Martin Roe produced the performance of his life to rewrite Norwegian athletics history this weekend when he broke the national decathlon record which had stood since 1999.
By scoring 8228 points to triumph at the 31st Multistars Combined Events Meeting in Florence on Saturday (28), Roe overtook the mark which Benjamin Jensen, the 1994 world U20 decathlon champion, had established almost 19 years ago.
Roe’s success will now propel him to a level where he will head to Berlin this summer looking to make his mark as the German city co-host the inaugural multi-sports European Championships with Glasgow.
Entering the competition with a personal best of 8144, Roe, 26, achieved two individual personal bests during the two days of the event to triumph from Belarusian Yury Yaremich with 7985 and Estonia’s Taavi Tsernjavski with 7873.
On the opening day, Roe improved his long jump lifetime best with 7.53m as he led overnight with 4217 from Maksim Andraloits (4187) and his Belarusian teammate Yaremich (4132).
He started the second day by equalling his lifetime best in the 110m hurdles with 15.15 and then achieved an outdoor best of 4.75m in the pole vault on his way to a fine win. He also went out to 66.64m in the javelin and ended with 4:40.97 in the 1500m.
Portugal’s Lecabela Quaresma was third in the heptathlon with 5886 points behind American duo Erica Bougard, who won in a world lead of 6327, and Alex Golchenour (6063).
Hudson-Smith 45.07 in Clemson
Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith has been a consistent medallist since 2013 and he could be gearing up for another podium finish in Berlin after an inauspicious showing at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast where he was disqualified in the 400m heats for a lane infringement before pulling up injured in the heats of the 4x400m.
At the NTC Spring invitational in Clermont, Florida, on Saturday, Hudson-Smith, the 2014 European silver medallist, won the men’s 400m in a European-leading mark of 45.07.
Since the 2013 European Athletics U20 championships in Rieti, where he won 200m and 4x400m relay bronzes, Hudson-Smith has banked six medals, including a relay bronze from last summer’s IAAF World Championships in London.
At the same meeting, Italy’s Libania Grenot, the reigning two-time European champion, won the women’s 400m in 52.54.
Sweden’s Simon Pettersson was 11th in London last summer as his teammate Daniel Stahl won discus silver but the tide turned in Irvine, California.
At the Steve Scott Invitational, Pettersson won with 63.92m from Stahl with 63.16m, meaning a good domestic rivalry could be brewing this summer.
Malyshik regains world-leading mark in the hammer
Hanna Malyshik didn’t make it through qualifying at the European Championships in Amsterdam in 2016 but the Belarusian is in form to challenge for a medal in Berlin later this summer.
Malyshik, who won the European Throwing Cup title in Leiria, Portugal last month, set an early season world-leading mark and lifetime best of 76.26m at the Shukevich Memorial in Brest on Friday (27).
This was one of a number of notable performances in the throwing events: in the men’s hammer, Oleg Dubitskiy went out to 74.71m ahead of Yuriy Shayunov (74.46m), multiple global finalist Aliona Dubitskaya won the shot put with 18.63m and reigning European javelin champion Tatiana Khaladovich went out to 59.20m in the javelin.