Annik Kälin improved her world lead and Swiss heptathlon record to 6819 points at the Stadtwerke Ratingen Combined Events Meeting on Sunday (28).
After winning in Götzis at the end of May with 6726 points, Kälin added almost 100 points to this total with her winning score of 6819 points which also surpassed the long-standing meeting record of 6787 points set by the great Sabine Braun in 1997.
Kälin led from the first event and won by more than 500 points from Erin Marsh from the United States with 6305 points with Sandrina Sprengel the leading German finisher in third with 6218 points. In total, the top-10 heptathletes all surpassed the 6000 points-barrier.
Kälin was on course for a big score from the very first event as she sped to a 12.60 clocking in the 100m hurdles, just 0.06 shy of Jessica Ennis-Hill’s world heptathlon best of 12.54 set at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Kälin concluded her first day with another PB of 23.00 in the 200m - more than five-tenths faster than anyone else - which took her overall total up to 3974, 115 points better than her first day score in Götzis.
Kälin couldn’t quite repeat her heroics from Gotzis in the long jump when she leapt out to a marginally wind-aided 6.96m but her best effort of 6.75m still yielded 1085 points and kept her on track for another world lead and Swiss record.
In sweltering conditions, Kälin concluded her weekend’s work with a season’s best of 47.85m in the javelin followed by a 2:11.93 clocking in the 800m - just shy of her PB of 2:11.33 - taking the 24-year-old’s score in excess of 6800 points and moving her into the world all-time top-20.
Reigning European and Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam also made her first appearance of the season albeit in selected events. Thiam jumped 1.84m in the high jump and then recorded a mark of 14.64m in the shot put before recording 47.93m in the javelin on day two.
World champion Leo Neugebauer won the decathlon with 8573 points ahead of France's Makenson Gletty (8458 points) and Devon Williams from the United States (8402 points).
Gletty briefly topped the standings after clocking 13.84 in the 110m hurdles before Neugebauer retook the lead courtesy of a meeting record of 53.32m in the discus.
Dario Dester set an Italian record of 8318 points to finish sixth.
More to follow…