Heptathlon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A heptathlon is a sportive contest made up of seven events (from the Greek hepta (seven) and athlon (contest)). More specifically, the term heptathlon refers to an athletics event consisting of seven events.

1 Structure
2 World Record
3 Top 10 performers
- 3.1 Other famous heptathletes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Structure

There are two versions of the heptathlon. The first is contested outdoors by women, and consists of the following events, with the first four contested on the first day, the remaining three on day two:

The other version is only contested during the indoor season, and normally only by men. It consists of the following events (first four on day one, remaining three on day two):

The scoring is similar for both versions. In each event, the athlete scores points according to the marks achieved. The athlete accumulating the highest number of points wins the competition.

The heptathlon has been contested by female athletes since the early 1980s, when it replaced the pentathlon as the women's multi-event contest (javelin throw and the 800 m were added).

[edit] World Record

The current heptathlon world record is:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee 7291 pts Seoul September 24, 1988

[edit] Top 10 performers

Accurate as of January 1, 2006.

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
7291	Jackie Joyner-Kersee	United States	Seoul	September 24, 1988
7007	Larisa Turchinskaya	Soviet Union	Bryansk	June 11, 1989
7001	Carolina Klüft	Sweden	Saint-Denis	August 24, 2003
6985	Sabine Braun	Germany	Götzis	May 31, 1992
6942	Ghada Shouaa	Syria	Götzis	May 26, 1996
6935	Ramona Neubert	East Germany	Moscow	June 19, 1983
6889	Eunice Barber	France	Arles	June 5, 2005
6859	Natalya Shubenkova	Soviet Union	Kyiv	June 21, 1984
6858	Anke Vater-Behmer	East Germany	Seoul	September 24, 1988