After finishing the 1,000 m run, the last event of a heptathlon, Risto Lillemets became just the 12th Estonian in history to eclipse the 6,000 point mark in a heptathlon competition. Lillemets improved on his previous personal best result by almost 100 points and now holds the seventh all-time result in Estonian history.

"I am speechless. I was able to put together a great competition - really super. I am so happy I cannot even describe the feeling," Lillemets told ERR.

The 23-year old Estonian was a few dozen points ahead of his personal best pace after the opening day of the international contest, but an 8.14 second performance in the 60 m hurdles kept Lillemets just behind personal best pace. "The hurdles went a little bad, I lost my head after the start and stepped under myself a little too much," Lillemets said after Sunday's opening discipline.

He did not reach a personal record in the pole jump, but a result of 5.01 meters gave him enough to get back into pace for 6,000 total points. "I was able to find my lost rhythm, do it nicely. The jump was not as beautiful technicallt as I wished, but the result matters, not technique. Five meters is super, I am very pleased," Lillemets noted.

The final event of the heptathlon - the 1,000 meters - went well for the Estonian, coming in with a time of 2:42, his third personal best of the seven disciplines held over Saturday and Sunday.

Lillemets will now begin preparing for the European indoor championships, set to take place on March 5-7. "I knew I could run well and choose my tempo. I am very pleased," he emphasized. "There are some things to improve on here and there, I must still do that, then get into shape a little bit and I am ready to start."

Lillemets' 6,089 points were good enough to vault him to the top of the season leaderboards, followed by Maksim Andraloits (6,057 points) and Rik Taami (6,001 points).

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