SCHLUETER SETS NEW NIGERIAN INDOOR HEPTATHLON RECORD IN INDIANAPOLIS
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
Nigeria’s Jami Schlueter set a new national record in the men’s indoor heptathlon at the US Combined Events Championships on Sunday, amassing 5,871 points to climb to second on the African all-time list.
The 23-year-old bettered the previous Nigerian record he had established just two weeks earlier in Texas, marking the second time in a fortnight he has rewritten the national mark since switching allegiance from Great Britain to Nigeria. His latest tally places him behind only Algeria’s Larbi Bourrada in African indoor history.
Schlueter finished fifth overall in Indianapolis. Hakim McMorris claimed the title with 6,255 points, narrowly ahead of Heath Baldwin (6,245), while Kendrick Thompson placed third with 5,963.
His performance featured a season’s best of 6.98 seconds in the 60m, a personal best of 7.39m in the long jump, 14.40m in the shot put and 1.91m in the high jump. He also recorded a personal best of 7.97 seconds in the 60m hurdles, a season’s best 4.55m in the pole vault and a personal best of 2:43.59 in the 1,000m.
Although the championships are not a selection event for the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships, Schlueter’s showing underscores his rapid rise since becoming eligible to compete for Nigeria in November 2025 under World Athletics transfer rules.
Born to a German father and Nigerian mother, Schlueter embraced his Nigerian heritage after previously representing Great Britain. A University of Washington graduate, he won Big Ten silver medals in both the heptathlon and decathlon in 2025.
He had posted 5,780 points at the UW Invitational in Seattle in 2025 before improving to 5,789 at the Texas A&M Charlie Thomas Invitational in February — a mark ratified as a Nigerian indoor record, surpassing the previous standard of 4,859 set by Chukwuma Maduka in 2018.
With a decathlon personal best of 7,739 points, Schlueter is also closing in on Ituah Enahoro’s Nigerian record of 8,048 points set in 2018 before Enahoro switched allegiance to Germany the following year.
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