A Belgian world icosathlon champion
In an event consisting of a combination of 20 different athletic events in two days, Arnaud Ghislain became the supreme world champion.
The last World Ultra Combined Events Championships took place in Epinal (in the Vosges department of France). Over the course of a weekend, around one hundred athletes of some fifteen different nationalities competed in the equivalent of a double decathlon, or icosathlon, in the jargon of this discipline, which is little known to the general public and is not yet part of the Olympic programme.
With only half an hour's rest between each event, and an hour and a half break at noon, these athletes must complete a programme of 20 events over two days. Apart from walking, all the track and field disciplines are included: 100m, long jump, 200m hurdles, shot put, 5000m, 800m, high jump, 400m, hammer throw, 3000m steeplechase, 110m hurdles, discus throw, 200m, pole vault, 3000m, 400m hurdles, javelin throw, 1500m, triple jump and a 10,000m to finish.
Arnaud Ghislain was the winner of this extraordinary annual competition. A former 400-metre runner whose best performance was in the final of the relay race at the Beijing Olympics, this man from Chièvres (Hainaut province) has now achieved a great success at the age of 32.
Congratulations to this Belgian for this magnificent performance!