What a performance! Karel Tilga just smashed the Multistars meeting record with a massive 8482 points, overtaking Andrei Krauchanka’s long-standing mark of 8390 from 2013!
Oleksandr Yurkov represented Ukraine in the decathlon, achieving a personal best of 8574 points in Götzis 2000. A European U23 silver medallist in Turku 1997, he went on to claim consecutive individual European Cup victories in Oulu 2000 and
Robert Zmelík’s Olympic triumph helped spark a golden era for Czech decathlon. He inspired future stars like world record holders Tomáš Dvořák and Roman Šebrle.
Jiri Ryba achieved 6th place at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, scoring 8332 points. He secured a bronze medal at the 1995 European Junior Championships in Nyíregyháza, Hungary, with 7271 points.
Jaakko Ojaniemi’s top decathlon score of 8192 points was achieved at the 2002 European Championships in München. His international medal collection is almost entirely from junior and U23 competitions.
Dmitri Karpov won an Olympic bronze medal at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. He is the Kazakhstan decathlon record holder. Winner of the 2006 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
Paul Terek's personal best in the decathlon came at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento where he scored 8312 points and finished in 3rd place to earn a spot in the Athens Olympic Games.
Romain Barras became Decathlon European Champion in Barcelona 2010. Barras was only the fourth French decathlon champion in European history, following Ignace Heinrich (1950), Christian Plaziat (1990), and Alain Blondel (1994) Post
Italian men’s decathlon all-time list up to 7700 points. At the pinnacle of the Italian men’s decathlon all-time list stands Dario Dester, celebrating his national record of 8235 points achieved in Roma in 2024.
By its fourth year, the Challenge had begun to establish itself as an important platform not just for stars, but also for rising athletes to measure themselves across multiple competitions, creating more depth in decathlon and heptathlon.
Integration with the Olympics. Performances from the Sydney Games counted toward the Challenge. This linked the sport’s most prestigious event directly with the series, boosting its legitimacy and visibility.
After its debut year, the 1999 Challenge showed that the concept of a season-long ranking system for combined events was sustainable, gaining credibility among athletes and organizers.
The discipline and training applied by decathletes have always been regarded by me as the ultimate in athletic dedication. Whilst it is of course always a huge honour for any decathlete to achieve the ultimate status of World Champion, I cannot help but regard all those who dedicate themselves to this most gruelling of athletic disciplines as Champions - unknown person