Taliyah Brooks wins Multistars Heptathlon with world-leading 6,330 score

DESENZANDO DEL GARDA, ITALY – A career best and world-leading score of 6,330 points delivered a victory for Arkansas alum Taliyah Brooks this weekend at the Multistars heptathlon competition in the first World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold event held in 2023.

Brooks led after the four events contested on the first day with 3,734 points, six points ahead of fellow American Chari Hawkins (3,728). Brooks maintained her advantage through the three events held on day two and increased her lead on the field to 152 points.

“I’m really excited,” stated Brooks. “The events that needed some work, my javelin, shot put and 800m, I got better numbers here in this competition. When I’m back home and work on the events I’m really good at then I can put it all together, and I’ll be really happy with the score.

“I’ll compete in Götzis, Austria, next and then the USATF Championships. This year has been different for me. I’ve been training specifically for the heptathlon. Usually, I run a lot of open events. So, it’s been different, but I think it’s paying off.”

Finishing runner-up in the heptathlon was Great Britain’s Jade O’Dowda with a score of 6,178 while Hawkins placed third with a 6,036 tally.

In generating a career best score to improve upon her previous best of 6,252 from the 2021 Texas Relays, Brooks delivered career best marks in the final two events – javelin and 800m.

Brooks tossed the javelin 127-11 (39.00) to better her previous best of 126-9 (38.63) and score 648 points. In the 800, a time of 2:15.02 collected 892 points and improved her previous best of 2:16.39.

Each day Brooks opened with 1,000-plus point efforts in a pair of her key events, the 100m hurdles on day one and the long jump on day two. A time of 13.23 in the hurdles earned 1,090 points while a long jump of 21-10 (6.65) netted 1,056 points.

Hawkins was the early leader on day one as she ran 13.19 in the hurdles and matched the 5-9.75 (1.77) height Brooks achieved in the high jump. Brooks was just shy of her shot put best with a 42-11.75 (13.01) for 728 points while Hawkins scored 751 off a 43-9.75 (13.35) put.

The tide turned in the 200m to close out day one as Brooks clocked 24.06 for 975 points while Hawkins ran 24.43 for 940 points.

O’Dowda, third after day one with 3,613 points, passed Hawkins during the long jump to begin day two and held onto the runner-up position the remainder of the competition.