The update to the top 100 decathlon and heptathlon world rankings on 7 November 2023 reflected the results of the heptathlon at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. The decathlon competition took place a few days earlier and the impacts were captured in the 31 October update.
The latest update also takes into account the expiry of scores from the 2022 USA Outdoor Championships, the 2022 edition of Multistars and other competitions at the start of May 2022.
Scores can only be included for rankings purposes if they occur within the previous 18-month period, other than certain circumstances for area championships.
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
- Erin Marsh: 60th to 49th
WHO MOVED DOWN
- Michelle Atherley: 23rd to 34th
- Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler: 38th to 60th
- Sveva Gerevini: 41st to 52nd
- Meg Hemphill: 73rd to 95th
- Chiara-Belinda Schuler: 84th to 92nd
- Zach Ziemek: 13th to 14th
- Dario Dester: 29th to 31st
- Steven Bastien: 40th to 48th
- Hunter Price: 61st to 79th
- Arthur Prevost: 75th to 84th
- Lewis Church: 84th to outside top 100
WHO DROPPED OUT THE RANKINGS
- Anne Van de Wiel: 91st to unranked
- Kristjan Rosenberg: 68th to unranked
- Dylan Cooper: 98th to unranked
HEPTATHLON
Erin Marsh was the winner in the heptathlon rankings this week, following her gold medal at the Pan American Games in Santiago. She moved up 11 places from 60th place to 49th. Her score of 5882 was boosted by 80 placing points. That displaced her previous second most valuable score, 4432 from the 2023 USA Indoor champs, because third place at nationals only gave her 18 placing points.
The silver medallist at the Games, Alysbeth Felix-Boyer did not change rankings position following her result. However, bronze medallist Jordan Gray moved up to 103rd place, and is now just outside the top 100.
Expiry of scores from early May 2022 caused six other athletes to drop in rankings.
Michelle Atherley dropped from 23rd to 34th, and Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler dropped from 38th to 60th after their scores from the 2022 USA outdoor championships expired.
Sveva Gerevini dropped from 41st to 52nd, and Chiara-Belinda Schuler dropped from 84th to 92nd after their scores from the 2022 edition of Multistars expired.
And Meg Hemphill dropped from 73rd to 95th after her score from the Kinami Michitaka meet in Osaka in May 2022 expired.
For Atherley, Zamzow-Mahler and Hemphill, their scores were replaced by lower heptathlon marks from other meetings; the 2023 Thorpe Cup, 2022 World Champs and 2022 Decastar respectively.
However, for Gerevini and Schuler, their expired marks were replaced by higher heptathlon scores.
Sveva’s score of 6011 had been boosted by 70 placing points from finishing second at Multistars. It was replaced by a better heptathlon score of 6028, but with only 20 points from 11th place at the 2022 European championships.
Chiara-Belinda’s score of 5816 had been boosted by 45 placing points from finishing fifth at Multistars. It was replaced by a heptathlon score of 5916 – exactly 100 points better – but with no placing points since she achieved it when finishing 19th at Götzis.
This demonstrates that the rankings incentivise athletes with scores below the automatic championships standards to decline an invitation to Götzis, and instead try and collect points at lower ranked meets.
Finally, Anne van de Wiel dropped out the rankings altogether, since she has been focusing on the 400m hurdles this year. That pulled Carmen Ramos back into the top 100.
DECATHLON
Expiry of scores from the 2022 US championships had the biggest impact on the men’s decathlon rankings.
That was where Kyle Garland scored 8720 and broke Frank Busemann’s record for a decathlon score by a 21-year-old. Garland’s score of 8720 now expires, but since he had a back-up score of 8630 from the 2023 NCAAs, with the same placing points, he remained in 11th place overall.
However, it’s worth pausing to look at Garland’s place in the rankings.
His 6639 indoors – just 6 points of Ashton’s Eaton’s world record – translates to a ranking score of 1268. That’s the same as Pierce LePage’s World Championships score of 8909.
Garland’s 8630 translates to 1224. Only Harrison Williams, Leo Neugebauer, Damian Warner and LePage have a second score that translates to an equal or higher number. So, one would think Garland should be ranked much higher than 11th – but his scores are suppressed by placing points. NCAAs are only Category B outdoors and Category C indoors – meets where Garland, Leo Neugebauer and Ayden Owens-Delerme are all running riot. Hardly low-quality meets.
Zach Ziemek dropped just one place from 13th to 14th. His score of 8573 from the 2022 champs was replaced by his 8508 from the 2023 champs. The change was marginal, since in 2022 he had finished third with 45 placing points, while in 2023 he was second with 50 placing points.
Steven Bastien dropped from 40th to 48th. His 8135 to finish fourth in 2022 was replaced by 6012 from his 2023 indoor US title.
Hunter Price dropped from 61st to 79th. His score of 7897 from fifth place in the champs was replaced by 7802 from second place in the 2023 Hurricane Invitational.
Dylan Cooper’s score of 7876 from sixth place at the 2022 nationals expired, and since he does not have a second score in play, he is now unranked.
Kristjan Rosenberg similarly finds himself unranked. He returned to the rankings after a period of injury when he scored 7798 at the Estonian championships this summer. Unfortunately, his pre-injury score of 7848 from 2022 Multistars has now expired, so he is unranked again until he can land a second score.
Dario Dester drops from 29th to 31st, Arthur Prevost from 75th to 84th and Lewis Church from 84th to 106th as their 2022 Multistars scores expire.
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.
