Sander Skotheim has withdrawn from this weekend’s Tallin Combined Events Meeting (31 January-1 February) due to an ankle injury.
The Norwegian set the European indoor heptathlon record at this meeting last year before going on to extend that record by 74 points to win gold at Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Estonians seeking to make impression
He was the strong favourite to win in Tallin after his incredible season last year that also saw him win gold at the Nanjing 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships where he took his first global title.
It means the means the men’s heptathlon is now wide open with the Estonian quintet, of Rasmus Roosleht, Risto Lillemets, Hans-Christian Hausenberg, Andreas Trumm, and Marten Roasto all looking to make an early season impression.
Hausenberg comes into the event with the highest lifetime best amongst his countrymen, but that mark comes from 2022, and he hasn’t come near surpassing 6000 points since.
However, last year Roosleht finished seventh at Apeldoorn 2025, setting a personal best of 6062 points, ranking him ninth in Europe overall last year.
Lillemets wasn’t far behind his fellow Estonian based on last year’s season’s best of, 5922 points, however he will be keen to get back over the 6000 points mark and challenge for a new lifetime best.
Also competing are the Czech trio Vilem Strasky, Chengdu 2023 World University Games winner, Ondrej Kopecky, and 21-year-old Adam Havlicek.
Another young talent in attendance is Great Britain’s Sammy Ball, who has a decathlon personal best of 8100, but his heptathlon sits at 5760 which he set last year.
Finishing the start list is: Devon Williams, Tristan Marcy, Andreu Boix, Jorge Davila Lopez, Angelos-Tzanis Andreoglou, Joni Heikkinen, and Zsombor Galpal.
Pentathlon set for a tight battle
The pentathlon line up points to close competition, as less than 100 points separate the top six women.
Poland's Paulina Ligarska leads the group with a best of 4615 set just last year although she will face strong home opposition from Estonian record-holder Pippi Lotta Enok, a past medallist at both the World Athletics U20 Championships and European Athletics U23 Championships.
Italy’s Sveva Gerevini will also be in Tallinn, as she looks to better her lifetime best of 4559 that she set at Glasgow 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships, where she placed a painful fourth.
Going into the competition with the fourth best pentathlon mark is Hungary’s Szabina Szucs who won silver in the heptathlon at the 2025 World University Games in Bochum.
The pentathlon line-up also features some of the exciting up-and-coming European combined events including European U18 heptathlon champion Enni Virjonen and Greece's Anastasía Ntragkomirova who finished fourth at the European Athletics U23 Championships last year.
Completing the line-up is Yuliia Loban, Bianca Salming, Erin Marsh, Julia Slocka, Mariana Bento, Anna McCauley, Ellen Barber, Elise Hoel Ulseth, Hanna Van Baast, Marleen Ritari, Nikola Bunde.