Ehammer leaps 8.26m en route to heptathlon win in Aubiere

Simon Ehammer soared 8.26m for the longest ever long jump recorded in an indoor heptathlon, en route to a 6285-point victory, while Adrianna Sulek claimed a 4569-point pentathlon win at the X-Athletics meeting – a World Athletics Combined Events Tour Bronze event – in Aubiere, France, over the weekend (29-30).

Ehammer’s long jump mark is also an outright world lead and Swiss indoor record, while as the world heptathlon best it improves on the previous best of 8.16m achieved by two-time Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, where he won the first of his three world indoor heptathlon titles with a world record score of 6645 points. Ehammer's previous long jump best was 8.15m, recorded outdoors in 2020, while his previous top indoor mark was 7.89m.

He's just flying 💫

There is Simon Ehammer's 🇨🇭 8.26m long jump, which added 10cm to @AshtonJEaton's 🇺🇸 previous world heptathlon best!

🎥 @FFAthletisme pic.twitter.com/mDwZQjKje3

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) January 31, 2022

The 21-year-old Ehammer also clocked 6.83 for 60m, threw 14.09m in the shot put and cleared 1.99m in the high jump on the first day of competition in Aubiere, before clocking 7.74 in the 60m hurdles, clearing 5.03m in the pole vault and running 2:54.68 for the 1000m on day two to achieve his world-leading PB of 6285 points. It is the third best ever performance by an U23 athlete, behind Eaton’s 6499 points and France’s world decathlon record-holder Kevin Mayer’s 6297 points.

It was a Swiss top three in the X-Athletics heptathlon, with Andri Oberholzer finishing second with 5960 points and Finley Gaio placing third with 5838 points. Belgium's Benjamin Hougardy was fourth and Italy's Dario Dester fifth.

Mayer also contested a few of the events and clocked 7.73 for the 60m hurdles, cleared 5.13m in the pole vault, ran 6.92 for 60m and threw 15.58m in the shot put.

In the pentathlon, Poland's European U23 heptathlon champion Sulek also achieved a world lead, setting a 4569-point PB.

She opened her competition with a time of 8.34 in the 60m hurdles, before clearing 1.84m in the high jump, throwing 13.10m in the shot put, leaping 6.01m in the long jump and running 2:14.39 for 800m.

Spain's 2017 world U18 heptathlon champion Maria Vicente was second, coming close to her PB with 4495 points, while France’s Leonie Cambours was third with 4457 points and Sveva Gerevini set an Italian record of 4434 points for fourth. Spain’s Claudia Conte was fifth and Austria's world bronze medallist Verena Mayr sixth.

World Athletics