Olympic Champion Thiam Becomes One of the Greats, Warner Wins Hat-Trick

By Adam Kopet, DyeStat Editor

While individual athletes garnered much of the attention of the track and field world at the Nike Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, the world's top multi-eventers were putting on a show in Gotzis, Austria, at the Hypo Meeting.

Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam made waves with her big second day to score 7,013 points in the women's heptathlon. That makes her the #3 performer of all-time behind only Sweden's Carolina Kluft and the great Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson led after the first day, but the second day would belong to Thiam. The Belgian jumped a reasonable 21-6.25 (6.56m), about an inch short of her personal best.

Thiam then let loose in the javelin. Her jaw-dropping mark of 194-7 (59.32m) was not only a meet record, but a Belgian national record as well. Her throw gave her a six-event lead with 6,124 points.

In the final event, the 800 meters, Thiam used a solid run of 2:15.24 to cap an impressive two days. She became the fourth women to surpass 7,000 points, just missing Kluft's score of 7,032 points. Joyner-Kersee holds the world record with 7,291 points.

In all, three women surpassed 6,800 points for the first time ever. Johnson-Thompson also set a record for the highest fourth palce score with her personal best 6,691 points.

In the men's decathlon, Canada's Damian Warner would not be denied his third Hypo Meeting win. He finished with 8,591 points, a world-leading total. Finishing close behind was Eeelco Sintnicolaas of the Netherlands who broke the Dutch national record.

Afterward, Warner said, "There is still a lot of room for improvement."

He will likely need to improve if he plans to beat France's Kevin Mayer, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. at the IAAF World Championships in August.