Rankings analysis: 26 September 2023

The update to the world decathlon and heptathlon rankings on 26 September 2023 followed the final Combined Events Tour meeting of the season, Decastar in Talence.

You can find an explanation of the rankings system here.

PLACING POINTS

These are the placing points for the competitions featured in this week’s update.

WHO ENTERED THE RANKINGS

• Thomas Van der Plaetsen: unranked to 40th
• Niels Pittomvils: unranked to 100th
• Verena Mayr: unranked to 58th

WHO MOVED UP

• Makenson Gletty: 25^th to 17^th
• Baptiste Thiery: 47^th to 43^rd
• Emma Oosterwegel: 7^th to 5^th
• Annie Kunz: 26^th to 21^st
• Isabel Posch: 50^th to 40th

WHO MOVED DOWN

n/a

WHO DROPPED OUT THE RANKINGS

Qihao Sun, Alex Spyridonidis and Szabina Szucs moved outside the top 100 decathlon and heptathlon rankings due to athletes entering the rankings above them.

DECATHLON

Makenson Gletty’s outstanding performance to win at Decastar moved him up eight places from 25^th to 17^th. His winning score of 8443 now becomes his most valuable score, alongside his 8279 from this year’s French championships.

Gletty’s improvement caused Manuel Eitel to drop one place from 17^th to 18^th, although Eitel’s ranking score actually improved from 1241 to 1246.

There are two interesting things about Eitel’s decathlon ranking. First, his ranking consists of two identical scores, with identical placing points, at the same competition: 8193 to finish second this year in Talence, and 8193 to finish second in 2022.

However, that’s not the craziest thing about his score:  Eitel’s 8193 from Talence in 2023 knocks out his 8351 from Götzis in 2023. His 8193 to finish second in Talence attracted 90 placing points, while his 8351 to finish fifth in Götzis only attracted 55 placing points. Götzis and Talence are both GL meets, despite Götzis having a much deeper field. So, Talence remains the best meet on the tour to collect generous rankings points.

Baptiste Thiery moved from 47^th to 43^rd place. His 7951 to finish fourth in Talence this year is now his most valuable score (with 65 placing points), alongside his second-best score, rankings-wise, of 7966 from the 2022 French Championships (with 60 placing points). Thiery’s 2023 Talence score knocks out his 8000+ score from the European Championships last year. His 8057 for ninth place in Munich only gave him 30 placing points.

Thomas Van der Plaetsen didn’t have the greatest weekend in Talence, but because he finished the competition he now finally has a position in the decathlon rankings. Alongside his 8233 from Ratingen this year, his score of 7865 in Talence meant that he entered the rankings in 40^th place.

Similarly, Niels Pittomvils now has two eligible scores, and his 7720 for ninth place – together with his 7862 from Munich – bring him into the decathlon rankings in 100^th place.

HEPTATHLON

Emma Oosterwegel moved up from seventh place to fifth place in the heptathlon rankings. Her 6495 to win the competition in Talence replaces her score of 6233 from the same competition last year, where she finished in joint first place. Her most valuable score for rankings is her 6464 from the World Championships this year.

Annik Kalin improved her score from 1242 to 1246 but remained in eleventh place overall. Her 6390 to finish second in Talence replaced her 6398 from Multistars this year, where she won. The difference is the placing points for second in Talence (90) compared to the placing points for first in Multistars (80). However, both of those marks have more placing points than third place at the European Championships (75), where Kalin’s most valuable score for rankings purposes was set (6515).

Annie Kunz moved up from 26^th place to 21^st place. Her 6126 in fourth place in Talence replaced her 6049 from the US Champs this year.

Marijke Esselink moved up from 34^th place to 30^th place. Her score of 6101 in Talence knocked out her 6222 set in Götzis this year. She received 55 placing points for fifth place in Talence, but only 20 for eleventh place in Götzis. Yet again, this demonstrates that Talence is more lucrative for rankings points than Götzis, despite them both being ranked as GL. Esselink’s most valuable score for heptathlon ranking is actually the lowest of the three, 6087 which was set finishing third in Arona last year (with 60 placing points).

Isabel Posch continued her rise up the rankings, climbing another ten places from 50^th to 40^th. Her score of 6001 to finish seventh in Talence (with 45 placing points) knocked out her score of 6021 from Götzis, where she finished 15^th (with no placing points).

Finally, Verena Mayr arrived back in the rankings in 58^th place, having been unranked for a long time. Her 5995 to finish eighth in Talence, together with her 6023 from Ratingen this year, allowed her to re-enter the rankings in 58^th place.