competition (excluding competitions where one of them was a non-finisher).
Maiwald, Arndt and Yamasaki also recorded PBs in the 800, and Maiwald (with a PB of 6174) and Arndt (6160) finished fourth and fifth respectively behind Broersen in third (6232).
&ldquo;I did not expect it, winning here and doing a national record, so I&rsquo;m really happy,&rdquo; said Preiner. &ldquo;It was the first time I had a leader bib, and so that was a nice thing. I was happy to wear it through the whole heptathlon and win it in the end. I did the heptathlon in Arona, and made some technical mistakes, so I tried to do better here. I tried to have fun and bring all the events together, and so I&rsquo;m very happy.&rdquo;
Gabriella Pieraccini for the IAAF

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.

Olympic standard for Kazmirek and Austrian record for Preiner in Ratingen

In the sunshine of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Ratingen, German&rsquo;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&rsquo;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>Kazmirek hones in on a &lsquo;perfect day&rsquo;</h3>
The decathlon started with a flurry of personal bests from the German contingent: 10.90 for Ulm&rsquo;s Fynn Zenker as he went under 11 seconds for the first time in the first heat, 10.90 for Felix Wolter in the second, and Jannis Wolff just a hundredth of a second behind him, also dipping under 11 seconds for the first time. But the lifetime bests were not just for the home participants, and France&rsquo;s Basile Rolnin &ndash; having pulled out of Talence with an ankle injury &ndash; raced to 11.03, 0.01 ahead of his previous best from 2016. Zenker, Wolter and Wolff were among the fastest of the day, exceeded only by Germany&rsquo;s World bronze medallist, Kai Kazmirek, in 10.85.
There was an early casualty as Montenegro&rsquo;s Darko Pe&scaron;ić pulled up in the first heat of the 100m with a hamstring problem.
It was clearly the day for revising bests from 2016, as Kazmirek leaped to the longest jump of the day in the first round, improving the 7.69m from his fourth place in the Rio Olympics to 7.74m, and extending his early lead to 130 points over Rolnin. Rolnin scored his second personal best of the day in the long jump, by 2cm to 7.37m, and South Africa&rsquo;s Fredriech Pretorius had the third longest jump with 7.29m. Further down the field, Jannis Wolff also had his second lifetime best of the day as he broke seven metres for the first time with 7.05m.
Two personal bests in two events is not bad going, but there was more to come from the French indoor heptathlon champion. Rolnin threw over 15 metres for the first time with a 61cm best of 15.38m to make it three out of three. Behind him, the big throws rained down from the German field, as Lennard Biere threw 15.12m and Dennis Hutterer 14.98m. Kazmirek threw a solid 14.72m, but perhaps the most pleasing result was for 32-year old Frenchman Gael Querin who extended his shot PB from 14.02m &ndash; set during the 2014 European Championships - to 14.10m. And with 14.56m, Zenker&rsquo;s clubmate Mathias Brugger moved up the scoreboard to sit in third place behind Kazmirek and Rolnin after three events.
On to the high jump, where at the start of the day Rolnin had a lifetime best of 2.04m, and Kazmirek 2.15m. But Kazmirek has had to recalibrate his expectations for the high jump this year, clearing just 2.00m in G&ouml;tzis and this weekend just 1.99m in Ratingen. As was becoming the theme of the day, it was another lifetime best performance for Rolnin, clearing 2.05m and 2.08m before retiring at 2.11m. Further down the field, there were several strong German performances as Tom-Lucas Greiner equalled his best with 1.99m, Jannis Wolff improved his with 1.96m, Niklas Ransiek equalling 1.93m and Fynn Zenker surpassing his previous best of 1.83m to clear 1.84m and 1.87m. Austria&rsquo;s Dominik Distelberger retired in his final attempt at 1.93m and did not complete the first day.
After four events, Rolnin had narrowed the gap behind Kazmirek to just 7 points. But Kazmirek&rsquo;s 400m is much stronger than Rolnin&rsquo;s, and indeed stronger than most others&rsquo; in the field. On this occasion it was the strongest performance ever seen at the Ratingen Mehrkampf meeting. Kazmirek broke Erki Nool&rsquo;s record of 47.11 from 2002 with a stunning 46.81, just 0.06 outside his own personal best.
At the end of the first day, Kazmirek leads with 4423 points, ahead of Rolnin with 4254 and Brugger with 4158.
As Kazmirek headed off for treatment after the 400m, his coach J&ouml;rg Roos reflected on his athlete&rsquo;s day.
&ldquo;It was a hard day because of the high jump. He had to work a lot on the Achilles, which has been a problem for three or four months now. And the rest was just perfect. 2.00m is always a good result but today it was not possible. The plan was to cut off at 2.00m, so 1.99 was ok. The long jump&hellip;was a long jump! And to have the 400m stadium record&hellip; It is 4423 on the first day - the best mark is 4500 from Rio, so it&rsquo;s close. It was a perfect first day and we have to work for the technical day tomorrow.&rdquo;
<h3>Preiner leads an Austrian 1-2</h3>
The heptathlon started in similar fashion, with a host of personal bests in the hurdles in the German field: 14.25 for Janina Lange, 14.33 for Mareike R&ouml;sing, 13.65 for Caroline Klein and 13.66 for Abigail Adjei. But again it was one of the big names who also had a big start, as Arona winne Preiner clipped 0.08 from her best time to 13.42, followed by Mareike Arndt (13.53) and Anna Maiwald (13.61) with Austrian record holder Ivona Dadic finishing sixth in 13.71.
&nbsp;
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Verena Preiner after her high jump PB in Ratingen</div>
&nbsp;
Preiner continued her good form in the high jump, clearing a lifetime best of 1.80m to finish first, the same height as Dadic. Adjei equalled her lifetime best in the parallel group with 1.65m. The Netherlands&rsquo; Nadine Broersen cleared 1.77m, and Maiwald 1.74m.
On to the shot and there was a third best of the day for Preiner with 14.27m, finishing third in the event won by Arndt with 14.54m, and Dadic second with 14.44m. After three events Preiner led Dadic by 36 points, with Broersen in third. Caroline Klein retired during the high jump and did not start the final two events.
In the final event of the day, run in searing 35 degree heat, Adjei finished the second heat of the 200m with a new best of 24.59, but &ndash; like Rolnin in the decathlon &ndash; it was four personal bests out of four for Preiner as she improved her lifetime mark to 23.96. The final heat was won by Arndt in 23.71, with 23.87 for Dadic and a personal best of 23.93 for Maiwald in third, ahead of Preiner.
Preiner tallied 3842 to take the overnight lead with Dadic second with 3814. Maiwald is third with 3727.
While on paper Dadic has the stronger second day, given Preiner&rsquo;s form this season her personal best of 6472, set just a few weeks ago in Arona, may well be under threat as she continues to do battle with Dadic.
Gabriella Pieraccini for the IAAF

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.  

Kazmirek and Preiner the overnight leaders in Ratingen

World silver medallist Carolin Sch&auml;fer and 2015 Hypomeeting winner Kai Kazmirek will return to the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in G&ouml;tzis on 25-26 May.
Sch&auml;fer finished on the Hypomeeting podium in 2015, 2016 and 2017, setting her lifetime best of 6836 when finishing second two years ago. The 27-year-old German will be looking for her first heptathlon victory in the Austrian town.
Along with the previously announced Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Niamh Emerson and Erica Bougard, many other top heptathletes will be in action in G&ouml;tzis.
Latvia&rsquo;s 2015 world bronze medallist Laura Ikauniece hasn&rsquo;t completed a heptathlon since her third-place finish in G&ouml;tzis in 2017 with a PB of 6815, but the 26-year-old returned to top form earlier this year and will be keen to secure a qualifying mark for the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.
World U20 javelin champion Alina Shukh, one of the IAAF&rsquo;s Gen-10 athletes for 2019, will also be in G&ouml;tzis, as will 2016 European champion Anouk Vetter, 2014 world indoor champion Nadine Broersen, 2016 world U20 bronze medallist Hanne Maudens, 2008 world U20 bronze medallist Grit Sadeiko and German trio Mareike Arndt, Sophie Weissenberg and Anna Maiwald.
Kazmirek, the world bronze medallist, finished fourth in G&ouml;tzis last year with 8329 in what was his only complete decathlon of 2018. The 28-year-old will be one of several strong German decathletes in action in G&ouml;tzis as he will be joined by world silver medallist Rico Freimuth, 2016 world U20 champion Niklas Kaul, 2016 world indoor bronze medallist Mathias Brugger, 2014 world U20 bronze medallist Tim Nowak and 2018 Ratingen runner-up Manuel Eitel.
World indoor bronze medallist Maicel Uibo will line up alongside fellow Estonians Janek Oiglane, the fourth-place finisher at the 2017 World Championships, and Karl Robert Saluri.
Dutch duo Eelco Sintnicolaas, the 2013 European indoor champion, and Pieter Braun will return to the site of their PBs. Sintnicolaas scored 8539 in G&ouml;tzis in 2017 while Braun tallied 8342 there last year.
Others in the field include Belgium&rsquo;s Niels Pittomvils, Norway&rsquo;s Martin Roe and Sweden&rsquo;s Fredrik Samuelsson.
Organisers for the IAAF

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.

Schäfer, Kazmirek and Freimuth among latest Götzis additions

Decathletes &ndash; they&rsquo;re an injury-prone lot at the best of times, athletes who put their bodies through the ringer for a short-lived two days in the sun, and that's only when they make it to the start line.&nbsp;
Those who make it to the podium at major championships are not always the most talented, or indeed the most hard-working; sometimes they&rsquo;re the lucky few who managed to keep their body in working order when so many of their rivals fell to pieces.
But an injury-free decathlete is something of an oxymoron, such is the toll the rigour of training takes long before they make it to a competition.
Kai Kazmirek knows this, so when the German 26-year-old tore ligaments in his ankle in mid-May, shortly before his attempt to book his ticket to London at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Gotzis, he knew not to panic. It was all part of the job.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I was in really good shape before my first competition but I fell over and damaged ligaments in my foot,&rdquo; he says.
Bereft of time &ndash; and indeed his health &ndash; Kazmirek found himself in a position where most would have conceded defeat.
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Kai Kazmirek of Germany in action during the javelin in the men's decathlon at the IAAF World Championships London 2017</div>
 Given the ultra-competitive nature of German combined events &ndash; think USA and Jamaica in sprints, Kenya and Ethiopia in distance running &ndash; he needed to make a quick recovery if he was to earn his place on the national team at the IAAF World Championships London 2017.
Four weeks &ndash; that&rsquo;s all he had before the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Ratingen. &ldquo;I taped it, took painkillers, did everything I could,&rdquo; he says.
Somehow he held himself together, Kazmirek managing to finish third in Ratingen with 8478 behind compatriot Rico Freimuth and Grenada&rsquo;s Kurt Felix.
<h3>Staying on track</h3>
Coming into London, the injury problems meant Kazmirek&rsquo;s expectations were tempered, aware that the six weeks of training he missed in May and June had left him unlikely to feature with the world&rsquo;s best.
But class is a permanent commodity, and Kazmirek has never been short of it throughout his career.
Growing up in Torgau, a town in northwest Germany, he started his sporting life as a footballer, kicking a ball around with his schoolmates from the age of five. At the age of 11 he first tried athletics, and such is the all-round approach taken in the club system in Germany, he tried every event throughout his youth.
&ldquo;We all start with combined events then branch off, so when you find an event you like you stick with it,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Germany is the land of combined eventers.&rdquo;
In 2008 he was German U18 champion in the high jump, clearing 2.09m at the age of 17, but even then he was aware that he could only ever be quite good at that event, while he could be great at the decathlon.
&ldquo;I said: &lsquo;okay, I&rsquo;m not good enough for one discipline so I will stay at the combined events',&rdquo; he recalls. &nbsp;
He tried his first decathlon the following year, managing 7477 in his first attempt, which booked him a place at the European Junior Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia, where he set a lifetime best of 7639 to take the bronze medal.
But it would be a long time before he would reach another podium at a major championships. In 2010 he finished sixth in the decathlon at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, then sixth again at the 2011 European U23 Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
The London 2012 Olympics would pass him by, his breakthrough tally of 8130 not enough to gain selection on the German team, but selectors would know his name once again in 2013 when he upped his PB to 8366, and more importantly won gold, at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fipcafaPtTE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">European U23 Championships in Tampere, Finland</a>.
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German decathlete Kai Kazmirek</div>
 His improvement has been consistent, his routine methodical, Kazmirek training alone at his home in St Sebastian, a small town of fewer than 2000 people. His primary coach is Jorg Roos, though for disciplines that need the most work &ndash; in Kazmirek&rsquo;s case, the throws &ndash; he seeks the guidance of two additional coaches.
Last year, Kazmirek&rsquo;s commitment to strengthening his weaknesses was rewarded with a spot at his first Olympic Games in Rio, where he had a breakthrough performance to finish fourth with 8580 points, an agonising 86 points shy of a medal.
<h3>Lingering doubts</h3>
If that wasn&rsquo;t enough to earn a spot on a podium, what hope had he this year, after all his injury problems?&nbsp;
&ldquo;I was just very happy to be here,&rdquo; he said in London. &ldquo;I missed six or seven weeks of really good training and it was a mental problem from then. I didn&rsquo;t expect a medal.&rdquo;
His first day of competition was far from ideal, inclement weather wreaking havoc with some of his performances early on. Nonetheless Kazmirek finished it in fine style, clocking the fastest time in the 400m of 47.19 to overtake German teammate Rico Freimuth and sit second behind France&rsquo;s Kevin Mayer on 4421 points overnight.
Still, he didn&rsquo;t quite believe, not when Olympic medallists were hot on his tail, guys like Trey Hardee of USA and Damian Warner of Canada.
After clocking 14.66 in the 110m hurdles to start day two, however, he started to think a medal might soon be his, mostly due to Hardee crashing out after hitting the third hurdle and another medal contender, Ilya Shkurenev, pulling up injured in the same race.
After a 5.10m clearance in the pole vault and a 62.45m javelin throw, Kazmirek headed into the 1500m with enough of a cushion over his closest rivals that he could coast to the finish without undue suffering, though after 10 events in two days nothing feels particularly good.
Except, of course, the bronze medal he was soon awarded, Kazmirek joining champion Mayer and silver medallist Freimuth on the podium, the Germans becoming the first pair from their nation to reach a World Championships decathlon podium since 1987.
&ldquo;It was the night of the Germans,&rdquo; said Kazmirek. &ldquo;This is an indescribable feeling.&rdquo;
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It was a medal earned the hard way, not just through his mountains of training but following the inconvenience of ill-timed injury.
After he had finished speaking to the media in the bowels of the London Stadium, Kazmirek set off into the night to track down his mother and father, who had come to London to witness their son&rsquo;s proudest moment.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll all celebrate together,&rdquo; he said, beaming the smile of a man who couldn't be more content. &ldquo;I think it will be a long night.&rdquo;
Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF

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.

Rocky road to London pays off for Kazmirek

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.
<h3>Men&rsquo;s decathlon</h3>
Ashton Eaton of the USA returned to decathlon competition last season following a 2014 campaign consisting mainly of 400m hurdles races. His only decathlon in 2015 was his 9045-point world record performance at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015.
This year began well for the 28-year-old. Before a home crowd in Portland, he won his third straight world indoor title, scoring 6470. This, however, was more than 150 points shy of his 6645 world indoor record from Istanbul in 2012 and the 6632 points he tallied in Sopot two years later. This indicated that other top athletes could have a chance to win the Olympic title in Rio with a perfect performance.
Eaton won the US title with a world-leading 8750, but others had achieved promising early season results as well. Canada&rsquo;s Damian Warner, the world silver medallist from 2015 and bronze medallist from 2013, won the G&ouml;tzis meeting in May with 8523. Although he started the competition with a world decathlon best of 10.15 in the 100m, the series was far from perfect and it was clear that he could score much higher. The 27-year-old also ran a wind-assisted 10.09 100m in May.
The Rio competition was a tight one, yet the athlete challenging Eaton for the gold was not Warner, but Frenchman Kevin Mayer. The 24-year-old produced a huge performance of 8834, a national record and a massive 313-point improvement on his previous personal best of 8521 set at the 2014 European Championships.
Eaton showed his true class in the end though by running 4:23.33 in the 1500m to make sure Mayer couldn&rsquo;t catch him. Eaton equalled the Olympic record of 8893 for his second consecutive Olympic gold, with Mayer taking silver and Warner the bronze with 8666.
Kai Kazmirek of Germany was fourth with a PB of 8580 points and went on to win the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
<h3>Women&rsquo;s heptathlon</h3>
As the Rio Olympic Games approached it looked very much as though the top two finishers from the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015, champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and runner-up Brianne Theisen-Eaton, would battle it out for the gold once again. Not only did they have the crucial experience but they also were clearly ahead on the 2016 world list.
Canadian Theisen-Eaton won in G&ouml;tzis with 6765 and Ennis-Hill in Ratingen with 6733; no others were within 100 points of those scores. Ennis-Hill and Theisen-Eaton also lived up to expectations in Rio, producing consistent series and tallying 6775 and 6653 points respectively.
However, that turned out to only be good enough for silver and bronze as Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium rose to the occasion by adding more than 300 points to her lifetime best with a 6810 score.
Although the 22-year-old Thiam was considered a strong prospect since her 6298 score in 2012 while still in the U20 ranks, few expected that kind of high level improvement. After all, she was only fourth in G&ouml;tzis two-and-a-half months earlier, almost 300 points behind Theisen-Eaton.
However, combined events athletes do sometimes piece together competitions where they perform at or near PB-level in every event. Rio was such an occasion for Thiam, where she notched PBs in the 100m hurdles, high jump, long jump, javelin and 800m, and fairly close efforts in the shot put and 200m.
A comparison of the Rio series for Thiam and Ennis-Hill shows radically different profiles. Ennis-Hill was much the better runner (12.84 vs 13.56 in the hurdles, 23.49 vs 25.10 in the 200m and 2:09.07 vs 2:16.54 in 800m) while the Belgian had the advantage both in the jumps (1.98m vs 1.89m in the high jump and 6.58m vs 6.43m in the long jump) and in the throws (14.91m vs 13.86m in the shot put and 53.13m vs 46.06m in the javelin).
With the top trio in the Olympic year limiting themselves to one tune-up meet before Rio, the IAAF Combined Events Challenge title went to hyper-consistent Carolin Sch&auml;fer of Germany who had her three scores (third in G&ouml;tzis, second in Ratingen and fifth at the Olympics) within just 81 points of the 6500-level.&nbsp;
Mirko Jalava (men&rsquo;s events) and A. Lennart Julin (women&rsquo;s events) for the IAAF

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. 

2016 end-of-year reviews – combined events

<a href="#FR">Fran&ccedil;ais</a>
With the 2016 series having concluded in Talence last weekend, Germany&rsquo;s Kai Kazmirek and Carolin Schafer ended the year as the overall winners* of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
Kazmirek is just the second German man to win the challenge since it was inaugurated in 1998. He is also the first decathlete to lift the title without having won any of the individual meetings in the series.
The 25-year-old was consistent throughout the season, finishing third in Gotzis with 8318, placing second in Ratingen with 8323 before taking fourth place at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with a PB of 8580.
With each athlete&rsquo;s top three scores counting towards the overall points tally in the final standings, Kazmirek amassed a total of 25,211 to comfortably win the title &ndash; and the US$30,000 first prize &ndash; from Jeremy Taiwo of the USA.
Taiwo had a breakthrough season, adding more than 100 points to his PB to finish second at the US Olympic Trials with 8425. He started his season with an 8203 performance in Gotzis and ended it with an 11th-place finish at the Olympics, scoring 8300.
European silver medallist Adam Sebastian Helcelet was the only other man to rack up three 8000-point decathlons in this year&rsquo;s series. The Czech all-rounder recorded a PB of 8291 to finish 12th in Rio.
Like Kazmirek, Schafer became the second German athlete to win the women&rsquo;s IAAF Combined Events Challenge. And, also like her compatriot, Schafer did not win at any of this year&rsquo;s individual meetings.
She showed great consistency all year, though, as just 81 points separated her three heptathlon scores. She was third in Gotzis with a PB of 6557, then placed second in Ratingen with 6476. The 24-year-old rounded out her season by finishing fifth at the Olympics with 6540, giving her an overall series score of 19,573.
Anouk Vetter, who won the European title with a Dutch record of 6626, finished second in the overall challenge standings, 271 points behind Schafer. US champion Barbara Nwaba was third, a further 139 points in arrears.
Athletes had to have contested at least three competitions in the IAAF Combined Events Challenge to be eligible for one of the money awards given to the top eight finishers. Olympic decathlon medallists Ashton Eaton, Kevin Mayer and Damian Warner and Olympic heptathlon medallists Nafissatou Thiam, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Brianne Theisen-Eaton each completed just two combined events competitions and so do not feature in the final standings.
<a name="FR"></a>IAAF
*Subject to fulfilling the usual anti-doping requirements
<hr />
<h3>Kazmirek et Schafer remportent le Challenge des &Eacute;preuves combin&eacute;es de l'IAAF 2016</h3>
Le Challenge des &Eacute;preuves combin&eacute;es de l'IAAF 2016, qui s'est conclu le week-end dernier &agrave; Talence, a &eacute;t&eacute; remport&eacute; par les Allemands Kai Kazmirek, pour le titre masculin, et Carolin Schafer pour le titre f&eacute;minin. Ces deux athl&egrave;tes sont donc les laur&eacute;ats* du Challenge des &Eacute;preuves combin&eacute;es de l'IAAF.
Kazmirek n'est que le second athl&egrave;te masculin allemand &agrave; remporter le Challenge depuis que celui-ci a &eacute;t&eacute; inaugur&eacute; en 1998. Il est en outre le premier d&eacute;cathlonien &agrave; remporter le titre sans avoir gagn&eacute; une des r&eacute;unions individuelles de la s&eacute;rie.
Kazmirek, 25 ans, a &eacute;t&eacute;&nbsp;r&eacute;gulier tout au long de la saison, terminant troisi&egrave;me &agrave; Gotzis avec 8&nbsp;318 points, second &agrave; Ratingen, avec 8&nbsp;323 points, avant une quatri&egrave;me place aux Jeux Olympiques de Rio 2016, avec un record personnel de 8&nbsp;580 points.
Les trois meilleurs scores de chaque athl&egrave;te &eacute;taient pris en compte pour le classement g&eacute;n&eacute;ral final et Kazmirek a accumul&eacute; 25 221 points, qui lui ont valu de remporter le titre &ndash; et les 30 000 dollars USD l'accompagnant - avec une marge d'avance confortable sur son dauphin, l'Am&eacute;ricain Jeremy Taiwo.
Taiwo s'est v&eacute;ritablement affirm&eacute; cette saison, am&eacute;liorant de plus de 100 points son record personnel pour monter sur la seconde marche du podium lors des s&eacute;lections olympiques am&eacute;ricaines, avec 8&nbsp;425 points. Il avait entam&eacute; sa saison avec une performance de 8&nbsp;203 &agrave; G&ouml;tzis, et l'a termin&eacute;e avec une onzi&egrave;me place aux Jeux Olympiques (8&nbsp;300).
Le vice-champion d&rsquo;Europe Adam Sebastian Helcelet a &eacute;t&eacute; le seul autre athl&egrave;te &agrave; avoir d&eacute;pass&eacute; les 8&nbsp;000 points lors de trois d&eacute;cathlons dans la s&eacute;rie de cette ann&eacute;e. Le Tch&egrave;que, r&eacute;put&eacute; pour sa polyvalence, a port&eacute; son record personnel &agrave; 8291 &agrave; Rio, ce qui lui a valu la douzi&egrave;me place.
Tout comme Kazmirek, Schafer est devenue, chez les femmes, la seconde athl&egrave;te allemande &agrave; remporter le Challenge des &Eacute;preuves combin&eacute;es de l'IAAF. Et l&agrave; encore, &agrave; l'instar de son compatriote, Schafer ne s'est jamais impos&eacute;e lors des comp&eacute;titions individuelles.
Elle a fait malgr&eacute; tout preuve d'une belle r&eacute;gularit&eacute; tout au long de la saison, ses trois heptathlons s&rsquo;inscrivant dans une fourchette de 81 points. Elle a ainsi fini troisi&egrave;me &agrave; G&ouml;tzis, avec un record personnel de 6557, puis seconde &agrave; Ratingen, avec 6&nbsp;476 points. L'athl&egrave;te de 24 ans a cl&ocirc;tur&eacute; sa saison avec une cinqui&egrave;me place aux Jeux de Rio, avec 6&nbsp;540 points, portant son score total pour la s&eacute;rie &agrave; 19 573.
La N&eacute;erlandaise Anouk Vetter, qui a remport&eacute; le titre europ&eacute;en avec un nouveau record national &agrave; la cl&eacute; (6&nbsp;626), a pris la seconde place du Challenge, &agrave; 271 points de Schafer. La championne des USA Barbara Nwaba a fini troisi&egrave;me, 139 points derri&egrave;re Vetter.
Les athl&egrave;tes devaient avoir particip&eacute;&nbsp;&agrave; au moins trois comp&eacute;titions du Challenge des &Eacute;preuves combin&eacute;es de l'IAAF pour &ecirc;tre &eacute;ligibles aux prix en argent d&eacute;cern&eacute;s aux huit premiers des classements finaux. Les m&eacute;daill&eacute;s olympiques du d&eacute;cathlon, Ashton Eaton, Kevin Mayer et Damian Warner, ainsi que leurs homologues f&eacute;minines, dans l'heptathlon, Nafissatou Thiam, Jessica Ennis-Hill et Brianne Theisen-Eaton, ne se sont align&eacute;s que dans deux comp&eacute;titions du Challenge et ne figurent donc pas dans les classements g&eacute;n&eacute;raux finaux.
IAAF
*Sujet aux exigences habituelles li&eacute;es aux contr&ocirc;les antidopage

With the 2016 series having concluded in Talence last weekend, Germany’s Kai Kazmirek and Carolin Schafer ended the year as the overall winners* of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.

Kazmirek and Schafer win 2016 IAAF Combined Events Challenge

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).&nbsp;
Competing under dark rainy skies that witnessed both fields thinning dramatically over the course of the first day, Ennis-Hill tallied 3990 points in the heptathlon while Germany&rsquo;s Kazmirek leads the decathlon with 4391.
<h3>Ennis-Hill impresses in first heptathlon since Beijing</h3>
In true British fashion and probably used to the weather from her native Sheffield, world and Olympic champion Ennis-Hill battled the elements admirably, opening her competition with the fastest 100m hurdles time of the day clocking 13.13. Behind her was Germany&rsquo;s Carolin Schafer with 13.48, leaving Ennis-Hill with 1105 points and a 52-point lead after the first event. The pair was trailed by the Swiss duo of Michelle Zeltner and Linda Zublin, who clocked 14.00 and 14.01 respectively.
While the two favourites produced promising results despite the conditions, others struggled from the start.
Jennifer Oeser, who is still chasing the Rio qualification standard of 6200 points, almost crashed out of the competition before it even started. The German took a tumble but managed to stay on her feet to finish in 15.21 for 814 points, more than 200 down from her result in Gotzis last month. Cuba&rsquo;s Yorgelis Rodriguez had an even worse start, forced out after two false starts.
The weather took no mercy during the high jump either. Rodriguez, who decided to continue despite her zero point tally in the hurdles, turned frustration into motivation as she equalled her personal best of 1.87m, a good performance given the rainy conditions.
Meanwhile, Ennis-Hill extended her lead over Schafer with a third time clearance at 1.84m (2134 points), while Schafer had to settle for 1.75m.
Oeser bettered her season&rsquo;s best to 1.81m to move back within reach of compatriot Lilli Schwarzkopf and the Olympic qualifier. Schwarzkopf&rsquo;s 1.72m meant that after two events the German pair were sitting tight with 1805 and 1845 points respectively.
In the shot put, one of Schafer&rsquo;s stronger disciplines, it was the German&rsquo;s turn to shine. The 25-year-old hit a lifetime best of 14.56m with her first effort to up her tally to 2800. For her part Ennis-Hill reached14.29m, her best result since 2012, to tally 2947 after three events.
Meanwhile, Oeser and Schwarzkopf continued their battle for the third spot on the German Olympic team. While Oeser&rsquo;s 14.23m was only 6cm shy of her personal best, Schwarzkopf remained almost a metre behind hers with a 14.15m best on the day.
Ennis-Hill capped off her opening day with a 23.36 meeting record in the 200m for a solid 3990 first day total, just 15 points shy of her first day total in Beijing last year and leaving her on course for 6600 points.
Schafer clocked 23.78 to finish the day with 3802, 120 points behind her first day tally from Gotzis, but she&rsquo;s already secured her Rio ticket.&nbsp;
With Schwarzkopf&rsquo;s withdrawal before the 200m, German is focused on Oeser&rsquo;s Olympic ticket chase. She&rsquo;s currently fourth with 3506 points behind Zeltner, who, propelled by a 24.48 PB in the 200m, is on course for the Rio qualification with 3570. Fellow Swiss Zublin dropped out after the high jump, while Austria&rsquo;s Ivona Dadic pulled up in the 200m.
<h3>Kazmirek on career best pace</h3>
Even worse was the shrinkage in the decathlon field. 2012 European champion Pascal Behrenbruch, who was hoping to have a last stab at the Olympic standard of 8100 points, didn&rsquo;t line up as he is expecting the birth of his first child this weekend.
On the track, however, it was once again Kazmirek who got out of the blocks the fastest. He opened with 10.79 in the 100m, while world championship bronze medallist Rico Freimuth and Arthur Abele both followed with 10.95.
Kazmirek continued his fine form, which already saw him score 8318 in Gotzis last month, in the long jump. A 7.57m leap extended his tally to 1860 points.
Freimuth, who was knocked out Gotzis after fouling out in the long jump, took no risks here. Launching well behind the board, he reached a modest 7.16m. But another German with three fouls in Gotzis, Jan-Felix Knobel, suffered even worse luck here. The 2008 world junior champion rolled his ankle on his second jump, forcing him out of the competition and putting an end to his Rio ambitions.
Leonel Suarez, the Olympic bronze medallist, struggled with the wet and windy conditions and could only manage 6.80m &ndash; 80cm shy of his season&rsquo;s best from March.&nbsp;
After fouling out of the Gotzis shot put, Abele wasn&rsquo;t about to gamble here after a solid 7.48m long jump moved him into second place with 1802 points. He reached a modest 14.29m in the first round before improving his lifetime best to 15.79m in the second to move into the lead with 2640 points.
Kazmirek, whose strengths lie more on the track and in the jumps, also bettered his PB to 14.78m. Freimuth reached 14.57m to remain on course for 8100 points.
Unfortunately the trend of drop-outs continued. Despite reaching personal bests of 14.72m and 13.60m in the shot put, both Gonzalo Barroilhet (CHI) and Jan Dolezal (CZE) decided to retire after the shot put. Suarez, who reached just 13.12m, followed suit.
Kazmirek and Abele trudged on. Kazmirek topped 2.07m in the high jump to regain the lead with 3504 points, 79 up on Abele who managed 1.98m with his 13th jump of the competition.
Friemuth cleared 1.89m but struggling with a calf injury, didn&rsquo;t reach the start line of the 400m. &nbsp;While his retirement means more headaches for German selectors, Kazmirek provided them with reason to be optimistic as the Rio Games approach.
The 25-year-old clocked 48.48 to record his fourth victory of the day and finish with 4391, leaving him on course to threaten his 8471 career best. Abele is second 125 points back, but will be looking to eat up the gap on day two especially in his favoured throwing events.
Germany&rsquo;s Patrick Scherfose is a distant third with 3847, 419 points behind Abele.
The weather forecast calls for improved conditions on Sunday.
Michelle Sammet for the IAAF

Ennis-Hill and Kazmirek the overnight leaders in Ratingen

With Olympic selection deadlines fast approaching, the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting, part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, 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.
World and Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill leads the heptathlon field.
The Briton, who holds a PB of 6955, took the world title at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 in just her second heptathlon after returning from maternity leave. But since her triumphant heptathlon last August, Ennis-Hill has been plagued by injury woes and had to pull out of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Gotzis last month. The 30-year-old tested her form in four events in Manchester two weeks ago with promising results.
Ennis-Hill will have to fend off some tough competition from local shores. Germany&rsquo;s Carolin Schafer scored a PB of 6557 in Gotzis last month and will be looking to gain the mental advantage of beating the Olympic champion ahead of the Games in front of a home crowd.
Two other Germans having to fight for the remaining ticket to Rio are 2009 world silver medallist Jennifer Oeser and Olympic silver medallist Lilli Schwarzkopf. Oeser fell just 29 points shy of the 6200 qualifying standard in Gotzis, while Schwarzkopf will need to improve her season&rsquo;s best of 6088 by more than 100 points.
Both will also likely need to surpass the 6290 score achieved in Gotzis by Claudia Rath, who won&rsquo;t be competing in Ratingen.
Yorgelis Rodriguez could also challenge for a podium place. The Cuban scored 6307 in March, making her the second-ranked heptathlete in this year&rsquo;s field based on season&rsquo;s bests.
Austria&rsquo;s Ivona Dadic missed out on the Olympic qualifying standard by a mere four points on her way to setting a national record of 6196 in Gotzis, while Norway&rsquo;s Ida Marcussen will be looking to improve on her result from Kladno a couple of weeks ago.
The men&rsquo;s decathlon will provide several storylines to follow. While the main focus will of course be on the pursuit of Olympic qualifying standards, national team selections will be another line of action.
Under normal circumstances, the German decathlon team would be among the toughest national teams to make. But while five Germans in the field hold PBs higher than the Olympic qualifying standard of 8100, only two of them have surpassed that mark during the qualification period, which began in January 2015.
Kai Kazmirek scored 8318 to finish third behind Damian Warner and Kevin Mayer in Gotzis last month. His teammates, world bronze medallist Rico Freimuth and 2008 world junior champion Jan-Felix Knobel, will both have to improve on their performances in the Austrian combined events Mecca, as the pair failed to post a single legal mark in the long jump.
And as if two German no-measures in Gotzis weren&rsquo;t bad enough, Arthur Abele followed suit when failing to post a mark in the shot put. Unlike his compatriots, the European indoor silver medallist had started out promisingly with a strong 10.83 over 100m and a lifetime best 7.57m leap in the long jump, after injury ruled him out for the entirety of last year&rsquo;s outdoor season.
The fifth German bidding for a ticket to Rio is 2012 European champion Pascal Behrenbruch. The 31-year-old was due to compete last month in Marburg, one of the three qualifying meetings identified by the German federation, but had to pull out, citing &lsquo;muscular issues&rsquo; as the reason. Formerly coached by Andrei Nazarov, Behrenbruch is now based in the USA, but has been struggling with form in recent years. His season&rsquo;s best of 7826 from Ratingen last year won&rsquo;t be enough to get him on the plane to Rio.
Just like in the women&rsquo;s event, a Cuban could prevent a German victory. Leonel Suarez has a knack for producing his best in Olympic years as his bronze medals from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 prove. He scored 8347 in Havana in March, but hasn&rsquo;t competed since then.
Belgium&rsquo;s Hans van Alphen, who finished just 76 points behind Suarez at the 2012 Olympics, is still chasing the qualifying standard for Rio. The 34-year-old holds the Belgian record of 8515, but has only completed two decathlons since the 2012 Olympics.
Dutch duo Pelle Rietveld and Ingmar Vos have both have scored higher than 8200 in the past, but struggled with injury niggles earlier in the season. A big 73.03m javelin PB from Rietveld last month looks promising, while Vos will be looking to complete his first decathlon of 2016 after failing to finish his two previous attempts.
Michelle Sammet for the IAAF

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.

Ennis-Hill set for Rio warm-up in Ratingen

Last year&rsquo;s winners, Germany&rsquo;s Kai Kazmirek and Canada&rsquo;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).
Kazmirek and last year&rsquo;s world championships decathlon bronze medallist Rico Freimuth will lead a strong German contingent to the famous Mosle Stadium, which also features 2015 European indoor championships heptathlon silver medallist Arthur Abele and 2008 world junior champion Jan Felix Knobel.
Germany dominated the decarthlon at the 2015 edition, filling three of the top four places.
Kazmirek set what was then world-leading mark of 8462 points, just nine shy of his personal best set in 2014 when he finished second to Trey Hardee in Gotzis, before going on to finish sixth at the 2015 IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015.
Freimuth will compete for the sixth time in his career in Gotzis. Last year he finished fourth with with 8380 points, just 18 away from a place on the podium, and in Beijing&nbsp; he won the bronze medal with a personal best of 8561.
Gotzis is a special place for the Freimuth family, as his father Uwe won here in 1985 and 1988.
The German team will be also represented by 20-year-old Tim Novak, who finished third at both the 2013 European junior&nbsp; championships and 2014 world junior championships.
<h3>Warner aiming for second victory</h3>
Canada&rsquo;s 2015 world championships silver medallist Damian Warner will be looking to win at this meeting for the second time. In 2013, he scored 8307 points for victory in Gotzis and then went on to finish third at the world championships in Moscow.
Warner, whose national record is 8695 points from Beijing last August, could potentially threaten the Commonwealth record of 8847 set by Great Britain&rsquo;s Daley Thompson, when the latter won at the 1984 Olympics, if he can maintain his recent good form. He recently ran a wind-assisted 100m in 10.09, the 400m in a personal best of 46.54 and the 110m hurdles in 13.42.
South Africa&rsquo;s Willem Coertzen will be looking to improve his third place achieved last year when he broke the African record with 8398 points while Belgium&rsquo;s Hans Van Alphen will return to Gotzis four years after his outstanding win with his personal best of 8519.
Now 34, the Belgian went on to finish fourth at the London 2012 Olympic Games but has had to battle with injury problems since then.
Reigning world junior champion Jiri Sykora, from Czech Republic, will make his second appearance in Gotzis while others in the decathlon field include Cuba&rsquo;s 2005 world youth octathlon champion Yordani Garcia, France&rsquo;s 2014 European sillver medallist Kevin Mayer and the Netherlands&rsquo; 2015 European under 23 champion Pieter Braun.
Theisen Eaton returns to Gotzis after winning the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 pentathlon title in March.
She has won in Gotzis in 2013 and 2015. Last year, the Canadian broke her own national record heptathlete with a score of 6808 points here and went on to win her second consecutive world championships silver medal.
<h3>German challenge</h3>
Theisen-Eaton will renew her rivallry with Germany&rsquo;s Carolin Schafer, 2008 world junior and 2009 European junior champion, who finished second with a personal best with 6547 last year.
Claudia Rath, who finished second in the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge will compete for the no less than the seventh time in the Mosle Stadium. The German finished fourth at the 2013 world championships when she set her current personal best of 6462 points.
Two established stars of the German multi-events scene, Lilli Schwarzkopf and Jennifer Oeser, will also fight for a place on the plane to Rio.
Schwarzkopf won the 2012 Olympic silver medal with 6649 points but ruptured her Achilles tendon in Talence one month later. She made a remarkable comeback when she finished fifth at the 2014 European Championships.
Oeser won the world championships silver medal on home soil in Berlin in 2009 and took the bronze two years later in Daegu.
She came back last year from maternity leave and finished 10th in Beijing.
Laura Ikauniece-Admidina, from Latvia, should also be in contention for a place in the top three after wining the world championships bronze medal last summer with a personal best of 6516 points.
<h3>Can KJT win again?</h3>
Great Britain&rsquo;s Katarina Johnson-Thompson will return to the venue where she won her first big meeting in 2014 setting her personal best of 6682 points. She went on to win the 2015 European indoor pentathlon title with 5000 points, the second best score in history.
Great Britain will be also represented by 18-year-old reigning world junior heptathlon champion Morgan Lake.
The traditionally strong Dutch contingent will feature Nadine Visser and Anouk Vetter.
Visser, a training partner of Dafne Schippers, set her heptathlon best of 6487 points when she finished fifth in Gotzis last year, one place ahead of Vetter, who also set a career best with 6458.
Belgium&rsquo;s 2013 European junior champion Nafissitou Thiam will be looking to improve on her fifth place at the 2014 Hypo Meeting when she set a national record with 6508.
Ukraine&rsquo;s 2013 world champion Hanna Kasyanova will return to Gotzis, where she finished second in 2009, hoping to post a good score after several years of injury problems.
The star-studded field also features France&rsquo;s two-time European champion Antoinette Nana Djimou, USA&rsquo;s indoor pentathlon record holder Sharon Day Monroe as well as Lithuania&rsquo;s 2004 Olympic silver medallist and 2012 world Indoor championships pentathlon bronze medallist Austra Skujte and this year&rsquo;s Florence Multistars winner Vanessa Spinola, from Brazil
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

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).

Kazmirek and Theisen-Eaton out to defend their titles in Gotzis

As has become tradition, Germany&rsquo;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.
Not only will Kai Kazmirek defend the title he won in 2015 but he will be joined in the decathlon by European indoor silver medallist Arthur Abele, who was fifth at the 2014 European Championships.
World indoor bronze medallist Mathias Brugger will be looking to improve on his lifetime best of 8009 in order to improve his chances of selection for the European Championships or Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
In similar fashion, 2008 world junior champion Jan Felix Knobel, with a career best of 8288, will be looking to return to being one of the world&rsquo;s leading combined eventers after several years of injury problems.
It has alreday been announced that Germany&rsquo;s world bronze medallist Rico Freimuth will be making his sixth appearance in Gotzis this year.
In the heptathlon, Carolin Schafer &ndash; who, like Knobel, also won a world junior title in 2008 &ndash; returns to Gotzis to do battle with the defending champion Brianne Theisen-Eaton again after finishing second behind the Canadian in 2015 when setting her personal best of 6547.
Also in the German team is Claudia Rath, fourth and fifth at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships, and second in last year&rsquo;s IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
Completing a squad of six German heptathletes with personal bests in excess of 6000 points are: two-time world medallist Jennifer Oeser, Olympic silver medallist Lilli Schwarzkopf, Anna Maiwald and Cindy Roleder.
Organisers for the IAAF

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.