Ondrej Kopecky set a meeting record to win the decathlon at the Wiesław Czapiewski Memorial this weekend (26-27), while Adrianna Sulek-Schubert completed a hat-trick of heptathlon wins at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold event in the Polish town of Naklo nad Notecia.
Czechia’s Kopecky scored 8254 points to triumph ahead of his compatriot Vilem Strasky, who set a PB of 8136. Estonia’s Risto Lillemets finished third on 8107.
Poland’s Sulek-Schubert – who was coached by the late Wieslaw Czapiewski, in whose honour the meeting is held – followed her victories in 2022 and 2024 by scoring 6287 points to triumph for a third time. That score missed her own meeting record by just three points and secured her the title by 38 points ahead of Germany’s Vanessa Grimm. Austria’s Verena Mayr was third on 6159.
Dutch athlete Sven Jansons took the early lead in the decathlon, topping the 100m in 10.64 and leaping 7.35m in a long jump won by India’s Tejaswin Shankar (7.57m). Kopecky clocked 11.14 before leaping 7.36m.
Kopecky moved from sixth to fourth after three events, throwing 14.35m in a shot put contest won by Rafał Horbowicz (15.55m). Finley Gaio took overall top spot at that point, ahead of Strasky, Jansons and Kopecky.
Shankar soared into the lead after the high jump, clearing 2.18m for a mark 15 centimetres higher than any of his rivals could manage. Kopecky cleared 1.91m and remained in fourth place overall.
Shankar held on to the lead overnight, finishing the first day with 4292 points – 155 ahead of runner-up Strasky – after clocking 48.87 in the 400m. Max Attwell went quickest overall with a PB of 47.50, while Kopecky clocked 49.34 and ended the day placed sixth (4048).
Strasky and Kopecky secured the strongest start to day two, respectively clocking 14.13 and 14.14 in the 110m hurdles.
For Kopecky, it was the discus that made the difference. With a PB of 49.10m, he hurled himself into the overall lead with a performance more than two metres farther than the rest of the field. Lillemets (46.90m), Gaio (45.56m) and Jansons (42.35m) also threw PBs and Gaio moved into second place overall – 5857 to 5826.
Kopecky maintained the momentum with a clearance of 5.10m to top the pole vault. Strasky was next best with 4.90m and moved into second place ahead of Lillemets.
Those positions would remain through to the end of the contest, Kopecky extending his lead to 165 points after the javelin (58.66m), which was topped by Lillemets (60.35m).
Attwell achieved another PB to win the 1500m (4:17.85), but Kopecky’s 4:30.95 was enough to clinch him overall victory ahead of Strasky (4:23.97) and Lillemets (4:27.90).
Shankar finished fourth with a PB of 7826, while Attwell finished fifth with 7822 – also a PB.
Sulek-Schubert opened her heptathlon campaign with the fastest 100m hurdles of the day, 13.38. She then cleared 1.77m in the high jump, a height also managed by Grimm and Bianca Salming.
Grimm topped the shot put with a heave of 14.91m while Sulek-Schubert managed 13.98m, and that put Grimm 24 points ahead after three events – 2826 to 2802.
But Sulek-Schubert regained the lead after winning the 200m in 24.00, the 2022 world indoor silver medallist ending the first day in top spot with 3783 points – 47 ahead of Grimm.
Sulek-Schubert maintained her lead on day two, starting Sunday with the farthest long jump mark of 6.22m and following that with a 38.50m throw – a mark that put her ninth in the javelin standings but saw her hold on to the overall top spot by 14 points ahead of Grimm (42.85m) with one event to go. Salming topped the javelin with 49.90m, while Mayr managed a PB of 44.13m.
It all came down to the 800m, won by Sophia Mulder in a PB of 2:08.58. Mayr was second in the race in 2:09.28 and Sulek-Schubert crossed the finish line third in 2:11.22 to triumph overall – holding off Grimm who ran 2:12.84.
Paulina Ligarska, who recently beat Sulek-Schubert to the Polish title, finished fourth on 6137 and Mulder was fifth on 5865.