Jessica Ennis-Hill and Brianne Theisen-Eaton in the heptathlon 800m in Gotzis (© Getty Images)
Between them they have won the heptathlon at the past six editions of the Hypo Meeting, but this year’s competition on 28-29 May will be the first time that Jessica Ennis-Hill, Brianne Theisen-Eaton and Katarina Johnson-Thompson have faced each other at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Gotzis.
Ennis-Hill, the world and Olympic champion, won in Gotzis three times in a row between 2010 and 2012. Aside from her withdrawal in 2008, her only defeat in the Austrian town came last year when, competing in her first heptathlon for three years, she finished fourth.
Theisen-Eaton won on that occasion, regaining the title she first won in 2013. Her winning score of 6808 last year broke her own Canadian record and she went on to take silver behind Ennis-Hill at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015. More recently, she earned her first global title when winning the pentathlon at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016.
Johnson-Thompson set her PB of 6682 when winning in Gotzis in 2014. The 23-year-old Briton won the European indoor pentathlon title last year with 5000, the second-best score in history.
World bronze medallist Laura Ikauniece-Admidina will also be in Gotzis. The 23-year-old broke her own Latvian record when finishing third in Beijing last year and went on to win the 2015 IAAF World Combined Events Challenge series.
Although she is only 18 years old, world junior champion Morgan Lake will be making her third appearance at the Hypo Meeting. The Briton set a PB of 6081 in Gotzis in 2014 before going on to better that score with 6148 to win the world junior title in Eugene.
There will also be a former winner in the decathlon as Canada’s world silver medallist Damian Warner returns to the scene of his 2013 triumph. He will take on Germany’s world bronze medallist Rico Freimuth, who will be making his sixth appearance in Gotzis.
Organisers for the IAAF
