BRESCIA, Italy, (April 28) – USA’s Taliyah Brooks successfully defended her Multistars heptathlon title after matching her personal best score of 6330 points, while Belgium’s Jente Hauttekeete claimed his first decathlon crown at a World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting in Brescia on Sunday.

Taliyah Brooks Goes Wire-to-Wire

In the women’s event, Brooks, contesting her first heptathlon of the season, won three of the seven-event competition to set up the overall victory. The 29-year-old kicked off the competition with a strong performance in the 100m hurdles at 13.14 seconds before posting 23.92 seconds to lead the 200m field and ending day one with a lead of more than 200 points.

Day two saw Brooks extend her advantage after winning the long jump with a leap of 6.52m when the action resumed. Despite a strong performance by Eikeng in the javelin, Brooks maintained her lead going into the final event, the 800m, which she closed out with a time of 2:13.81.

Ireland’s Kate O’Connor, the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medalist and a runner-up twice at Multistars, was second to Brooks on Sunday with 6104 points, while Katelyn Adel, who set a new personal best time of 2:12.66 to win the 800m, secured third place overall with 6082 points.

Read more: Taliyah Brooks and Teo Bastien take early lead at Multistars Combined Event

Lovisa Karlsson of Sweden also broke 6000 points in the heptathlon, taking fourth place with a personal best mark of 6051 points.

Jente Hauttekeete Takes Decathlon Win

In the men’s decathlon, the title went to Jente Hauttekeete, who used a consistent performance across all disciplines to secure victory with a total score of 8020, some 55 points shy of his personal best from 2023.

Entering the second day of competition in second place and just one point behind overnight leader Teo Bastien, Hauttekeete managed to stay within striking distance and then used a personal best mark of 56.04m in the javelin to take control of the overall contest and hold out for the win.

Risto Lillemets of Estonia finished second overall with 7971 points, followed by France’s Bastien, who was pushed back into third place with 7963 points.