Annik Kälin in Ratingen (© Organisers 
Leah Korhing)
World leader Annik Kälin and world decathlon champion Leo Neugebauer both broke meeting records on their way to taking overnight leads at the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting on Saturday (27).
Kälin, the recent Götzis winner with a Swiss record of 6726, leads the heptathlon after a superb first day at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting, while Neugebauer tops the decathlon standings by more than 100 points at the halfway stage.
Kälin, who finished fourth at the 2024 Olympic Games, got off to an electric start in the 100m hurdles, clocking 12.60 to break the meeting record. It was the third-fastest hurdles performance ever recorded within a heptathlon and just 0.06 shy of Jessica Ennis-Hill’s world heptathlon best.
The Swiss athlete followed it with 1.75m in the high jump and 14.00m in the shot put, then ended the day as she had started it: with another meeting record. Her PB of 23.00 in the 200m gave her a running tally of 3974, 115 points better than her opening-day score in Götzis.
USA’s Erin Marsh is second with 3866, having finished runner-up to Kälin in both the 100m hurdles (12.86) and 200m (23.56).
Kälin will start the second day with one of her strongest disciplines, the long jump, the event in which she earned world indoor and European indoor silver in 2025.
Behind Kälin and Marsh, a trio of German athletes remain in contention. Vanessa Grimm, who produced the best shot put mark of the day with 15.22m, is third, followed by Sandrina Sprengel and Anna-Elisabeth Ehlers, who topped the high jump with 1.90m.
Three-time Olympic champion Nafi Thiam, who is not contesting the full heptathlon in Ratingen but is instead testing her form in selected disciplines, cleared 1.84m in the high jump and threw 14.64m in the shot put.
Neugebauer leads the decathlon after five events, having produced the best marks of the field in two disciplines.
The German opened with 10.81 in the 100m, then leapt 7.67m to win the long jump. He followed it with a meeting record of 16.95m in the shot put, before clearing 1.97m in the high jump and clocking 47.85 in the 400m.
Neugebauer’s tally of 4482 is 150 points down on the day-one score he achieved in Götzis, where he went on to finish second with 8730.
France’s Makenson Gletty, a non-finisher in Götzis, sits second with 4380. He was second overall in the 100m with 10.65 and in the shot put with 16.22m, then produced the fastest 400m of the day, clocking 47.21.
The competition remains wide open behind the top two, with just 86 points separating the next seven athletes going into the second day.
Norway’s 2025 world leader Sander Skotheim was a non-finisher. He ran 10.94 in the 100m, jumped 7.32m in the long jump, threw 14.07m in the shot put and cleared 1.91m in the high jump before retiring from the competition. Skotheim felt discomfort in his left calf after the long jump and, having had surgery in January on a ligament at the bottom of his left foot, opted not to risk aggravating the injury.
