As anticipated in our preview, the defending champion Lewis Church had a strong start to his first day, close to replicating the marks in his 2025 PB series in the first two events. He ran a PB of 7.22s in the first 60m, and then a solid long jump series just under 7m, with a best of 6.95.
Will Alexander was the leader after one event, with the equal fastest 60m of the day in 7.15s. Stephen Simmons took the lead after two events, adding a 7.11m long jump to his 7.15s 60m.
The shot has been a consistently strong event for Church since he first broke 15.00m at this competition last year. Yet again, he was over 15m, with a series of 15.30m, 15.46m and 15.00m. That put him into first place overall, with Harry Kendall in second place (thanks to a PB of 14.80m) and Stephen Simmons in third (with a 13.55m close to his PB of 13.67m).
Onto the high jump and Simmons and Kendall exited with a best of 1.84m, Sulaiman Ouiles was the only one who could stay with Church, clearing 1.99 after Evan Campbell had topped out at 1.93m and William Reid at 1.90. In 2025, Church had cleared 1.99 en route to his heptathlon PB of 5778. Today, he went a height further, to 2.02m, which puts him 23 points ahead of his personal best schedule.
At the end of Day 1 Church (3248) leads from Kendall (3051) and Simmons (3032), with Conrad Winter another 77 points behind.
PENTATHLON PREVIEW
The one-day blitz which is the indoor pentathlon takes place on the second day of the championships for the senior athletes.
The defending champion of the open competition, Anna McCauley of Northern Ireland, returns to the scene of her victory in 2025, alongside second placer Christina Ryan of New Zealand. This year the international field also brings Ysee Le Philippe, who scored 4221 when placing third at the French indoor championships in 2025. Along with Jodie Smith, the line-up promises a good four-way competition for top spot, with Bryony Bovell (who was fourth in Sheffield in 2025) adding a fifth player.
But there’s a wildcard in the line-up, in the form of 2018 World U20 champion and Commonwealth bronze medallist Niamh Emerson. Emerson has had multiple years with small steps taken forward, only for a huge blow to repeatedly knock her back. Now 26, her most recent successful combined events competition – relatively speaking – was in Arona in 2022, where she got as far as completing the long jump before having to withdraw. At her best, Emerson’s pentathlon PB was 4731 (8.54, 1.87/13.93/6.29/2:12), set back in 2019 when she was 19.
The action starts at 0945 on Sunday morning, with results on Roster.
