THE REMATCH
This time last year in Glasgow, three decathletes of Europe were locked in battle for the world heptathlon title. Simon Ehammer of Switzerland, Sander Skotheim of Norway and Johannes Erm of Estonia. This weekend in Apeldoorn, the trio reconvene for the rematch.
The prize on offer on this occasion is European champion, but don’t be fooled into thinking the continental focus offers a weaker competition. Since that thrilling evening twelve months ago, the footprint of the next generation of European decathletes has expanded on the world stage.
After a clean sweep by the Americas at the World Championships in Budapest in 2023, the 2024 Olympic gold and silver medals were claimed by young Europeans. The current World gold, silver and bronze indoor medals live in Switzerland, Norway and Estonia. Kevin Mayer’s European heptathlon record has breathed its last breath. Erki Nool’s Estonian decathlon and heptathlon records are on life support.
Somewhere between Glasgow and Gelderland, a shift happened. And it might shift further this weekend.
HEPTATHLON IS NOT A MINI-DECATHLON
Over seven events indoors, the dynamic of competition is different from ten events outdoors. While many commentators (including this one) describe indoor heptathlon as a mini decathlon to distinguish it from outdoor heptathlon, it is actually quite different.
In the way that women’s heptathlon and decathlon favour different types of athletes, men’s indoor heptathlon favours those who tend to collect most of their points over the seven events in question.
The very best decathletes are, of course, so good that they can excel in any subset of ten events. But indoors, any weakness in long throws is forgiven, while pace over the long final run plays a much greater part.
The world indoor champion Simon Ehammer is all about speed – in his 60m, in his 60m hurdles, and of course in his magnificent long jump.
The world indoor silver medallist Sander Skotheim is all about the jumps – his long jump second only to Ehammer’s, his dizzying high jump and his powerful (if temperamental of late) pole vault.
The world indoor bronze medallist Johannes Erm is more of an all-rounder, but in recent months has broken new sky in his vault to add to his speed over 1000m, forcing his competitors to max out their early disciplines.
In Glasgow all three set lifetime bests, with less than 80 points between gold and bronze. But outdoors they hang out in different neighbourhoods. Ehammer’s decathlon best is under 8500, while Skotheim and Erm are over 8600 and 8700 respectively. It’s a different game, indoors.
TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY
This will be the only occasion on which we see this trio compete this season, because Ehammer will do long jump at the World Championships in Nanjing later this month. That’s part of his strategy to prepare for Tokyo later in the year, using the shorter single event to test out his reaction to the long-haul travel and significant time difference. But it’s just as well really, because the current World Indoor Champion and number three in the world in heptathlon in 2025 will not qualify for Nanjing in heptathlon.
World Athletics, to their credit, have fulfilled their promise to Fredrik Samuelsson and combined eventers to review the qualification system for world indoors, and have retained the field at the increased size of 14. But unfortunately, they have ignored the thoughtful advice given to them by Samuelsson and made the qualification issue worse.
Instead of increasing the places for the current season top performers, they have decided to remove them entirely and use rankings for Nanjing combined events qualification. That has had the effect of rendering current indoor season performances almost entirely irrelevant. Only one of the 13 athletes currently qualified for Nanjing (Luc Brewin) has a ranking position which includes a 2025 heptathlon score. All others are there because of their performances in 2023 and 2024, and the associated world ranking position.
The continued inclusion of a 14th discretionary place – a notoriously opaque, mysterious and highly dubious option for WA to choose whoever they fancy to join the field – is telling. It’s the “Oh shit” place, presumably included on this occasion to allow the unranked reigning champion Ehammer to compete if he so wished.
While it’s less obvious in the heptathlon, European Athletics have also messed up their review of combined events qualification. More on that in my pentathlon preview but for the heptathlon five qualify because they exceeded a standard of 6150, and all the rest qualify via world rankings.
One day we will find ourselves approaching a championship and thinking “yes, that qualification works”. Today is not that day.
EHAMMER, BREWIN, BASTIEN AND HAUTTEKEETE
Back to the fun stuff in Apeldoorn, and Simon Ehammer has been solid this season. He typically begins his combined events year at the X-Athletics competition in Clermont Ferrand, and while he maintained his winning streak at the meet with a score of 6205 in January, he had to work extraordinarily hard to do so (that Luc Brewin fella again).
Ehammer’s hurdles are in good shape with 7.63s at that competition, and a few weeks later he jumped 8.10m in long jump. But we’ll need to see more from Ehammer in the pole vault and high jump for him to stay with Skotheim and Erm. A season’s best vault of 5.02m will not be good enough to fend them off at 5.25m and above, and he’ll likely need to be back over 2m in the high jump too – an event which hasn’t quite yet returned to previous heights following his shoulder surgery in 2023.
But while Ehammer will never trouble his Northern European competitors in the 1000m, his final event is no longer a glaring weakness. He took himself beyond 6400 in Glasgow with a 1000m PB of 2:46.03; perfectly respectable and in his own words “They can’t say anymore, he is a bad runner.”
Ehammer is used to being bothered by Frenchmen in heptathlon, and no longer just Kevin Mayer. In 2024, the soon-to-be European decathlon bronze medallist Makenson Gletty pushed Ehammer in Clermont Ferrand, and in 2025 it was Luc Brewin.
Brewin has quietly been progressing, with a few clues to his improvement scattered through recent seasons. At the European U23 championships in Espoo in 2023, all eyes were on future Olympic champion Markus Rooth and Sander Skotheim, but Brewin was tucked into the top eight of the field behind them, with a promising improvement to 7700. Then at Decastar last September, he was just a whisper short of 8000 points, before translating that into an excellent heptathlon performance score of 6199 in January. Brewin is an all-rounder over seven events but is particularly fast over 60m. So, he may be the leader after the first event.
The second Frenchman in the field is Teo Bastien, the bronze medallist to Jente Hauttekeete and Sander Skotheim’s gold and silver at the European U20s in Tallinn in 2021. Like Brewin, Bastien has been approaching 8000 points for a few years, and this season exceeded 6000 points indoors for the first time with a score of 6026 at the French championships. Bastien is a strong jumper and has a suite of lifetime bests already this season.
Jente Hauttekeete is the world record holder in the U20 heptathlon, and the senior events suit him well too. After a tricky few seasons where he has been navigating back injuries, problems with his long jump, and a careful balance between protecting his signature high jump while improving his heavy throws, the Belgian is now steady above 8000 outdoors, and above 6000 indoors. This season’s highlight was third place in Clermont Ferrand behind Ehammer and Brewin, alongside PBs in 60m and pole vault, and some very promising results in his long jump and high jump.
Ehammer and Brewin both qualify by entry standard, while Bastien and Hauttekeete are just below the automatic standard but included by world ranking.
SKOTHEIM, ERM, LILLEMETS, ROOSLEHT AND BENKUNSKAS
While Ehammer tends to headline X-Athletics, Sander Skotheim generally makes his season debut in Tallinn. After winning the 2024 competition in 6281, the Norwegian returned to Estonia this year on a mission.
In Glasgow, the medallists had been well within reach of Kevin Mayer’s European record of 6479, and Skotheim’s silver medal took him to a national record of 6407.
For most of the first four events in Tallinn, Skotheim was close to the pathway that would take him to the record. Both of Norway’s top decathletes have 8m long jumps, and Skotheim had tweaked the milestone for the first time with 8.03m in Paris last year. This was a natural progression from his consistency around 7.70-7.80m. But in the low-key setting of the Tallinna Kergejoustikuhall, Sander leaped to 8.19m, well beyond what Ehammer has achieved this year. But he wasn’t done yet.
The heavy throws are where Skotheim yields points to others – not dramatically so, but they are not considered his strong events. At least until now. The Norwegian followed his stellar long jump with a first time 15m throw in shot, almost 50cm beyond his previous lifetime best. Skotheim was flying, way beyond anything we had ever seen from him this early in a combined event.
But a glitch was coming. A high jump of 2.06m might be considered a great result for any other athlete, but for Skotheim that was some 100 points lost, a material amount in a quest to find 73 points improvement in a heptathlon PB.
Hurdles were fine “I thought it was faster” but the pole vault would be make or break. Mirroring the woes of Ehammer earlier in the decade, Skotheim’s pole vault had troubled him throughout 2024, most notably in the Olympic decathlon where he no-heighted. Assuming he could match his PB in the 1000m, a 5.07m vault was required to keep him on track for 6480. Not a big call for someone with a 5.35m best but not guaranteed either given the recent turbulence in Skotheim’s penultimate event.
He cleared 5.05m safely. The record was still on! 5.15m done. And then…5.25m. As Kevin Mayer watched on through social media “My record is in danger!” it seemed as though Skotheim would not only break Mayer’s record but annihilate it.
With help from Puerto Rico’s Yariel Soto, Skotheim set off on five laps. As the combined events world watched on, the athletes following on the Decathletes of Europe Instagram live dropped worried comments “It’s not fast enough!” “Don’t worry, he’s got this”, Germany’s Manuel Eitel reassured.
And Skotheim did have it. He needed 2:38.29, he ran 2:37.85, dead-dropping three times to the track afterwards.
Later, he told Decathletes of Europe: “It was really all or nothing. I was so nervous before the thousand. I knew it was a time I was capable of, but at the same time, it’s not an easy time to run. I felt we ran fast, but when I looked at the clock, it wasn’t going that fast. So, with 400m to go, I was like, okay, maybe I’ll not make it. But then the last 200, I just like sprinted with everything I had and barely made it.”
With 100+ points lost in the high jump, another 50 in his armour in the 1000m, and a hurdles which felt faster, 6500 is definitely in play. “Hopefully I can push towards at least above 6500, maybe even 6600.”
And what about Ashton Eaton’s world record of 6645? “We’ll see!”
In the slipstream of Skotheim’s Tallinn exploits, it was a good competition too for Rasmus Roosleht, the most recent admission to the Estonian decathlon 8000-point club, and like Luc Brewin, good progress through the age group checkpoints. Roosleht scored a PB of 5940 in third place, a strong performance for someone who excels in the throws. His advantage in discus and javelin are of no use indoors, but his 16.62m shot PB from December will keep him in the mix on Day 1.
The 2023 European indoor bronze medallist Risto Lillemets hasn’t had a great season thus far, with a no height in Tallinn, but his ranking position qualifies him for the championships, as does Roosleht’s. Karel Tilga was originally qualified based on his decathlon score in 2024 but yielded his place to Roosleht.
But the main Estonian contender is European decathlon champion Johannes Erm, qualified by heptathlon score. After stalling at 8400-8500 since 2019, Erm showed up as a different athlete in 2024. He brought credible challenge to the Ehammer-Skotheim axis indoors, and after six events in Glasgow, the medals could have landed in any combination.
Outdoors, Erm reached another level. His decathlon in Rome was inspired, getting within 60 points of Erki Nool’s 8815 national record. Always fast, but inconsistent over hurdles, he seems to have finally recovered his groove both in the 60m hurdles and the 110m hurdles. The biggest improvement, though, has been in Erm’s pole vault. Consistently previously jumping under 5m, in 2024 he took his lifetime best to 5.37m and has already jumped 5.27m this year.
So, one year on, we circle back to the rematch between Ehammer, Skotheim and Erm – but both Skotheim and Erm have upped their game considerably since then. Some big scores are brewing.
The Baltic contingent is completed by the Lithuanian heptathlon record holder, Edgaras Benkunskas, who has only done a few individual events this season, but qualifies by ranking.
THREE ESTONIANS, THREE GERMANS AND A CZECH
The small field sizes for combined events usually mean a maximum of two per country but, whether accident or by design, European Athletics have removed the cap. That benefits both Estonia and Germany who have the depth in numbers to pack out the rankings.
For Germany, 2024 Ratingen winner Till Steinforth has the second-best score of the year so far, with 6255 on college duties in the USA. After Manuel Eitel withdrew with illness, Steinforth received a last-minute Olympic place, but this will be the first major international competition in which Steinforth will be in a position to compete for a medal, if one of the big three falters.
Tim Nowak and Marcel Meyer qualify by rankings which, putting aside the problems with the system, brings some much-deserved opportunity to two athletes who have had more than their fair share of bad luck in recent years.
Vilem Strasky is deservedly becoming a familiar participant in major championships and the consistent Czech tends to improve as the season goes along, rewarded with a ranking position which brings him to Apeldoorn. His breakthrough season was 2024, and as a relative latecomer to combined events, he should be getting increasingly comfortable in this company. Always the most relaxed man in the field, his best this year was 5996 at the Czech championships, close to his 6000+ best.
Let’s take a moment to give a shout out to Strasky’s younger training partner Petr Svoboda, who was diagnosed late last year with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and has stepped away from decathlon to receive the treatment he needs. You’re in our thoughts, and we’re all rooting for you, Petr. Can’t wait to see you back.
THE FOX FIGHTERS IN APELDOORN
Finally, the Dutch are enjoying a brilliant period in decathlon and heptathlon.
In the men’s events, Sven Roosen has of course been the superstar with feats in Götzis, Paris and in breaking the national record, but the strength in depth is superb. Their top scoring athlete this season, Jip de Greef, is in the midst of NCAA competition, but there are plenty others to step in.
The question is which of the Fox Fighters – the group training under Ingmar “Fox” Vos in Papendal – would be in the right place for the random qualification rules. On this occasion it is Jeff Tesselaar, fresh off an 8000-point breakthrough in 2024, who qualifies by rankings. He’s had a late start to the season, originally planning to compete in Tallinn but not quite ready, and so instead set a PB of 5786 at the Dutch nationals at the stadium in which the European championship heptathlon will take place this weekend.
Expect plenty more to be added to that score but more importantly, enjoy the Jeff Tesselaar show as he works the crowd.
The action starts on Friday morning.
Written by Gabby Pieraccini
All photos Gabby Pieraccini (except Glasgow podium: Dan Vernon for World Athletics)
