What events are in the heptathlon?
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Heptathlon is a combination of track and field events, consisting of seven disciplines across a two-day period.
The heptathlon made its Olympic debut at the 1984 Los Angeles games.
It is often considered to be the ultimate all-round test for female athletes.
The events athletes must participate in for the heptathlon are:
100m hurdles: Athletes sprint over 10 hurdles along a 100m track. Hurdles are set 8.5m apart
High jump: Athletes jump over a high horizontal bar. They aim to clear the highest height without the bar dropping
Shot put: Athletes throw a heavy ball, called the 'shot', as far as possible. The shot weighs 4kg for heptathlon events
200m: Athletes run a distance of 200m, which is a half-lap of the track
Long jump: Athletes sprint down a runway and jump into a sandpit
Javelin throw: Athletes throw the javelin as far as possible
800m: The final event is an 800m run, which requires athletes to complete two laps of the track in the fastest time
Day one consists of the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m. Day two is the long jump, javelin throw and 800m.
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How is the heptathlon scored?
The scoring system uses a points table for each event.
Athletes earn points for their performance in every event. The winner is the competitor who has scored the most points overall, so a poor performance in one event can impact an athlete's overall score.
Each event has a minimum recordable performance level.
Times, heights and distances achieved in these events are turned into points by a heptathlon score calculator.
To reach a 1,000 heptathlon points for an event, which is seen as a benchmark for a good score, the following results would need to be achieved:
100m hurdles: 13.85 seconds
High jump: 1.82m
Shot put: 17.07m
200m: 23.80 seconds
Long jump: 6.48m
Javelin throw: 57.18m
800m: 2:07:63 minutes
The world record score for women's heptathlon stands at 7291 by the USA's Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988, and 6645 for men's heptathlon was set by the USA's Ashton Eaton in 2012.
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