Rankings Analysis: March to May 2026

This catch-up edition of World Athletics ranking analysis for combined events covers 24 March to 19 May 2026. It runs from the close of the indoor season following the World Athletics Championships in Toruń, through to the opening weeks of outdoor competition. You can read the principles of the rankings system here.

World Athletics undertook a review of rankings in 2025 and, from the start of 2026, the placing score awarded for each finishing position has been reduced by approximately 30% across all events and categories.

This reduces the number of incidences where athletes achieving similar decathlon or heptathlon scores experience significant differences in ranking, but the underlying issue about meet categorisation remains, as highlighted in the analysis below. National championships are a particular issue, where Category B can apply both to US trials determining multiple candidates for Olympic section, and to nationals in a small country with only a handful of athletes competing at a level some 1000 points below.

We’ll return to that in another article, but for now the changes in placing scores are noted below.

The top 30 athletes in world rankings at end March, and those at 19 May, are captured at the end of the article, alongside a summary of athletes who are currently unranked.

The article goes through each week’s change in the top 100 rankings and summarises the reasons for each change. It also identifies two issues which require resolution: an inconsistent approach in extending legacy area championships points when the event is not contested (see 19 May entry), and the retrospective downgrading of placing points to a meet while it is still advertised at the higher category (see 21 April entry).

Changes on 24 March arose due to:

• New results from World Indoor Championships – Category GW
• New results from New Zealand national championships – Category B

Women

At the end of the indoor season, the biggest winner from a rankings perspective was Szabina Szucs (HUN). Her new best of 4618 points in fifth place at the World Indoor Championships moved her from 30^th to 23^rd position.

Toruń bronze medallist Kate O’Connor’s (IRL) PB score of 4839 improved her overall ranking score but she remained number two ranked heptathlete behind silver medallist Anna Hall. Gold medallist Sofie Dokter (NED) moved from fifth position to third position with her winning score of 4888 points. Adrianna Sulek-Schubert (POL) and Sveva Gerevini (ITA) had small improvements in their ranking positions thanks to their fourth and seventh places in the competition respectively.

Maddie Wilson (NZ) won a close New Zealand Championships in a lifetime best of 6059 points, just ahead of Brianna Stephenson in 6002 points. That moved Stephenson from 43^rd to 42^nd position but allowed Wilson to leap from 85^th to 51st position.

Men

Simon Ehammer’s (SUI) world record moved him from seventh to fifth position overall. His mark of 6670 replaces his score of 6506 from the European Indoor Championships in 2025 as his most valuable score.

Although Heath Baldwin (USA) improved his lifetime best to 6337 in Torun when winning silver, and improved his overall ranking score, he remained in eight position overall. Vilem Strasky (CZE) moved up one place from 16th to 15th position, improving both his score and placing from the previous year’s World Indoor Championships in Nanjing. Teo Bastien (FRA) moved up three places from 26^th to 23^rd position. His previous ranking was based on his fifth place 8102 score at Decastar in 2025, and 6078 to win the French championships indoors. Although his score in Torun was lower – 6004 – the placing points boosted the mark into being his most valuable score and helped his ranking position.

Changes on 31 March arose due to:

• New results from Chinese national championships – Category D

Xinghua Chen (CHN) moved from 72^nd to 53^rd position with a score of 5865 points to win the Chinese Indoor Championships.

Changes on 7 April arose due to:

• New results from Texas Relays – Category F

Esther Conde-Turpin (FRA) won the Texas Relays in a score of 6161 points. Although this improved her ranking score by eight points, her ranking was unchanged in 38^th position, due to others moving ahead of her. Her most valuable score remains 6090 from the 2025 French championships, due to the better placing scores.

Changes on 14 April arose due to:

• New results from Australian National Championships – Category B
• New results from 44 Farms Team Invitational – Category F
• New results from the 38th Umemura School Athletics Competition – Category F
• New results from Bryan Clay Invitational – Category D
• New results from Decajam, Illinois – Category F

Women

Mia Scerri (AUS) delivered a superb performance to win the Australian national championships. After improving her PB from 5770 to 5919 in January, she improved again to 6175 to take the title. That took her from 84^th position to 45^th position.

Tori West (AUS) took second place with a strong score of 6162 points. Together with her victory at nationals in 2025 (in which she scored 6107), she moved up two ranking positions from 33^rd to 31^st.

Juliette Laracuente-Huebner (USA) won the 44 Farms Team meet at College Station with an impressive 5920 points, over 200 points ahead of her previous PB. The mark was windy (including +4.3m for her 24.22s 200m) but since she has posted faster legal times for the windy individual events this year, it remains a legitimate indicator of improvement. It moves her from 76^th position to 70^th.

Yuri Tanaka (JAP) won the 38th Umemura School Athletics Competition in Tokyo in a PB score of 5807. That moved her up 13 ranking positions from 104^th to 91^st.

Hollan Powers (USA) won the Bryan Clay competition in Azusa in a PB score of 5789 points which, together with her indoor score, brought her into the rankings in 73^rd position after a period out with injury.

Men

Jip de Greef (NED) entered the rankings for the first time with his first senior decathlon score, which was also a first time 8k score, of 8039 points to win the Decajam meet in Illinois.

Ben Barton (USA) won the Bryan Clay Invitational with a score of 7988 points, and his ranking position improved from 47th to 37^th.

Callum Newby (GBR) achieved his second Scottish record of the year, with 7867 points in second place at the Bryan Clay Invitational. That moved him from 101^st position to 75^th position.

Aiden Carter (USA) moved from 138^th to 95^th after finishing fifth at the Bryan Clay Invitational, scoring 7497 points.

Blake Harris (USA) entered the rankings in 69^th place, following his score of 7727 at the 44 Farms Team Invitational at College Station.

Changes on 21 April arose due to:

• New results from Mt SAC – Category B
• New results from Tom Jones Memorial – Category F
• Adjusted results from Bryan Clay Invitational – changed from F to D

Women

Beatrice Juskeviciute (LTU) won the Mt SAC heptathlon in a lifetime best of 6323 points. She also won Mt SAC in 2025, in 6295 points, and her ranking position is now constituted of those two Walnut scores. The superior heptathlon mark in 2026, causes her to move up one place in the rankings, from 14^th to 13^th position.

Erin Marsh (USA) was second at Mt SAC with a score of 6104. The placing points (35) mean that 6104 to finish 2^nd at Mt SAC is worth more than 6171 to finish 14^th in Götzis in 2025 (14). That nudges her up from 37^th place ranking position to 36th. But both scores are worth less than the 6039 she scored to place second in the (then) A-ranked edition of Arona in 2025, and that remains her most valuable score.

Lexie Keller (USA) finished 4^th at Mt SAC with 6072 points. Although it improved her overall ranking score, her ranking position didn’t change due to other movements ahead of her. Like Marsh, her Mt SAC score is considered less valuable than her 2025 Arona score, 6026 when she finished in third place.

Sofia Cosculluela (ESP) finished third at Mt SAC with 6093 points and experienced the most substantive rankings boost. She moved from 57^th position to 40^th position.

Lauren Taubert (USA) finished sixth at Mt SAC with 5972 points, which moved her from 65^th position to 54^th position overall.

Avery Rhoads (formerly McMullen, USA) placed fifth at Mt SAC with her first ever 6000+ score of 6019, only nine months after giving birth to her son Scottie. The score brought her back into rankings at 58^th place.

Nineteen-year-old JaiCieonna Gero-Holt (USA) won the Tom Jones Memorial in Florida with a PB of 5870. Together with her silver medal at the 2026 NCAA indoors, she enters the rankings in 60^th position.

Meagan Humphries (USA) placed second at the Tom Jones Memorial with a PB of 5847 points. That moved her from 78^th position to 76^th position.

One week after Hollan Powers (USA) enjoyed victory at the Bryan Clay Invitational and entered the rankings in 73^rd position, she dropped seven places to 80^th position.

Investigation shows that the placing score was reduced, from Category D to Category F. But at the time of writing in May, the World Athletics calendar continues to show the meet as Category D. This is a concerning inconsistency.

The introduction of rankings for the purposes of championship qualification means that where an athlete achieves a score is as important as the score itself. The World Athletics calendar is the definitive list of meetings where results are considered eligible and official. So if WA is advertising a meet as Category D, but then correcting athletes’ rankings retrospectively to a lower category, that has the effect of misleading athletes as to the rankings points they can achieve at a meet. It had the effect of lowering Powers’ ranking position by seven places. Ben Barton, who won the decathlon, dropped from 37^th to 44^th place, and Callum Newby from 75^th to 84^th. This misrepresentation has been reported to World Athletics.

Men

Hakim McMorris (USA) moved from 14th to 13th position, thanks to his PB score of 8420 points to win at Mt SAC. At the time of writing, his score is the world lead in 2026.

Yuma Maruyama (JAP) moved from 44th to 26th position, with a national record of 8321 in second place at Mt SAC.

Kenneth Byrd (USA) moved from 32nd to 30th position. His score of 7891 from fourth place at Mt SAC becomes his second most valuable score, behind his 6132 from second place at the indoor NCAAs.

Joshua Mooney (USA) leaps from 92nd to 49th position, after his first ever 8000+ score, 8033 for third place at Mt SAC.

Jami Schlueter (NGR) moved from 80th to 72nd position, following his score of 7681 in seventh place at Mt SAC.

Seth Johnson (USA) entered the rankings at 77th position, thanks to his score of 7786 in fifth place at Mt SAC.

Kyle Sieracki (USA) moved from 114th to 79th position. He scored 7711 when he finished in sixth place at Mt SAC.

Changes on 28 April arose due to:

• New results from Multistars – Category B
• New results from Troféu Adhemar Ferreira da Silva Loterias Caixa de Atletismo, Bragança Paulista – Category F
• Results expired from 6th Chukyo University Saturday Competition – Category F

Women

Lovisa Karlsson (SWE) moved from 34^th place to 27^th place thanks to her win in Multistars. Her mark of 6190 became her most valuable score for rankings purposes. Her second most valuable score is 6061 from her win in the (then A-ranked) 2025 edition of Arona, over her score of 6146 from the European Championships in Rome in 2024. First place in an A meet is worth 56 placing points, tenth place in a GL meet is worth 17.

Mathilde Rey (SUI) had been unranked since March 2026 when her 2024 Decastar result expired, leaving her with only a pentathlon score during the rankings eligibility period. Third place at Multistars with 5876 points brought her back into the rankings, to 70^th place.

Jessica Barreira (POR) had also been unranked since the end of December 2025, reflecting her adaptability between seasons competing in individual events and combined events. Her second place at Multistars, with her first 6000+ score of 6077 points, brought her back into the rankings in 80^th position.

Men

Julio Angullo (COL) placed third at Multistars. Prior to the meet, he was ranked in 34^th position. His most valuable score was 8089 from the D-Category Juegos Bolivarianos in Lima in December, his first score over 8000 points, and his second was 7908 from his win at the Colombian nationals. Although he scored over 8000 points at Multistars, 100 points more than at nationals, the placing points for third only caused his overall ranking score to increase by two points. So he remained in 34^th position, even after that excellent performance in Brescia.

Nino Portmann (SUI) enjoyed an excellent boost from his Multistars competition. A score of 7930, for fourth place, represents a major step up from his previous PB of 7706. That took him from 91^st position to 60^th position in the overall rankings.

Alberto Nonnino (ITA) also improved his lifetime best by over 150 points when placing sixth at Multistars, and that moved him from 82^nd to 76^th position.

Felipe dos Santos (BRA) is having his best season since 2022 and scored 7876 in Bragança Paulista. That moved him up from 93^rd position to 77^th position.

Keisuke Okuda (JAP) drops out of the rankings following the expiry of his score from the 5th Chukyo University Saturday Competition in October 2024. His only remaining score in the 18 months ranking period is his third place in the 2025 Asian Championships decathlon.

Changes on 5 May: none

Changes on 12 May 2026 arose due to:

• New results from Franson Last Chance meet in Azusa – Category F
• Addition of results from the 15th Games of People’s Republic of China in Guangzhou in November 2025 – Category F

Hannah Blair (CAN) moved into the top 100 rankings following a score of 5925 points at the Franson Last Chance meet in Azusa.

Zihui Hua (CHN) and Wenxi Zhang (CHN) improved from 82^nd to 59^th, and 124^th to 98^th, place respectively following the inclusion of decathlon results from Guangzhou in November 2025, previously not counted in their ranking position. Hua scored 7855, and Zhang 7760 points.

Changes on 19 May 2026 arose due to:

• New results from Summit League Outdoor Track & Field Championships – Category F
• New results from Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships – Category F
• New results from ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships – Category F
• New results from Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships – Category F
• New results from SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships – Category F
• Expiry of 2024 Oceania Championships results – Category GL

Women

Juliette Laracuente-Huebner (USA) moved from 73rd to 49th position, a significant improvement in her ranking. That arose due to her first ever 6000+ point heptathlon, 6086 to win the Big 12 Championships.

Annie Molenhouse (USA) moved from 106th to 72nd position. Her score of 6005 from second place at the Big 12 Championships was also her first score over 6000 points.

Marta Sivina (LAT) moved from 126th to 97th position. Her score of 5935 from seventh place at the SEC Championships is almost 500 points better than her best score from 2025.

Camryn Newton-Smith (AUS) dropped from 33rd to 55th position following the expiry of her 6070 score from the 2024 Oceania Championships. Performances from area championships are valid until the next iteration of the championships, so long as it is within three calendar years. The 2026 edition of the Oceania Championships took place towards the end of May. However, there was no heptathlon (or decathlon) in this year’s championships.

This exposes an inconsistency in the approach to area championships.

For example, there was no heptathlon at the 2025 NACAC championships. However, both Shaina Burns’ and Chari Hawkins’ scores from the 2023 edition continued to feature in their ranking position long after the 2025 edition of the championships took place without a heptathlon.

Burns’ 6130 from Grenada in 2023 remains the most valuable performance contributing to her ranking, as of 19 May 2026, as did Hawkins’ 6216 right up until all her other scores (from 2024) expired at the end of January 2026.

This inconsistency has been reported to World Athletics.

Either Newton-Smith’s 2024 Oceania championships score should continue to be eligible for the three-year period noted in the rules, or Burns’ and Hawkins’ scores should also have expired at the point the 2025 NACAC championships took place without a heptathlon. Either way, it exposes an oversight in the rankings protocols. The rules are silent about what happens when an event is not included in an area championships, meaning the position is open to inconsistent and ambiguous interpretation, as demonstrated.

More generally, this example also demonstrates another issue with rankings in combined events. On the one hand, competitions with a handful of athletes (three in the decathlon at the 2025 NACAC, only two of whom had ever been over 8000 points) attract the same points as Götzis, or a European Championships, where scores can expect to be well above 8500. On the other hand, athletes in Oceania and other continents without rich competition opportunities are reliant on area championships for GL points to level the playing field for access to major championships, qualification for which can end up being drawn primarily from rankings.

Men

Zach McGlynn (USA) moved from 66th to 59th position following his score of 7922 points from first place at the Summit League Championships.

John Swabik (USA) moved from 118th to 79th position following his score of 7819 points when winning the Big 12 Championships.

Maxwell Forte (USA)moved from 102nd to 83rd position, thanks to his 7686 points when finishing second at the ACC Championships.

Easton Hammond (USA) moved from 138th to 95th position, thanks to his score of 7682 points when winning the Sun Belt Championships.

Top 30 ranked athletes at 24 March, and at 19 May

Unranked athletes

The following athletes are unranked, for a range of reasons (including injury, focus on individual events, pregnancy, retirement).

• Isabel Posch since March 2026
• Marie Dehning since March 2026
• KJT since February 2026
• Nafi Thiam since February 2026
• Noor Vidts since February 2026
• Rita Nemes since February 2026
• Lydia Boll since December 2025
• Ashtin Mahler since December 2025
• Kristine Blazevica since December 2025
• Annika Williams since December 2025
• Caroline Agnou since December 2025
• Ivona Dadic since November 2025
• Odile Ahouanwanhou since October 2025
• Nicole Warwick since October 2025
• Ninali Zheng since August 2025
• Annie Kunz since July 2025
• Felix Boyer since May 2025
• Ekaterina Voronina since April 2025
• Swapna Barman since April 2025
• Marijke Esselink since March 2025
• Anouk Vetter since February 2025
• Sophie Weissenberg since February 2025
• Georgia Ellenwood since December 2024
• Erica Bougard since December 2024
• Nicole Ostertag since December 2024
• Dorota Skrivanova since August 2024
• Annaelle Nyabeu Djapa since March 2024
• Geraldine Ruckstuhl since March 2024
• Claudia Conte since January 2024
• Holly Mills since February 2024
• Mia Sillman since November 2023
• Laura Ikauniece since December 2023

• Felix Wolter since March 2026
• Taavi Tsernjavski since March 2026
• Marcel Meyer since March 2026
• Luc Brewin since March 2026
• Sven Roosen since February 2026
• Dan Golubovic since February 2026
• Jack Turner since December 2025
• Aiden Ouimet since December 2025
• Zach Ziemek since December 2025
• Niels Pittomvils since December 2025
• Sam Black since December 2025
• Leon Mak since December 2025
• Lucas van Klaveren since December 2025
• Andy Preciado since November 2025
• Malik Diakite since November 2025
• Damian Warner since November 2025
• Lindon Victor since November 2025
• Ash Moloney since November 2025
• Suttisak Singkhon since April 2025
• Markus Rooth since March 2025
• Janek Oiglane since March 2025
• Rik Taam since March 2025
• Bruno Comin since February 2025
• Kristjan Rosenberg since February 2025
• Jorge Davila since February 2025
• Tarmo Savola since February 2025
• Hans Christian Hausenberg since February 2025
• Jose Miguel Paulino since January 2025
• Fredrik Samuelsson since November 2024
• Pierce LePage since December 2024
• Cedric Dubler since December 2024
• Kevin Mayer since September 2024

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BY GABBY PIERACCINI