By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

While his aim was to get ready for the decathlon in the Olympic Games this summer, Ken Mullings took a shot at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, but he didn’t know that he would be the top heptathlon qualifier going into Glasgow, Scotland, this weekend.

As the surprise world leader, the Bahamian indoor heptathlon (seven events) and outdoor decathlon (10 events) national champion is already in Glasgow getting acclimatised ahead of the gruelling seven-event competition that will be spread over Saturday and Sunday.

“We were training outdoors trying to qualify for Paris and we ended up scoring big enough to go to Worlds, so this is just another meet for us,” said Mullings of his training sessions in Urbana, Illinois, with coach Petros Kyprianou.

“Hopefully, the training pays off and we execute the same way and score some big points again.”

After his breakthrough year in 2023 in the 8,000- point territory with a personal best of 8,060 points, Mullings came out this year, establishing his PBs in six of the seven disciplines for an indoor national record of 6,340.

The performance catapulted Mullings to 21st on the world indoor all-time list and pushed him on top of the leaderboard table going into the Worlds.

With his impressive total of 6,340 points, posted on January 17 at the University of Illinois Armory in Champaign, Illinois, where he has been training for the past year, Mullings tops the list heading into the championships, which will feature at least four other Bahamians.

He is followed by Sander Skotheim of Norway with 6,281 on February 4. The third best performer is Simon Ehammer of Switzerland with 6,242 on January 28.

“I feel this will be the most stacked field that has been to Worlds in a while because everybody has been doing their PBs in the seven events, so it could go either way,” he said. “It just depends on who is on that day.”

Ehammer, by the way, is the silver medallist in the last World Indoors in Belgrade two years ago with a Swiss record of 6,363. Later that year, he went on to earn world long jump bronze and European decathlon silver.

But despite being a talented long jumper, that discipline has also been his downfall in combined events competitions, as he recorded three no-jumps at the European Indoors and the Hypo Meeting last year.

Skotheim, on the other hand, comes into Glasgow with a match up against his fellow Norwegian rival Markus Rooth that has inspired both youngsters to better one another’s national decathlon records outdoors in recent years.

Rooth scored 8,307 in 2022, which Skotheim broke at the start of last year with 8,590, but Rooth reclaimed the record to win the European Under-23 title with 8,608.

Despite the history behind the field, Mullings said he’s not perturbed because he certainly has nothing to lose as the new kid on the block.

“We’ve been doing some good stuff in practice so hopefully that shows up in the meet,” Mullings said. “I just have to go out there and execute. “That is going to be a big deal for me. Once I don’t crack under the pressure and just execute the same way I’ve been doing, I will be alright.”

On Saturday, the 60 metres, long jump, shot put and high jump will be contested, followed by the 60 metre hurdles, pole vault and 1,000m on Sunday.

“Based on the seven events, my weakest event is the 1,000, so I just have to execute in the first six events and then run with the boys in the 1,000,” he stated.

“So my strength is from when the competition starts.

“Hopefully it will be strong enough to have been right out there before I get into the final event, which is my weakest event.”

With the United Kingdom being a big fan of the multiple events in track and field, Mullings said he hopes that he can feed off the intensity in the stadium and soar high.

He’s the first of the Bahamian team to be in Glasgow, along with team manager Demaris Cash.

The others expected to compete at the championships are women’s 60 metre hurdles co-world record holder Devynne Charlton, triple jumper Charisma Taylor, sprinter Anthonique Strachan and men’s long jumper LaQuan Nairn.

While he waits for their arrival today, Mullings said he’s taking it all in stride, getting adjusted to the similar type of weather he’s accustomed to in Illinois. “We have the potential to do some great things,” said Mullings of Team Bahamas.

“We’re a very small team, but a capable one.

“So it’s very possible that we can do some great things.”

Mullings sent out a “shoutout” to his mother, Eulease Mullings, and asked the Bahamian public to offer their prayers as they show their support for Team Bahamas this weekend.