The update to the world rankings on 29 August 2023 captured the results of the World Championships in Budapest, with a few national championships also taking place in this period.
You can find a full explanations of how the rankings work here.
PLACING POINTS
The World Championships are Category OW for rankings purposes. That provides 280 placing points for first place, 250 for second place, 225 for third place, and points all the way down to 16th place.
Only 15 athletes finished the decathlon, 18 the heptathlon. If you finished the decathlon, you collected placing points.
Athletes can continue to have results from the 2022 World Championships in Oregon included in their rankings, still within the eligible period. However, to avoid overweighting results from the 2022 Championships drop to GL category, the same as Götzis. That caused a number of athletes to drop in rankings, as outlined below.
National championships are Category B for rankings purposes. That provides 60 placing points for 1st place, 50 for 2nd, 45 for 3rd, 40 for 4th, 35 for 5th and points down to 8th place.
WHO ENTERED THE RANKINGS
Robin Bodart (back inside top 100)
WHO DROPPED OUT THE RANKINGS
Jiri Sykora (unranked)
Verena Mayr (unranked), Ella Rush (out of top 100)
DECATHLON
Pierce LePage of Canada was already the number one ranked decathlete ahead of the World Championships. His Budapest gold-medal winning score of 8909, together with his Götzis win in 8700, added a further 31 points to his overall ranking score.
Kevin Mayer of France dropped in rankings, from 2nd to 6th. His DNF in Budapest meant his eligible scores didn’t change – his 8816 from Eugene and his 6348 from Istanbul – but the placing points from Eugene dropped from OW to GL levels. The world record holder now has a problem ahead of the Olympics. His Eugene score was too early to be an automatic Olympic qualifying mark, and furthermore the score will also expire early next year for rankings purposes, leaving him with only one eligible score, in heptathlon. As in 2021, he will need to do two decathlons next season – one to qualify, either outright or by ranking, and the Olympics themselves.
Damian Warner of Canada moved from third place to second place in the rankings. His 8804 for silver in Budapest replaced his 8787 from Götzis in 2022, and together with his World Indoor performance, the combination improved his ranking score by 70 points.
Lindon Victor of Grenada moved from fifth place to third place in the rankings, a straight swap of his bronze-medal winning 8756 for his 8474 scored when finishing fifth in Oregon. His second score is his 8550 from Talence last year. Interestingly, Lindon is now ranked higher than Fred Kerley, the latter only a mere fifth in the 100m rankings after Budapest. That’s something to think about during a 1500m.
Leo Neugebauer of Germany climbed nine places from 13th to fourth place. His 8645 for fifth place in Budapest was worth considerably more than his 8836 from the NCAAs (which only gave him 60 placing points), but together they moved him towards the top of the table.
Conversely, Zach Ziemek of the USA dropped from fourth place to 13th, still well ranked, but like Kevin Mayer his score from Oregon in 2022 lost placing points as it was downgraded to GL level.
Karel Tilga of Estonia had a 10-place rise in rankings, from 15th to fifth place. His fourth-place score of 8681 knocked out his Götzis score of 8403 (where he was also fourth). His second-best score remained his 8482 victory from Multistars.
While Harrison Williams of the USA was far from pleased with his performance in Budapest, it was a significant boost to his rankings. He moved from 14th to seventh place, his 8500 in 7th replacing his 8492 from Mt SAC earlier this year.
The biggest winner in the rankings was Janek Õiglane of Estonia, who leaped from 22nd place to eighth. He was previously penalised by the rankings, since his 8405 from the Tennessee Relays last year only gave him 10 placing points compared to, for example, the 65 points that accompanied teammate Tilga’s 8403 in Götzis. Õiglane’s 8405 was replaced by his 8524 for 6th place in Budapest, alongside his 8346 from his European championships bronze last year.
Markus Rooth of Norway improved from 16th to 10th place, his 8491 in 8th place replacing his 8307 from Multistars last year, the score that started the current Norwegian breakthrough. His second ranking score is his 8608 from the European U23s.
Niklas Kaul of Germany dropped in the rankings from seventh to 11th. Like Kevin Mayer and Zach Ziemek, he was also a DNF in Budapest, but unlike the medallists from Oregon, Kaul’s score from last year’s world championships did not remain one of his two top ranking scores. As the placing points from his Oregon score changed from OW to GL, it dropped the overall score below his 8484 from Ratingen this year – where the 2019 world champion collected 80 placing points for the win.
Kyle Garland of USA dropped from ninth place to 12th place. However, his overall ranking score did not change – his best two marks remained his 6639 from indoors and his 8720 from the 2022 US trials. The placing points also remained unchanged – no expiry here – other athletes simply moved in front of him.
Ayden Owens-Delerme of Puerto Rico dropped from sixth to fifteenth place. Like most of the others who DNF, he dropped due to his World Championships score from 2022 losing placing points.
Johannes Erm of Estonia moved up one place from 17th to 16th. He finished ninth at the World Championships last year, and ninth again this year. The difference that influenced his ranking was his increase in score – ninth place last year was 8227, whereas this year it required 8484. In other years that would have taken him much higher – two 8400+ scores are only enough for 16th place in rankings.
While his Estonian teammates climbed the rankings, the 2019 silver medallist Maicel Uibo dropped from tenth to 18th, as his score from the 2022 World Championships degraded in placing points.
Cedric Dubler from Australia dropped from 12th to 22nd, the points from the World Championships in 2022 that had protected his ranking for qualification for Budapest now losing their placing points value.
While Russia and Belarus remain suspended from international competition, athletes are still able to collect rankings points and protect their rankings places. A number of Russian athletes climbed in rankings this week, both in decathlon and heptathlon, due to national championships, while others dropped due to the expiry of scores from the 2022 indoor season. This trend will continue in the coming weeks, as more scores fall outside the 18-month eligible period for rankings.
Jiri Sykora of Czech Republic dropped out of the rankings, as his indoor score from 2022 expired. Sam Black of the USA also dropped, from 80th to 94th, as his silver medal score from the 2022 US indoor champs expired.
Felipe Dos Santos of Brazil had dropped from 37th to 53rd a few weeks ago, following the expiry of 2021 South American Championships scores. He then dropped further again this week to 69th, as his 2022 indoor South American title score expired. The crazy thing is his next most valuable score is his 8004 from the Copa Brasil in 2022. When he was at his highest position in recent months, Felipe’s most valuable score was his 7960 from the 2021 South American Champs, then replaced by his 7692 from the 2022 South American Games. His only 8k+ score was valued way less by the rankings than two sub 8k marks, one of them under 7700. Placing points matter big time.
Going in the other direction, Robin Bodart of Belgium re-entered the top 100 at 97 after winning the Belgian title.
HEPTATHLON
Nafi Thiam of Belgium was the top ranked heptathlete before the World Championships, but as her score from Oregon 2022 lost placing value, she dropped into fourth place.
Instead, Anna Hall of USA assumed top ranking position, previously second. Although her 6720 in Budapest was lower than her 6755 for bronze in Oregon, the additional placing points from her silver medal increased her overall ranking score.
The gold medallist from Budapest, KJT, moved from eighth place to second place, adding her 6740 to her 6556 in Götzis this year.
Curiously, bronze medallist Anouk Vetter of the Netherlands remains ranked third, Noor Vidts of Belgium remains ranked fifth, and Adrianna Sulek of Poland remains ranked sixth. All three’s overall ranking score dropped as their strong 2022 World Championship scores expired, but all remained in the same positions ahead of Emma Oosterwegel of the Netherlands, who was also a non-mover in seventh place, and Sophie Weissenberg of Germany, a non-mover in ninth.
For interest, Adrianna Sulek’s top ranking scores are her 4851 from the World Indoor Championships, and her 6672 from Oregon. Yes, the rankings consider her 4851 for World Indoor silver (with 120 placing points) a stronger performance than her 5014 world-record-breaking silver at the European championships. Even Nafi still only got 80 placing points for her gold medal in Istanbul. There was a generous world record bonus though for Nafi: 10 points, added to the average of her two performance scores.
While there was only minor movement amongst most of the top ten, Xenia Krizsan of Hungary put herself in a strong position for Olympic qualification next year, even though she was a point short of the automatic standard. Her 6479 in front of the home crowd for fourth place took her from 19th place in the rankings to eighth place, well out of the danger zone. Her teammate Rita Nemes also improved her position, moving from 25th place to 16th.
Chari Hawkins of the USA moved from 15th into the top ten at 10th place, her strategy of leveraging placing points from the Combined Events tour and NACAC to enable her to qualify for the championships with 6200+ scores paying off brilliantly; allowing her to step up and score a PB of 6366 on the big stage and collect 145 placing points from Budapest.
Annik Kalin of Switzerland dropped from sixth place to 11th, as her 2022 World champs score lost value. Claudia Conte of Spain likewise dropped from 14th to 22nd, Paulina Ligarska of Poland from 21st to 26th, and Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler of the USA from 30th to 39th.
Saga Vanninen of Finland improved from 13th to 12th, Sofie Dokter of the Netherlands from 22nd to 17th, and Kate O’Connor of Ireland from 24th to 21st. Auriana Lazraq-Khlass of France continued her scaling of the rankings, landing in 25th place from 38th.
Austria’s Verena Mayr and Belgium’s Hanne Maudens dropped out of the rankings as their indoor scores from 2022 expired. Jodie Smith and Ella Rush of Great Britain also dropped as their scores expired, Jodie from 63rd to 68th and Ella out of top 100.