Record-setting Skotheim claims European indoor heptathlon title

Apeldoorn, Netherlands: Norway´s Sander Skotheim clinched the European indoor heptathlon title in style at the last throw of the dice in the Netherlands on Saturday.

The European recordholder produced a personal best time of 2mins 32.72sec in the closing 1000m to take gold with a new continental record points tally of 6,558.

The world indoor silver medallist´s performance in Apeldoorn moved him up to third in the all-time list behind Americans Ashton Eaton (6645 in 2012) and Kyle Garland (6639 in 2023).

“The atmosphere was crazy,” beamed the 22-year-old after his duel over two days with Swiss Simon Ehammer.

Ehammer, heptathlon world indoor champion in Glasgow last year, took silver with 6506 points. Germany´s Till Steinforth completed the podium with a tally of 6388.

Ehammer had taken the lead after the second event on Friday with a 8.20m effort in the long jump, a record for the event.

Skotheim bounced back in the high jump, with Ehammer dominating the 60m hurdles. Both cleared 5.10m in the pole vault to leave Ehammer with a 50-points advantage going into the seventh and final event with Skotheim saving his best till last.

In the men´s triple jump Andy Diaz, the Cuban-born Italian bronze medallist at the Paris Olympics last year, took the title with a leap of 17.71m.