Simon Ehammer regained his heptathlon title with a world record score of 6670 at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26 on Saturday (21).
Ehammer, the world indoor gold medallist in 2024 and silver medallist last year, produced a stunning series of marks across two days, including a world heptathlon best of 7.52 in the 60m hurdles. His winning tally added 25 points to the world record set by USA’s Ashton Eaton at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul.
Ehammer got off to a flying start in the opening discipline, speeding to a 60m PB of 6.69 – comfortably the quickest of the day. The next nine athletes posted times between 6.91 and 7.00, and USA’s world bronze medallist Kyle Garland was among those, running 6.93.
Ehammer extended his overall lead in the long jump, his best discipline and the event in which he earned world bronze in 2022. He opened with 8.08m, followed it with 7.99m and then improved to 8.15m – just one centimetre shy of the championship best performance.
Garland was the second-best performer in that discipline but, as was the case in the 60m, was some way behind Ehammer. The US athlete jumped 7.58m to move into second place overall.
Garland made inroads on Ehammer’s lead in the shot put, throwing 16.21m to the Swiss athlete’s 14.87m. Estonai’s Rasmus Rooseleht was the best overall performer in that event, unleashing a season’s best of 16.44m.
Ehammer continued his good form and maintained his overall lead after clearing a season’s best of 2.02m in the high jump, giving him a day-one tally of 3698. Garland continued to apply pressure with a 2.14m clearance in the high jump, while Garland’s US compatriot Heath Baldwin ended the day in third place overall.
Ehammer started the second day in even better form than the first, flying to a world heptathlon best of 7.52 in the 60m hurdles – a time that would have been good enough to take silver in that discipline at last year’s World Indoors. Garland was some way off his best, though, and clocked 8.21 while Baldwin closed the gap on his teammate with a 7.80 clocking.
The margins widened in the pole vault as Ehammer soared over 5.30m, which was perhaps the most significant contribution towards putting him on track to break the world record. That discipline also marked a change in the standings behind Ehammer as Baldwin cleared 5.00m to Garland’s 4.80m, switching the order of the two US combined eventer.
Ehammer needed a 2:43 clocking in the final discipline to break the record and he achieved his target comfortably, finishing with a PB of 2:41.04, bringing his score to 6670. Baldwin held on to second place with a score of 6337 while Garland matched his position from last year’s World Championships, claiming bronze with 6245.
“I am speechless – my dream came true,” said Ehammer, who earned a US$50,000 bonus for breaking the world record. “I badly wanted to improve the European record here but it was difficult to imagine that the world record would be possible as well. I went through all of the events fighting for my goal. I fought for every single height in the pole vault.
“I am very grateful for all of the guys in the field – we were in a great fight and it motivated me a lot. I started to believe that anything is possible after the first day of competition. But after the pole vault I realised that the 2:43 I needed to break the world record was in my capacity, I just needed to be patient.
“I cannot even count how many times I’ve watched Ashton Eaton compete in the decathlon and heptathlon. I learned a lot from him and now I have broken his world record. I’ve already spoken to him on the phone. It was a pleasure. It’s incredible.”
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
Missed the action or want to watch again? Check out the highlights on World Athletics+.
Source link
