Hypomeeting: Warner and Vetter want to win again

In the decathlon, Canadian Warner – making his 10th start – is aiming for his seventh victory at Moseley Stadium. With a personal best of 9,018 points, the 33-year-old is one of only four athletes to pass the 9,000-point mark. One of them is Czech Roman Sibrle, who holds the Gutzner meet record with 9026 points.

In addition to Warner, his compatriot Pierce Lepage, who finished second at the 2022 World Cup, and Ashley Moloney from Australia, third at the 2021 Olympic Games, are among the candidates, as well as vice European champion Simon Emer from Switzerland.

Cousin wants to win again

Heptathlete Anouk Vetter of the Netherlands wants to repeat her victory last year. With Emma Ostrogel third at the Olympics, she has competition from her own country. Another candidate is Britain’s Katharina Johnson-Thompson. She won the Mösle meeting in 2014 and 2019.

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Chiara Belinda Schuller will also return from Vorarlberg at the start. Last year, it ranked 16th with 5,847 points, setting a new record in the state of Vorarlberg. Possibly 23-year-old Isabelle Busch is also the second resident of Vorarlberg in Hypomeeting.

“A great challenge to maintain the level”

As is almost always the case, Kevin Mayer (9126 points) will not be first in the Gutze world record holder. The Frenchman has been making himself scarce for years, focusing on championship sprints. European champion Niklas Kaul is likely to be absent. The German should start in Ratingen two weeks after Götzis. Among the women, multiple Olympic champion as well as world and European champion Nefissatou Thiam is the biggest absentee. The two highest-scoring Austrian athletes, Verena Maier and Ivona Dadic, are again without Götzis due to the schedule and the backlog of training.

Walter Weber, Gützis’ director of athletes, stated that it was a big challenge to meet in Gützis – after the Olympics and World Championships, officially the best all-around event in the world – to “keep the level”. Due to the extensive calendar and qualifying system for the World Championships in Budapest, some athletes are reneging on their commitment to starting at the last minute. They were hoping for better bonus points to put into other meetings.

Therefore, the World Association of Athletics Federations wants to get a different classification of the Gützis meeting in order to defuse the problem. But this is difficult, according to Weber. Five top ten athletes in the world rankings are currently registered in the decathlon and eight are in the top ten in the heptathlon.