Italy&rsquo;s Simone Cairoli and Nigeria&rsquo;s Uhunoma Osazuwa are the surprise overnight leaders at the Multistars Trofeo Zerneri Acciai meeting in Florence, the second leg of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.In a close decathlon competition, Italian indoor heptathlon champion Cairoli leads by just six points over second-placed Pawel Wiesolek from Poland. It is the first time in the 28-year history of the event that an Italian decathlete has held the lead after the first day.Cairoli&rsquo;s current tally of 4086 is more than 150 points better than his previous best day-one score, but Wiesiolek is generally stronger across the five events on the second day.Britain&rsquo;s Liam Ramsay is currently in third place after five events with 4011, 37 points ahead of compatriot David Hall.The host nation&rsquo;s athletes got off to a strong start in the 100m, which opened the programme on a rainy Friday morning in the Luigi Ridolfi Stadium. Cairoli and Vincenzo Vigliotti clocked the fastest times, both crossing the line in 10.92.The only other athlete able to run faster than 11 seconds was Great Britain&rsquo;s David Hall, who clocked 10.94. Serbia&rsquo;s pre-event favourite Mihail Dudas, the 2013 European indoor bronze medallist, clocked the fourth-fastest time with 11.00.Cairoli was on fire and continued his good form, winning the long jump with 7.40m, just five centimetres shy of his PB. After two events, Cairoli maintained the overall lead ahead of Wiesiolak.While Cairoli smashed his shot put PB, so too did Wiesiolek. Cairoli managed 12.85m, but Wiesiolek went significant farther with his 14.30m, giving him the overall lead after three events.Cairoli then reduced Wiesiolek&rsquo;s lead to just 21 points after clearing 1.98m in the high jump the Pole&rsquo;s 1.95m. And after running more than half a second quicker than Wiesiolek in the 400m &ndash; 49.13 to 49.70 &ndash; Cairoli regained the lead in the final event of the first day.But the star of the 400m was Hall, competing in his first senior decathlon. The 20-year-old clocked a PB of 46.46 to break the oldest Multistars meeting record on the books. The previous mark had belonged to fellow Briton Mark Bishop since 1989, six years before Hall was born.The performance moved Hall up to fourth place behind compatriot Ramsay, who also ran a PB in the 400m with 47.56.Cairoli will have to produce some huge PBs on the second day if he is to maintain his lead. But it looks more likely that Wiesiolek and Ramsay, who are similarly matched on day two, will catch him before the end of the competition.Dudas withdrew from the competition after two events, while recently crowned Oceania champion Brent Newdick did likewise after four events.&ldquo;I had a good feeling coming to Florence,&rdquo; said Cairoli. &ldquo;This competition gives me an indication of what I have to work on to improve. I am happy because I came close to my best performances in all five events and I set a personal best in the shot put.&ldquo;I started with high jump and cross country but I decided to start with decathlon when I was in my second junior year,&rdquo; added Cairoli of his background in the sport. &ldquo;I train nine times a week, but I am not a full-time athlete, so it&rsquo;s hard to combine athletics with my job.&rdquo;<h3>Osazuwa holds off Netsviatayeva</h3>Nigeria&rsquo;s Osazuwa finished the first day of the heptathlon as the overnight leader with 3609, just 69 points ahead of Katsiaryna Netsviatayeva of Belarus. African champion Marthe Koala of Burkina Faso currently sits in third place with 3407.Koala, who trains in Mauritius, took an early lead after winning the 100m hurdles in 13.54, just 0.2 shy of the national record she set last month.Osazuwa followed up her 13.86 in the 100m hurdles with a winning clearance of 1.81m in the high jump to clinch the overall lead after two events ahead of Estonia&rsquo;s Mari Klaup. Last year&rsquo;s Multistars runner-up Netsviatayeva was third after two events, having clocked 14.12 in the 100m hurdles and cleared 1.72m in the high jump.The Belarusian moved up one place after posting the best mark of the day in the shot put with 14.47m, but Osazuwa&rsquo;s throw of 12.51m was just enough to stay in the overall lead by 23 points. Osazuwa then extended her lead in the final event after running half a second quicker than Netsviatayeva, 24.59 to 25.08.The Nigerian will go into the second day with a 69-point lead over her nearest rival, but Netsviatayeva is significantly stronger in the final two events and looks set to challenge for the victory.Koala moved into third place overall after positing the fastest time in the 200m with 24.51, but she will be hard-pushed to maintain that position on the second-day. Slovakia&rsquo;s Lucia Mokrasova, currently 29 points behind Koala in fourth, is strong in the final five events.But the big day-two danger will be former Multistars winner Sofia Yfantidou. The 30-year-old from Greece is currently in seventh, almost 300 points adrift of Osazuwa, but could make up most of that deficit in the javelin; an event in which she has a best of 56.96m.Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

Italy’s Simone Cairoli and Nigeria’s Uhunoma Osazuwa are the surprise overnight leaders at the Multistars Trofeo Zerneri Acciai meeting in Florence, the second leg of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.

Cairoli and Osazuwa the day-one leaders in Florence

One week after winning the Oceania Championships, the opening leg of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, New Zealand&rsquo;s Brent Newdick will travel to the Italian city of Florence for the Multistars meeting on Friday and Saturday (15-16), the second stop in the series.It will be the third consecutive year that the Luigi Ridolfi Stadium has hosted the meeting, which was previously held in Desenzano del Garda.Newdick won the Oceania title with 7140. Although it was some way shy of his 8114 lifetime best, he didn&rsquo;t need to be at his best as he won by almost 1000 points. But the two-time World University Games medallist won&rsquo;t be afforded the same luxury in Florence.He will face 2013 European indoor bronze medallist Mihail Dudas. The 25-year-old hasn&rsquo;t completed a decathlon since setting a Serbian record of 8275 at the 2013 IAAF World Championships. After missing most of 2014 through injury, he returned earlier this year to win the national indoor heptathlon title with 5535.Like Newdick, Poland&rsquo;s Pawel Wiesiolek has previously made it on to the podium at the Multistars meeting, finishing third in 2013 with a personal best of 7727. He won the Polish indoor heptathlon title earlier this year with a PB of 5986 and went on to compete at the European Indoor Championships.If the likes of Dudas and Newdick aren&rsquo;t at their best, Britain&rsquo;s Liam Ramsay could be the one to watch. Already this year he has set PBs in the 100m, 110m hurdles, long jump and high jump, and the 22-year-old looks set to improve on the PB of 7822 he set when winning in Woerden last year.Joining him in the traditionally big British contingent is Ben Gregory, who has a PB of 7725 and has finished sixth at the past two Commonwealth Games.Italian hopes are carried by Simone Cairoli who won his second consecutive national indoor heptathlon title in February with a personal best of 5683.Three years after winning in Desenzano with a PB of 6109, Sofia Yfantidou of Greece will be bidding to win her second Multistars title. The 30-year-old, who excels in the javelin, has already contested a heptathlon this year, scoring 5531 in Greece last month with a series that included a 55.60m javelin throw. But she took it easy in the 800m on that occasion, so should be set to score higher in Florence.Yfantidou will face Belarusian champion Katsiaryna Netsviatayeva. The 25-year-old finished runner-up at Multistars last year, her first of seven heptathlons in 2014, and later set a PB of 6121. Earlier this year she scored a pentathlon PB of 4489, setting indoor PBs in four of the five disciplines.Canada&rsquo;s Pan American Cup winner Jill Drouin, sister of Olympic high jump bronze medallist Derek Drouin, will be making her Multistars debut. The 28-year-old has a best of 5986.Commonwealth bronze medallist Jess Taylor will be looking to add her name to the list of British athletes who have made the podium at Multistars, joining the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Morgan Lake. Compatriot and namesake Jess Tappin will also be in Florence. The 24-year-old finished seventh at Multistars last year and went on to score a PB of 5770 one month later.Belgium, another country with a strong combined events tradition, will be represented by 18-year-old Hanne Maudens, who finished fourth in the long jump at last year&rsquo;s Youth Olympics.Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

One week after winning the Oceania Championships, the opening leg of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, New Zealand’s Brent Newdick will travel to the Italian city of Florence for the Multistars meeting on Friday and Saturday (15-16), the second stop in the series.

Dudas, Ramsay and Yfantidou among favourites in Florence

Ukraine&rsquo;s Oleksiy Kasyanov and local star Eliska Klucinova lead after day one of the 8th TNT Express meeting in the Czech town of Kladno, part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Saturday (14).Kasyanov, a winner in Kladno four years ago, leads the way in the decathlon with 4210 points, 98 ahead of Brazil&rsquo;s Felipe dos Santos and 123 in front of Norway&rsquo;s Lars Vikan Rise, while Klucinova has 3829 points, a lead of 182 over Belarusian Katsiaryna Netsviatayeva.Kasyanov started with solid 10.68 in the 100m, but winner of the event was talented dos Santos, who was faster by 0.09. The Ukrainian then moved to the first place after a close long jump battle, where the top four were separated by only four centimetres. Kasyanov jumped 7.33m, two centimetres behind were his compatriot Vasyl Ivanytskyi and Estonia&rsquo;s Kaarel J&ouml;v&auml;li. Austria&rsquo;s Felix-Schmid-Schutti finished fourth with 7.30m.Kasyanov didn't look happy with his shot put result of 14.08m but he still managed to increase his lead by 65 points over the best Czech decathlete Adam Sebastian Helcelet. Rise achieved the best result in the shot put as light rain started to fall with an impressive 16.05m, with the experienced Kazakh 2004 Olympic medallist Dmitriy Karpov reaching 15.99m.Rise followed up his shot performance by also coming out on top in the high jump. He improved his personal best by six centimetres to 2.06m and continued to move up overall while Kasyanov jumped 2.00m, the same height as Dos Santos. The Brazilian and and Rise were within reach of Kasyanov before the last event of the day, but the Ukrainian managed to run the fastest 400m in the field with 48.84.&ldquo;I am not very satisfied, I was hoping for better results, especially in the long jump and shot put,&rdquo; reflected Kasyanov.Dos Santos, still 19 and the South American junior champion last year, has the chance to chase a personal best on Sunday and will be eyeing going over 8000 points for the first time.Klucinova gets two personal bestsKlucinova, the Kladno winner in 2010 and 2012, clearly likes the venue a lot.She started with a huge improvement in the 100m hurdles by 0.16, clocking a personal best of 13.81. Fastest in the field was, no surprise, USA&rsquo;s Olympic long jump bronze medallist Janay Deoach Soukup with 13.40.One of the pre-event favourites, Norway&rsquo;s Ida Marcussen fell down before the last hurdle and could only finish in 19.22.Klucinova added another personal best with 1.90m in the high jump and was a clear winner of this event. The next best heptathlete was Bianca Erwee from South Africa with 1.81m.The high jump was also the last event for Deloach Soukup, who was making her heptathlon debut. She has a personal best 1.73m but couldn&rsquo;t do better than 1.48m here and she withdrew from the competition ahead of the shot put.Netsviatayeva, who has already competed in Firenze and Gotzis at previous events in this year&rsquo;s IAAF Combined Events Challenge, moved up to second place overall after 13.91 in the 100m hurdles and 1.75m in the high jump, 165 points behind Klucinova.After the shot, second-placed Netsviatayeva closed the gap between her and leader Klucinova to 151 points after producing a season&rsquo;s best of 14.89m. Nevertheless, Klucinova reached 14.10m, only nine centimetres behind her personal best set in Moscow at last year&rsquo;s IAAF World Championships.The fastest in the last event of the day, the 200m, was Slovakia&rsquo;s Lucia Mokrasova with 24.28, enough for her to move into third place overnight but Klucinova clocked 24.67, just 0.13 behind her personal best to end a good first day for the Czech athlete.In all four day-one events, Klucinova did better than in Gotzis two weeks ago, where she scored 6195 for 12th place. &ldquo;I knew I was in good shape but I didn&rsquo;t want to say anything ahead of the competition in case something went wrong,&rdquo; said the delighted Klucinova.Watching proceedings from outside the track were three of the best decathletes ever.Three-time world champion Tomas Dvorak was there in his role as Czech national coach and he was with the only two men ever to go over 9000 points, Roman Sebrle and current world record-holder Ashton Eaton.Michal Osoba for the IAAF

Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov and local star Eliska Klucinova lead after day one of the 8th TNT Express meeting in the Czech town of Kladno, part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Saturday (14).

Cairoli and Osazuwa the day-one leaders in Florence

Dudas, Ramsay and Yfantidou among favourites in Florence

Kasyanov and Klucinova lead overnight in Kladno