Ehammer sets the Swiss decathlon record with 8354 in Ratingen
Simon Ehammer won the men’s decathlon competition at the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf Meeting improving his PB to 8354 points. The heptathlon world indoor silver medallist broke the long-standing Swiss decathlon record held by Beat Gahwiler since 1988 with 8244 points.
Ehammer set the qualifying standard for the World Championships in Eugene and the European Championships in Munich.
The Swiss decathlete won by nearly 200 points over Tim Novak (8160 points). Nico Beckers finished third with his PB of 7940.
Sophie Weissenberg won the women’s heptathlon with 6273 points. Carolin Schaefer finished second with 6170 points ahead of Leonie Cambours from France (5933), Anna Lena Obermaier (5745) and Shaina Burns (5716).
Men’s decathlon:
After setting a world-best mark of 8.30m in the long jump on day one, Ehammer picked up where he left off in the second day clocking 13.75 in the 110m hurdles to bring his total to 5590 points.
Nico Beckers improved his lifetime best to 14.61. Tim Nowak clocked 14.76 despite some technical problems. Beckers was ranked in second place in the overall standing with 5217 points ahead of Marcel Mayer (5007) and Tim Nowak (4981) and Malik Diakite (4922).
Ehammer improved his PB by almost three metres to 39.13 metres in the discus throw. Marcus Nilsson from Sweden won the discus throw with 46.88m ahead of Nowak (44.62m).
Ehammer and Nilsson cleared 5.00m in the pole vault, but they were not able to equal their PB at 5.10m. Ehammer brought his total score to 7147 points and remained on target for a Swiss record. Nowak equalled his pole vault PB with 5.00m to move up from third to second in the overall standing with 6650 points. Beckers improved two consecutive PBs in the discus throw with 42.38m and 4.30m in the pole vault.
Ehammer carried a lead of 223 points into the final 1500m race after his throw of 53.01m in the javelin and crossed the finish-line in 4:57.55 to take the overall win. The young Swiss athlete improved his own national record by more than 100 points and surpassed the standard for the World Championships by four points.
Simon Ehammer: “These were two incredibly beautiful days. A great start to the season in a great atmosphere. The long jump was of course the best. I didn’t think I could jump 8.30m at such an early stage. It was my first decathlon since 2020. It’s awesome to start with a Swiss record and World Championships standard. I will compete in Goetzis at the end of month. I know that I can do even more in all disciplines and that I want more”.
Beckers improved his seventh PB of the weekend with a throw of 53.04m. Jan Ruhrmann improved his PB by three metres to 66.75m to win the javelin event.
Nilsson won the final 1500 metres race in 4:20.02 ahead of Nowak, who crossed the finish-line in 4:21.31 to end the decathlon competition with 8160 points.
Beckers improved his PB by almost 400 points to finish third with 7940 ahead of Nilsson (7927) and Malik Diakite (7856).
Women’s heptathon:
Sophie Weissenberg held a narrow lead of 76 points at the end of the first day, as just 76 points separated the top three contenders.
Weissenberg leapt to 6.21m in her first attempt to finish third in the long jump to bring her total to 4611 points extending her lead in the overall standing to 151 points over Cambours, who produced a best jump of 5.97m overtaking Shaefer, who jumped 5.84m. Weissenberg won the world under 20 silver medal in the long jump in 2016.
Lovisa Karlsson from Sweden won the long jump event with 6.27m to move into fifth place in the overall standing. Hanne Maudens finished third with 6.09m.
Weissenberg threw the javelin to 48.00m to increase her lead to 170 points over Schaefer, who produced her best throw with 47.81m moving up into second place in the overall standing with 5262.
Weissenberg totaled 5432 points before the final 800 metres and needed a time of 2:17 to improve her overall PB.
Weissenberg was not able to achieve this goal, but her 2:18.72 time was enough to set the qualifying standard for the European Championships in Munich with 6273 points.
Sophie Weissenberg: “I am incredibly happy because I didn’t think I would win in Ratingen. The atmosphere was incredibly good. My goal is to achieve the qualifying standard for the Eugene World Championships in Goetzis at the end of May”
Schaefer won the 800 metres with her PB with 2:13.95 to take the runner-up spot with 6170.
