JULY 2023
11 July: The arrival of the US trials allowed Harrison Williams and Taliyah Brooks to consolidate their early seasons scores with impressive follow ups and land in the rankings. Brooks arrived in 12th place, Harrison Williams at 14th.
Annie Kunz’s second eligible score brought her into 25th place in the rankings, which would likely have been high enough to qualify for Budapest had she beaten Hawkins into third place. But she didn’t, so the team was announced as Hall, Brooks and Hawkins.
The story of the trials though – other than Harrison William’s superb score – was how the rankings system played against Austin West. Of course it is the right decision that Kyle Garland take his place in a world field, but it is worth exploring the interaction between the US selection system and the rankings. After US trials, West improved his position from 40th to 33rd in the world rankings, his two eligible scores the 8331 at trials and his 8054 from the NCAAs. Without access to a high ranking competition before the close of the qualifying period, he would have no opportunity to improve that.
That’s a hard pill to swallow when that same week, Ondrej Kopecky of Czech Republic was ranked 9 places above West in 24th with scores of 8310 and 8041- almost identical and indeed not as good as West’s. Maybe the quality of West’s competitions were lower? Hardly. His 8310 was third place to 8630 and 8508, and his 8054 was third behind 8836 and 8630. The difference? Kopecky got better placing points from winning his nationals and a European WA combined events tour competition.
There was no guarantee that a higher ranking would have translated into a World Championships place (and as above, Garland is arguably the right choice), but West wasn’t competing on a level playing field.
Elsewhere in the field Devon Williams moved from 55th to 48th, Sam Black 90th to 75th, Joe Delgado in at 79th, and Denim Rogers 94th to 92nd.
At the CAC championships Marys Patterson improved from 59th to 47th, Felix Boyer 72th to 59th, Borja new in at 98th. Ken Mullings with his first 8000 point score moved from 52nd to 44th, and Yan Hernandez in at 99th. At the Brazilian championships De Souza arrived in the heptathlon rankings at 79th, while Jose Fernando Ferreira Santana continued to climb to 45th.
18 July: The European U23 championships had limited impact on the heptathlon rankings. Saga Vanninen improved her score but stayed in 13th place, Pippi Lotta Enok moved from 39th to 38th, and Julia Slocka from 68th to 66th. However, the changes were significant in the decathlon. Markus Rooth leaped from 27th to 16th, Marcel Meyer from 65th to 50th, Rasmus Roosleht re-entered at 78th with his first 8k score, and Andreu Boix climbed from 96th to 85th.
The Asian champs also had an impact, between the generous ranking points and designated places. Ekaterina Voronina’s gold medal took her from 33rd to 16th place, qualifying her by right by rankings, Swapna Barman in silver moved from 66th to 52nd, Yuki Yamasaki in bronze 70th to 59th, and Karin Odama 97th to 94th. In the decathlon, Yuma Maruyama moved from 51st to 39th, outside the rankings but with a designated place as champion. Singkhon of Thailand came in at 97 and Tejaswin Shankar to 100.
25 July: The final World Athletics combined events tour meeting before the close of the Budapest qualification period in Bydgoszcz in Poland would also be material to qualification in the heptathlon. Vanessa Grimm improved from 32nd place to 16th, Lagger 40th to 33rd, and Loban 49th to 39th. In the decathlon, Kazmirek improved his score but stayed in 27th, Edgaras Benkunskas improved one place to 50, Adam Sebastian Helcelet leaped from 84th to 48th, and Finley Gaio from 62nd to 57th.
At the Balkan champs, Angelos Andreoglou’s second place brought him into the rankings at 88th.
