Szczecin, Poland - Olympic silver medalist Andrei Krauchanka and Ukrainian Hanna Melnychenko were the individual winners at this year’s edition of the European Cup Combined Events Super League in Szczecin (27 / 28 June).

The European Cup Combined Events Superleague is part of the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge.

Both scored come-from-behind victories, prevailing over their rivals only in the final races of the second day. Krauchanka, with 8336 points, finished 23 points ahead of the Russian Aleksandr Pogorelov in the Decathlon, while Melnychenko with 6380 points beat the Pole Kamila Chudzik by just two points in the Heptathlon.

In the team event, Russian men scored their first ever win, clearly beating Belarus, and the Polish women also lifted the European Cup for the first time after a close finish against Russia.

Decathlon

The day started with a lead of 112 points by Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov, with Pogorelov and Krauchanka just 7 points apart in second and third. The Ukrainian maintained a big lead through the next two events with performances of 14.46 sec in the high hurdles and 49.95 in the discus throw, but that was as far as he could take it.

In the Pole Vault, Kasyanov was only able to clear 4.50m. Pogorelov, with a 5 metre clearance, made up the whole deficit and more, moving into a 41-point lead after eight events. Olympic runner-up Krauchanka, who had been well over 200 points behind after seven events, vaulted highest of all at 5.10.and moved to within 100 points of the new leader.

In the Javelin Throw, Pogorelov had another strong performance, reaching 63.37m. Krauchanka, however, wasn’t too far behind at 61.56. The gap between them now grew to 126 points but with the Belarus athlete well known for his 1500m prowess, it could have been predicted that Krauchanka’s challenge was not yet over. Kasyanov predictably faded back in this event, as a best throw of just over 50 metres left him over 100 points off second place after nine events.

With Krauchanka needing to make up over 20 seconds in the final race, he was forced to run the 1500m hard all the way. This he did, staying near the front from the start, as Pogorelov was left behind near the back of the back. At the bell, the gap between the two grew to nearly 100 metres, and with a strong finish the Belarussian stretched it yet further, crossing the line in 4:32.60, over 24 seconds ahead of the Russian.

In his first Decathlon competition of the year, Krauchanka totalled a good 8336 points, 23 more than Pogorelov, also making his season debut. Kasyanov, who finished the 1500 metres ahead of Krauchanka, finished a creditable third with 8245, ahead of the Frenchman Romain Barras, who ran the fastest time of top individual contenders at 4:20.90 to finish on 8209 points. Back in fifth place, Vasiliy Kharlamov of Russia added nearly 400 points to his PB with a score of 8113, finishing just ahead of teammate Aleksey Drozdov’s 8081.

In the men’s team event, Russia started the second day with a lead, but with defending champions Belarus seemingly still in contention. This challenge, however, faded as the day progressed. Two events from the finish and with nearly 700 points ahead of Belarus, the Russian team could have started to celebrate their win. Even with a strong 1500 metre race, the Belarussians were not able to get near, finishing in runner-up position, 430 points adrift. The Ukrainian team, after a close battle for second in earlier events, fell back towards the end and barely defended their third place from an attack by the French team.

Heptathlon

The second day turned into a two-woman battle. Hanna Melnychenko started the day 50 points ahead of Kamila Chudzik, and she increased her lead further in the Long Jump. After a foul in the first round, she jumped 6.38m on her next attempt despite taking off some distance from the board. With Chudzik reaching 6.24, the gap between them grew to 95 points.

Chudzik’s best event, though, was yet to come. Her javelin throwing skills did not let down as she won the sixth event with 52.13m, nearly 8 metres ahead of her Ukrainian rival. This put her into the lead by 57 points before the final event of the competition. With Melnychenko needing to make up some four seconds in the 800 metres, it was still anybody’s guess who the winner would be.

For the first 500 metres of the final event, the 800m, it looked like Chudzik was controlling the situation, running just ahead of the Ukrainian. Then however, when Melnychenko attacked, she was unable to respond. The gap continued growing until the finish, but when the two rivals reached the finish, it was impossible to tell whether it was large enough for a reversal in the order of the first two. After anxious moments of waiting, the official results confirmed it was - just barely, with Melnychenko first with 6380 points, to 6378 for Chudzik, the second highest score of the Pole’s career.

Karolina Tyminska, coming back from an injury, came through strongly in the final event as usual, winning the last heat by over five second with 2:08.16. This allowed her to climb to the lowest step on the podium with a score of 6191. Marina Goncharova was the only other athlete to break the 6000 point barrier, in fourth place with 6119.

In contrast to the men’s team competition, the women’s team event was a closely fought battle until the very end. The Polish team led at halfway, but with just over 60 points separating the top four teams, it was difficult to predict the winners. The Ukrainians took the lead after the long jump, but, as expected, fell well behind after the javelin throw. The Poles finished the penultimate event 147 points in the lead over Russia in the overall competition, but with the Russians expected to come through strongly in the final event, things could still have gone either way.

The Russians did gain ground in the 800 metre race, but it was not enough in the end. With Tyminska giving Poland extra points at the top end, the losses suffered by the other two Polish runners were not large enough for their rivals to come through. The host team held on for the win 58 points behind of Russia, with Ukraine third, and France, affected on the second day by an injury to their top athlete Antoinette Nana Djimou, finishing fourth.

Pawel Jackowski for the IAAF

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