Preview: Multistars 2025 in Brescia
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Swiss decathlete and long jumper Simon Ehammer and U.S. heptathlete Taliyah Brooks will headline the 38th edition of the Multistars (April 26 to 27), returning for the second straight year to the Gabre Gabric Stadium in Brescia—named after the two-time Olympian in discus (Berlin 1936, London 1948).
Men’s Decathlon
Simon Ehammer leads a stacked men’s field featuring eleven athletes with personal bests over 8000 points.
Ehammer has been a force indoors, winning heptathlon silver at the 2022 World Indoors in Belgrade (6363 points), gold in Glasgow 2024 (6418), and silver at the 2025 European Indoors in Apeldoorn with a Swiss record of 6506 points. Outdoors, he claimed European silver in the decathlon (8468, national record) and set the world best long jump mark in a decathlon with 8.45m at the 2022 Hypo Meeting in Götzis. He added European bronze in long jump (8.31m) in Rome and placed fourth at the 2024 Paris Olympics (8.20m). Ehammer also won bronze at the 2022 World Championships and took the 2023 Diamond League title in long jump. He'll look to continue Swiss success at Multistars, three years after Annik Kälin won the heptathlon in Grosseto.
He’ll be challenged by Germany’s Manuel Eitel, who scored a PB of 8351 in Götzis 2023. Eitel earned bronze at the 2019 European U23 Championships and was part of Germany’s 4x100m bronze-winning squad at the 2016 World U20s. He placed seventh at the 2024 European Championships (8212).
Switzerland’s Finley Gaio, fifth in the 110m hurdles at the 2022 European Championships (13.50), finished 14th in the 2024 European decathlon with a lifetime best of 7934. Teammate Andrin Huber, who trains with Ehammer, won bronze at the 2023 European U20s (8009) and placed fifth in Talence 2024 with 8041.
Italy’s Dario Dester placed sixth at both the 2022 and 2024 European Championships, setting national records each time (8218 and 8235). He broke the 6000-point barrier in the indoor heptathlon for the first time in Italy (6076 in 2021) and later set a national U23 decathlon record of 7936. Dester now trains in Ulm under German coach Christopher Hallmann.
Sweden’s Marcus Nilsson, fourth in the 2022 European Championships with a PB of 8237, tested his form in 2025 with 15.18m in shot put and 45.32m in discus indoors. Germany’s Andreas Bechmann, the 2021 European U23 champion, has a PB of 8142. France’s Ruben Gado holds personal bests of 8126 (decathlon) and 6014 (indoor heptathlon), plus a strong 5.35m pole vault mark.
Italian Lorenzo Naidon broke the 8000-point barrier in 2023, winning his first national title in Molfetta with 8090. Teammates Lorenzo Modugno (PB 7613) and Andrea Cerrato (PB 7404) will also compete—Modugno claimed the 2024 national title in La Spezia (7567), while Cerrato took the indoor crown in Padua and won the 400m at last year’s Multistars (48.20).
Sweden’s Leo Göransson, born in 2005, won silver at the 2023 European U20s (7609) and placed sixth at the 2024 World U20s (7583). Great Britain’s Lewis Church, with a PB of 7852, returns to Multistars after scoring 7773 in Grosseto 2022.
Women’s Heptathlon
Taliyah Brooks of the U.S. aims for her third straight Multistars title, having scored 6330 points in both 2023 and 2024. She finished third at the U.S. Olympic Trials with a PB of 6408. Her standout events are the long jump (PB 6.78m) and 100m hurdles (12.61). At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, she ran 12.78 in the hurdles—the fastest ever in a heptathlon—but fouled all three long jump attempts. She went on to place 11th at the Paris Olympics (6258) and took pentathlon bronze at the 2024 World Indoors in Nanjing (4669 PB).
France’s Elise Pineau comes in strong after scoring a PB of 6020 to win in Arona. Switzerland’s Sara Acklin, a rising star, took heptathlon silver at the 2024 World U20s in Lima with 5755.
Top Italians in the field include Marta Giaele Giovannini, two-time national champion (2021–2022), and 2023 champ Scilla Benussi. The field also features Julia Slocka of Poland, who scored 5891 at last year’s Multistars, and Denmark’s Betty Jensen, the 2024 national indoor pentathlon champion.
