The update to the top 100 decathlon world rankings on 31 October 2023 reflected the results of the decathlon at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. The heptathlon competition took place a few days later on 1-2 November and any changes to the top 100 heptathlon rankings will be in the next iteration of updates.
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
n/a
WHO MOVED UP
- Santiago Ford: 87th to 38th
- Ryan Talbot: 92nd to 72nd
- Jose Miguel Paulino: outside top 100 to 96th
WHO MOVED DOWN
n/a
WHO DROPPED OUT THE RANKINGS
n/a
DECATHLON
The Pan American Games have been taking place in Santiago, Chile over the last few weeks and finally it was the turn of the athletics.
Santiago Ford became eligible to compete for Chile on 31 May 2023, and won gold for the home country with his second 7800+ score of the season. Ford was previously ranked 87th, based on his 7845 silver medal at the South American championships this year (Category GL), and his 7551 from Chilean nationals (Category B). However, his nationals score did not bring the usual generous placing points, because they took place three days before he became eligible to compete for Chile.
Ford’s gold medal in Santiago with 7834 points replaced his 7551 score, and together with 80 placing points, he leaps almost 50 places from 87th to 38th. At the time of writing, Ford is technically qualified for the Olympics via rankings.
That’s unlikely to remain the case, as the “Road to Paris” tool takes into account the expiry of scores from 2022 (including that of Kevin Mayer), and of course doesn’t consider the scores that will come in the 2024 season. But the case serves to demonstrate how highly athletes can be ranked when sub 8000 scores are accompanied by significant placing points.
The pre-competition favourite, Jose Fernando Ferreira Santana of Brazil, won silver but his ranking was unchanged given his superior performances earlier in the year.
However bronze medallist Ryan Talbot of the USA was lifted 20 places from 92 to 72. His was also an example of the importance of placing points.
Ryan was ranked 92 on the basis of his 8064 from the 2022 Big 10 competition, and his 7786 from the 2023 Big 10 competition, in which he finished second and collected 6 placing points.
His 7786 was replaced by a lower score in Santiago – 7742 – but he collected 60 places for the silver medal. So, despite scoring 44 points less than his previous best this year, he jumped up 20 places.
Jose Miguel Paulino of the Dominican Republic entered the top 100 rankings in 96th place. He was previously ranked 114th, incorrectly, since the wrong score from the scoring table has been used on the WA website. He should have been ranked 103rd.
Nevertheless, his promotion is thanks again to the generous placing points for the Pan Am Games. His 7588 for fourth in Santiago is considered more valuable than his 7746 from the Juegos Deportivos Militares.
*incorrect scoring on WA website
HEPTATHLON
There were no changes to the top 100 heptathlon rankings this week, but next week’s rankings will take into account the Pan American Games heptathlon.
You can find an analysis of previous changes here.
The details of the current top 100 decathlon rankings, and the top 100 heptathlon rankings are below. The tables show the individual scores and placing points which contribute to each athletes’ ranking.
