Cuba’s youngster Leonel Suárez took the Decathlon title at the 12th Erdgas Meeting in Ratingen – IAAF World Combined Events Challenge – establishing a Cuban record of 8451 points. The 20-year-old had only recently improved the national best to 8366 points at the Götzis meeting.

With two fine marks so far this year Suárez is now also a serious contender in the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge. The Cuban moved up to second place with 16,817 ahead of Arthur Abele (16,592).

The defending Ratingen champion Abele was the best of the German decathletes. Finishing second behind Suárez he achieved a personal best of 8372 and secured Olympic qualification. André Niklaus (8273) and Michael Schrader (8248) took the next places in Ratingen. These three Germans will represent their country at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

In warm, humid and windy conditions on day two defending champion Lilli Schwarzkopf was once again the women’s Heptathlon winner in Ratingen. The 24-year-old bronze medallist from the 2006 European Championships  improved her personal best by almost 100 points to 6536 in front of more than 5000 spectators. With this mark she is now number four in the world lists 2008.

Schwarzkopf also took the lead in the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge with a total of 12,852 points from two events. She had scored 6316 in Götzis recently. Germans Jennifer Oeser (6436), Sonja Kesselschläger (6311) and Julia Mächtig (6289) took the next places, all achieving personal bests in Ratingen. Norway’s Ida Marcussen was fifth with 6109 points. Schwarzkopf, Oeser and Kesselschläger will represent Germany at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

DECATHLON

“I did not expect such a high-class competition when I came to Ratingen. That pushed me quite a bit,” said Leonel Suárez, who added: “I am very happy about another record and hope to further improve at the Olympics, where my aim is to finish inside the top five.”

After 11.14 (100), 7.23 (LJ), 13.78 (SP), 2.14 (HJ) and 48.30 (400), the Cuban continued with 14.12 (110 H), 42.25 (DT), 4.80 (PV), 69.96 (JT) and 4:21.54 (1500). It looked likely that Suárez would score above 8,500 points, but he could not quite match the required pace in the 1500 m, missing his personal best from Götzis by around five seconds.

The fight for the German Olympic qualification was as dramatic as expected. But the results of the Germans also show that they are ready for Beijing. It was not until the final few metres of the 1500 m race that it was decided who would travel China.

Finally, it is Pascal Behrenbruch who lost out. He had come to Ratingen with the best mark of a German Decathlete this year (8242 points from Götzis), but in the end that was not enough. Behrenbruch had stopped competing in Ratingen after four events on Saturday due to a foot injury and watched the event from the stands. Surely he did not expect three German athletes to finish stronger than himself in Götzis. But the unbelievable happened after a thrilling 1500 m race.

André Niklaus and Michael Schrader were under tremendous pressure before the final event. The 2006 World Indoor Champion had to run sub 4:30 to qualify while 20 year-old newcomer Schrader faced the tremendous challenge of having to improve his personal best by more than five seconds. A time of 4:20 was required to gain Beijing selection.

“I felt awful before the start. But once I was running I was confident,” said Schrader. Known as a strong 1500 m runner Abele was more or less there before the final event. But he took the leading and helped Schrader by setting a fast pace. The 21-year-old Abele, who had come through only a year ago, won the race with 4:15.35 while Schrader took second with 4:19.32. It was only this year that Schrader had scored more than 8000 points for the first time – now he made the Olympic team. “It was brutally hard, but it is a great feeling,” said Schrader.

“I think the three of us will form a strong team in Beijing,” said Niklaus and added: “I was walking on the edge. It was really getting very close for me, which was not planned. But now I have seven weeks to prepare. And I will be stronger in Beijing.”

For all three Germans it will be an Olympic debut. “Because of the conditions Beijing will be a much more difficult event than today’s, but it is may aim to achieve a top eight placing and if possible further improve my personal best,” said Abele.

HEPTATHLON

After an opening day with 13.51 seconds (100m Hurdles), 1.82m (High Jump), 13.89m (Shot Put) and 25.22 seconds (200m) Lilli Schwarzkopf had been in third position. But she is well-known for a strong second day and confirmed this once again.

After starting Sunday with a 6.30m leap in the Long Jump she set the highlight of the day in the Javelin, throwing a personal best of 54.81m. That was an improvement of 37 centimetres on her previous best and it was a meeting record as well. It had been Sabine Braun who had thrown 53.74 metres back in 1997 in Ratingen. It was the first time in the 2008 Ratingen Heptathlon that Schwarzkopf had taken the lead. But that was what was expected.

After ambitiously taking the lead in the 800m Schwarzkopf passed the 400m mark in 63.02 seconds, but then faltered in the end. But there was not much for her to lose except some points. Schwarzkopf finished fifth with 2:12.11 minutes.

“More than 6500 points is a superb result for me,” said Schwarzkopf.

Regarding Beijing and asked about possible medal chances and a possible target of 6600 points she remained careful: “I don’t know. But Beijing is not Ratingen.” But however there is some room for improvement for Schwarzkopf. “I think I can do better in the sprints. And this weekend I have achieved just one personal best. The one or the other should be possible and if everything goes well in Beijing I could reach 6600 points. But in general we have to see how the conditions will be. I found the weather conditions very difficult in Osaka,” said Schwarzkopf, who was fifth at the World Championships in 2007.

Jennifer Oeser had a fine second day (6.28m Long Jump, a 46.48m Javelin Throw and 2:11.96 minutes for the 800m) and secured qualification with a personal best of 6436 points.

However, there was absolute drama in the fight for the third ticket to Beijing. 22-year-old Julia Mächtig was in the pole position before the start of the 800m, while 30 year-old Sonja Kesselschläger, who is her training partner in Neubrandenburg and has the same coach as Mächtig (Klaus Baarck), was 18 points behind Mächtig, which is little more than one second.

“I think Julia will do it, because she simply has to follow Sonja and in training they are on the same level,” Klaus Baarck said minutes before the start of the race. He was right – but only until 60 metres before the end.

While Kesselschläger desperately stormed towards the finish Mächtig suddenly slowed dramatically and lost out on the final few metres of the Heptathlon.

“I am happy, but I feel sorry for her,” said Kesselschläger, while Baarck commented: “I did not expect that to happen when they entered the home straight!”

Schwarzkopf said: “I feel sorry for Julia. And I know what this feels like since it happened to me four years ago. But she is young, she will be back.”

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF