Garrett Scantling passes greats on U.S. decathlon list, leads world team

Garrett Scantling moved to No. 3 on the U.S. all-time decathlon list, posting 8,867 points to win the USATF Combined Events Championships and lead the team for the world championships.

Scantling, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, improved from eighth in American history by personal best to third behind Olympic gold medalists Ashton Eaton and Dan O’Brien. Scantling, who is now seventh on the all-time world list, passed Olympic or world champions Tom Pappas, Trey Hardee and Bryan Clay.

Scantling retired from track and field after missing the 2016 Olympics by one spot at trials. He had a brief stay with the Atlanta Falcons in a 2017 spring camp as a wide receiver before returning to Jacksonville, Florida, to work as a financial advisor. He returned to competition in 2020.

Scantling is joined on the team for July’s world championships in Eugene, Oregon, by University of Georgia junior Kyle Garland (8,720 points) and two-time Olympian Zach Ziemek (8,573), who like Scantling recorded personal bests by more than 100 points. Garland shattered his previous best by 524 points in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Friday and Saturday.

USATF COMBINED EVENTS CHAMPS: Full Results

Anna Hall won the heptathlon with 6,458 points, a total that would have placed sixth at the Olympics. Last year, Hall crashed out of the Olympic Trials heptathlon in the opening 100m hurdles.

She’s joined on the world team by Olympic fifth-place finisher Kendell Williams, who earned a spot last year by topping the world season standings.

Third and fourth U.S. women’s spots are to-be-determined based on world rankings and/or athletes who get the world championships qualifying standard by June 26. Hall was the only woman to hit the standard in Fayetteville, though