Monte-Carlo - This year’s edition of the annual IAAF Combined Events Challenge, which was celebrating its eleventh season, was won by Belarussian decathlete Andrei Kravchenko and US heptathlete Hyleas Fountain. Both won this award for the first time.

This season’s winners were the silver medallists from the Beijing Olympic Games in the Decathlon and Heptathlon.

The Challenge offers a total prize purse of $202,000 in Prize Money distributed to both the top-8 men and women as follows: 1st $30,000, 2nd $20,000, 3rd $15,000, 4th $10,000, 5th $8000, 6th $7000, 7th $6000, 8th $5000.

Athletes had to complete three competitions from a list of 12 meetings in the year to be eligible to contend for the overall prize, and in 2008 eleven male athletes and nineteen women made the grade.

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DECATHLON

Kravchenko is the successor of Czech Roman Sebrle, who won this award in 2007 for the fourth time. The 22-year-old Belarussian athlete took overall victory (25,448pts) via the European Cup Super League in Hengelo (8575 points), second place in Beijing (8551 points) and a victory last weekend in Talence (8312 points).

Second place (25,344pts) went to 20-year-old, Cuban athlete, Leonel Suarez, who finished his season after the Olympic Games. Third place was for the Russian, Aleksandr Pogorelov (24,804) who had to force himself to one of his fastest races in 1500m this weekend in Talence, to keep Jamaican Maurice Smith (4th 24,757) behind him.

The Olympic champion, Bryan Clay, who had the best prospect before the last meeting, decided two days before Talence not to start.

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HEPTATHLON

In the women’s event the top-3 from Beijing were also ranked in this year’s challenge at the top. Only in terms of the season long Challenge, the Olympic champion Natalya Dobrynska (3rd 19,430pts), had to give way to Hyleas Fountain (1st 19,759pts) and Natalya Chernova (2nd 19,575pts).

After the decision of Carolina Klüft to not continue with Heptahlon in Olympic year a big struggle developed in the women’s Heptathlon to take over her crown. Already end of May in Götzis, where traditionally the whole international combined events top participates, 22 athletes had passed the 6000 points barrier. A mark that before only was equaled once in history of the Heptathlon. Also in Beijing, 21 athletes passed this mark. With the 11 athletes who did this again in Talence the total of 6000+ points scores is over 100. The highest number of such performances in a year since 1994.

Before the meeting in Talence the ranking was topped by the German athletes Lilian Schwarzkopf and Jennifer Oeser, who both decided to finish the season after the Olympic Games.

A number of athletes needed the meeting in Talence to qualify for the 3rd. result. This was including all medallists in Beijing. An interesting competition between these 3 competitors followed, together with the British Kelly Sotherton, however she could not qualify as she had only previously completed one meeting in the series.

With Hyleas Fountain as the winner in Talence also the winner of the challenge was known. Her total score of 19,759 points she got by winning the Olympic trials in Eugene (6667), silver in Beijing (6619) and first place in Talence (6473).

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Hans van Kuijen for the IAAF