Lima, Peru - Jim Spier's preview of the Multis at the World Athletics U20 Championships.

Men

Decathlon Thursday August 29 and Friday August 30

Three athletes are over 8000 points. Both Hubert Troscianka (Poland, 8145) and Leo Goransson (Sweden, 8057) set their country’s national record this year.  Also over 8000 points is Amadeus Graber (Germany, 8040). The next best Jonathan Hertwig-Odegaard (Norway) has scored 7738 points).  Graber is the 2022 European U18 Champion and 2023 European U20 champion where he scored 8209 points.

U. of Louisville signee Kenneth Byrd (East Burke, Connelly Springs, NC) hopes to improve on his US U20 winning performance of 7536.  Brayden Richards (Perry, OH), the U20 runner up, is a bit back at 7482.  Kenneth was 2nd in the 2024 Nike Indoor Nationals pole vault, and Brayden was 8th in the 2022 Nike Indoor Nationals pentathlon.  Brayden will attend the Air Force Academy in the fall.  Besides track, he was all-state in basketball and football in Ohio.

Women

Heptathlon Tuesday, August 27 and Wednesday August 28

Jana Koscak (Croatia) leads the field with a best of 5977.  Very close behind is Hungary’s Sarolta Kriszt with 5956 points.  The next best entry is Adela Tkacova (Czechia) with 5695.  Koscak, the 2022 European U18 champion, scored 6293 points last year.  Kriszt was second to Koscak at those 2022 European U18 championships.

2023 Nike Outdoor Nationals champion JaiCieonna Gero-Holt (Emerald Ridge, Puyallup, WA) who won the US U20 champs scoring 5420 points, has opted not to compete in Lima.  She will be entering the U of Illinois this fall.  The U.S. is represented by U. of Florida signee Abby Elmore (Gunter, TX) , the US U20 runner up who has a best of 5363 points.