Sander Skotheim maintained his superb run of form in 2025, by setting a new Norwegian record and going seventh on the world all-time list to win the decathlon at the 50th anniversary Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria across the weekend (31 May-1 June).
Having won heptathlon gold at both the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships and Nanjing 2025 World Indoor Championships in March, including a European record of 6558 at the former event, he entered the outdoor summer season high in confidence.
He looked the man to bear right from the off at Gotzis and he produced a relentless all-round display to finish with 8909 points, it was an improvement of 274 on his previous best when winning silver at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships and 113 better than Markus Rooth’s previous national record which he set when winning Olympic gold in Paris last summer.
Skotheim is now tied seventh on the world all-time list with Canada’s Pierce Lepage, who totalled 8909 in winning gold at the Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships. In supreme form, Skotheim must also be having similar global ambitions with the next edition now just three months away in Tokyo.
Personal best in 100m
On the first day, Skotheim opened his campaign brilliantly with a personal best 10.70 (+0.7m/s) on Saturday (31) and he was consistent across the day to finish third overnight with 4611. On day two, a personal best of 49.18m in the seventh event – the discus - took him to the top of the leaderboard and he was never headed.
USA’s Kyle Garland was second with 8626 and Simon Ehammer and Germany's Niklas Kaul were joint third with 8575. For Ehammer it was a Swiss record. The twice a European medallist (Munich 2022 silver and Roma 2024 bronze) produced his customary standout individual performance in the long jump, landing at 8.34m (+1.7m/s). It is the joint second longest jump in the world this year.
For Kaul, the 2019 world champion and Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships gold medallist, it was also a promising start to the season including a personal best 11.12 (+2.0m/s) in the 100m.
Dokter sets PB to finish second
The women’s competition won by world champion Anna Hall of USA in a brilliant meeting record pf 7032 points - to go joint second on the women's all-time list. The Netherlands’ Sofie Dokter produced a lifetime best performance to finish second with 6576. It added 124 points to the Dutch athlete’s previous best when finishing sixth at last year’s Paris Olympics.
Dokter, who won silver in the women’s pentathlon at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships, could also savour four personal bests in individual events in the 200m (23.46, +0.7m/s), 100m hurdles (13.50, -0.2m/s), shot put (14.17m) and 800m (2:10.88) across a very satisfactory couple of days in Austria.
Colombia’s Martha Araujo was third in a South American record of 6475 in a high quality meeting.
Slightly further down the standings, Spain's Maria Vicente made an excellent return to the combined events after an Achilles rupture by finishing ninth with 6288 points, the second highest score of her career.
And in tenth, 18-year-old Sarolta Kriszt set a Hungarian U20 record of 6225 points, a notable performance in the context of the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland from 7-10 August.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics