The decathlon at the Ratingen Combined Events Meeting on 27-28 June could serve as a de facto dress rehearsal for the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham from 10-16 August.
The line-up features three reigning major champions including world champion and home favourite Leo Neugebauer from Germany who will be targeting his first continental medal in Birmingham later this summer.
Neugebauer will face a field including the reigning European heptathlon and decathlon champion: Sander Skotheim from Norway and Johannes Erm from Estonia.
Skotheim won the European indoor heptathlon title in Apeldoorn with a since-improved European record of 6558 points. The Norwegian translated this form to the decathlon, winning the Gotzis Hypo-Meeting with 8909 points, the highest score achieved in 2026.
His decathlon campaign at the World Athletics Championships came to grief after falling in the 110m hurdles before injury forced him to miss the indoor season but Skotheim is ready to return to action next month.
"I can’t wait to feel the energy of the German crowd in Ratingen! After recovering from my injury, I’m itching to compete again. My team and I have trained hard – now it’s time to put what we’ve learned to the test and find out what we still need to work on before the European Championships," said Skotheim.
Skotheim won silver at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome behind Erm who will be making his debut appearance in Ratingen on the road to Birmingham.
"I’m incredibly excited to be competing in Ratingen for the first time. Over the years, I’ve heard so many good things about this meet and its legendary atmosphere. It’s a competition with a long tradition, and I’m looking forward to a great decathlon weekend. I can’t wait to get started!" he said.
The heptathlon line-up is headed by Great Britain’s two-time world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson who will be competing in Ratingen for the first time in her long and distinguished career.
The field also includes 2020 Olympic bronze medallist Emma Oosterwegel from the Netherlands and Germany’s Sandrina Sprengel who finished fifth at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo last year with 6434 points.