Multi Events - State of Play

[Occasional Hope]

Sulek will be hoping to improve from Gotzis at this weekend's hep in Bydgoscz; Jade O'Dowda competes there too.

[Occasional Hope]

Didn't she have a big elbow issue in 2019?

[MR_ME]

She has had remarkable good luck to turn up to so many major champs without any major issues. It was bound to run out at some point.

[libarun]

A real shame if Thiam isn't at her best, because she was in 6900+ shape earlier this summer. Watching Hall shoot for 7000 will still be fun, but not as fun as a real scrap for gold would be.

[MR_ME]

Thiam spoke about an achilles problem earlier in the season so I assume it is that. I think she may still make it to Budapest but expectations will be lower than usual. KJT has a good chance of making the podium.

[MysteryBrick]

If Thiam is out, with Vetter not showing much form since May there is a real medal chance for KJT (albeit Hall looks locked on for Gold by a huge margin).

[Occasional Hope]

Nafi Thiam has withdrawn from the events she was planning to do at both Monaco and London. That raises some questions about her fitness.

[Ladyloz]

I think it is bigger than just scheduling. Harry said in the article they were only told of the arrangements for national champs a couple of weeks ago and I think it was similarly late notice for indoors.

And as he also said they haven't been communicated with properly as to why it can't be staged with main t&f champs.

[LuckySpikes]

Re Harry Kendall's comments. In most other European nations the national Combined Events Championships are held separately so it's not like UKA's move is out of step with the rest of the world.

[marra]

If I were a combined events competitor, I'd be pretty cheesed off right now for sure. Don't the ranking points at national champs get weighted more than other events? Do we know if that will still apply to them in this event?

Feels like more and more unnecessary hurdles are being placed on athletes that will do nothing but dissuade promising athletes from trying to take the next step.

[Ursus]

Using Nafi’s points tally from her showing in five events this weekend and adding the 1.95 HJ she always pulls out when it matters and her 2:13 800m - she too is in 6900+ shape. Considering this is her season opener, that’s fearsome. There’s also room to grow in the javelin.

Her coach made the quite reasonable point in an interview that, media hype aside, Gotzis is not Worlds and that Nafi has consistently proved herself at majors against strong competition and is used to being pitted against a rival with gold on the line, so what she faces in Hall is not new. Shame he couched it in a much less reasonable thought about Americans lacking technique!

Suspect not much. Her best were in 2017 and 2018. Since then she’s had an elbow injury which is spear limiting and consistently been in the 52-54 range not the 57-59 she was previously. She might pull out a big one but it definitely isn’t the huge points banker of yore.

[MysteryBrick]

I enjoyed that they were added and think it's fairly crap they've gone.

[Ladyloz]

Difficult to disagree with anything Harry Kendall says here. I thought it was really good including the Hep/Dec within the main British Champs the last couple of years and a real shame they have now abandoned it.

Indoors this year they combined it with the Grand Prix in Birmingham but there was no publicity about it and people weren't allowed to stay on to watch after the grand prix events finished. Poor communications with fans is bad enough but seemingly poor communication with athletes is terrible.

In an era of World Rankings and increasing importance of them for qualification to major champs; national championships are increasingly important as a source of ranking points.

Decathlon and heptathlon 'sidelined' by UK Athletics, says Harry Kendall - BBC Sport

[Ladyloz]

I think the sweet spot ahead of the 800m would be for Thiam to be ahead by about 125 points or so.

[libarun]

Yes, the ideal situation to get some eyeballs on the multi in Budapest is if the gold hangs in the balance come the 800. Technically it did last year between Vetter and Thiam but there was never any real jeopardy, and certainly not after the first 200m made it clear Vetter wasn’t going to die trying.