Two of the all-time greats will take centre stage in what promises to be an unmissable and exhilarating heptathlon at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships from 7-12 June while Germany's renowned championship performer Niklas Kaul will be seeking yet another major title in the decathlon.
A clash of heptathlon titans
The main protagonists are reigning world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson from Great Britain who has yet to win a European heptathlon title and two-time Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam from Belgium who has also won the last two European heptathlon titles.
Both athletes have kept low profiles so far this season although Johnson-Thompson has tested herself in selected individual events in recent weeks and took confidence from registering her second longest javelin throw - an event which used to be her Achilles heel - with 44.88m in Graz, Austria.
And ahead of Roma 2024, Johnson-Thompson told European Athletics: “It’s a title I haven’t won - it’s a title I would like to have. But as a heptathlete, I know so much can go right, so much can go wrong, so much can happen, so much can happen in the lead-up.
“I’m feeling really motivated - probably more motivated than ever coming off the back of last year. Now I just want to put out a good performance.”
By contrast, Thiam hasn’t competed at all this season and her last completed heptathlon dates back to her title defence in Munich 2022 which means her primary goal will be to secure the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying mark of 6480 points.
But one only has to go back just over a year for Thiam’s last combined events competition which yielded a world record of 5055 points in the pentathlon at the Istanbul 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships, a performance which gave Thiam the confidence that her best days might still lie ahead.
"Obviously, it’s the world record and I was so happy, but what’s even more exciting for me was how much better I could still do and how much potential is still there,” said Thiam, who was forced to miss the 2023 World Athletics Championships due to injury, in an interview with European Athletics last year.
But another major champion who cannot be discounted either is two-time world indoor pentathlon champion Noor Vidts from Belgium who just missed out on a medal in fourth at the 2022 European Athletics Championships.
Switzerland’s Annik Kalin pipped Vidts for the bronze medal in Munich and also looks in the form to challenge for her second successive podium finish.
Kalin recently finished second in Gotzis behind Anouk Vetter, who has opted to miss this championships, last month with 6506 points - just nine points shy of her Swiss record which she set in Munich - and achieved the qualifying standard for Rome in both the 100m hurdles (12.97) and long jump (6.70m) over the course of the weekend.
And another emerging force in the event is Finland’s Saga Vanninen, the European U20 and U23 champion who graduated to win a historic silver behind Vidts in the pentathlon at the World Athletics Indoor Championships this March.
In doing so, the 21-year-old became the first ever Finnish female medallist in the history of the championships. Can she win her first senior heptathlon medal in Rome next week?
With Vetter opting to miss these championships, world indoor bronze medallist Sofie Dokter leads the Dutch challenge in the heptathlon. Also watch out for Germans Carolin Schaefer and Sophie Weissenberg and Hungary's Xenia Kriszan who finished fourth at the 2023 World Athletics Championships on home soil in Budapest.
Kaul to defend European decathlon title
Niklas Kaul’s victory in the decathlon in Munich was one of the defining moments of the championships and will linger long in the memories of the 55,000 spectators who witnessed his second day comeback.
Down in seventh with two events remaining and some 500 points in arrears, Kaul unleashed a mighty championship best throw of 76.05m in the javelin before overhauling long-time competition leader Simon Ehammer with the run of his life in the 1500, crossing the line in 4:10.04 to clinch the title.
“The noise was just crazy. It nearly blew my ears off. Winning here like this means much more to me than my world title three years ago,” said the usually stoic Kaul who succumbed to the emotions in the aftermath of his victory.
And with Kaul receiving a wildcard by virtue of being the reigning champion, he will be one of four Germans to contest the decathlon in Rome along with Manuel Eitel, Tim Nowak and Felix Wolter.
And while there won’t be a repeat of this clash in Munich as Ehammer has opted to contest the individual long jump instead, a strong cast of combined eventers will still assemble alongside Kaul in the Stadio Olimpico.
And the strongest of them all is world record-holder and two-time world champion Kevin Mayer who will contest arguably the most crucial decathlon of his decade-plus long senior career so far as the Frenchman still does not have the qualifying standard for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with less than a month before the qualifying window closes.
Mayer has a somewhat chequered history at the European Athletics Championships. His title hopes in Berlin 2018 famously dissipated after recording three fouls in the long jump but this gave Mayer the impetus to challenge the world record the following month in Talence where he tallied a record-breaking score of 9126 points.
Other medal contenders include the young Norwegian tandem of Markus Rooth and Sander Skotheim who won gold and silver with 8606 and 8590 points respectively at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Espoo last summer and an experienced Estonian triumvirate comprised of Janek Oiglane, Johannes Erm and Risto Lillemets.
Steven Mills for European Athletics