2007 IAAF Combined Events Challenge Review

World champion and World record holder Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic and World silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine topped the final standings of the 2007 IAAF Combined Events Challenge but the circuit was a springboard for future stars like Briton Jessica Ennis, Belarus’ Andrei Kravchenko and Russia’s Tatyana Chernova.

Extract from IAAF 2007 Yearbook

The IAAF Combined Events Challenge opened in the northern Italian town of Desenzano sul Garda for the traditional Multistars, which was followed by the star-studded Hypo-Meeting in the Mösle Stadium in Götzis, well-known as the “Mecca” of Combined Events, Arles in Southern France, the Mehrkampfmeeting in Ratingen, Germany and the end-of-season Decastar meeting in Talence.

The IAAF World Championships in Osaka, the European Cup of Combined Events, the NACAC Combined Events Championships and the Pan American Games were also valid for the final standings.
 
Superb winners of the IAAF World Championships in Osaka were Swedish superstar Carolina Klüft who took her third consecutive world title scoring a new European record of 7032 points with an impressive high jump PB of 1.95m, a solid 6.85m in the Long Jump and a 13.15 equalling PB in the 100m Hurdles. Klüft broke the long-standing continental record held by former Soviet Union’s Larisa Nikitina with 7007 points since 1989.

Klüft also won her fifth consecutive crown at the Götzis meeting with 6681 points beating an impressive reigning World indoor champion Lyudmila Blonska who posed a threat to Carolina’s dominance by scoring four personal bests (High Jump, Long Jump, Javelin Throw and 800 metres) and ended just 55 points behind the Swede.

Blonska wins, Ennis reveals potential

The battle between Klüft and Blonska was also the highlight of the Heptathlon in Osaka where Blonska scored a new PB of 6832 points. In the process the Ukranian beat Klüft in the Long Jump with 6.88m to 6.85m and set a new PB in the High Jump with 1.92m.
 
Klüft chose to take part only in one heptathlon at the Götzis meeting in her build-up to Osaka and decided to take part in a series of individual competitions in the IAAF World Athletics Tour to prepare for the World Championships taking two notable Long Jump wins in Lausanne and Stockholm. Her decision not to compete in a third Heptathlon this year resulted in her not being eligible for the Challenge’s final standings.

Blonska crowned her remarkable season with a win in Talence with 6432 points which enabled her to earn the $30,000 for finishing first in the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge women’s standings with a total of 19,895 points and a 6631.67 average.
 
Second in this ranking was the outstanding British heptathlete Jessica Ennis who opened her season in the Italian leg of the IAAF Challenge in Desenzano sul Garda where she set the new British under-23 record with 6388 points.

Ennis, a graduate in psychology at the Sheffield University last July, equalled the British High Jump record with 1.95m and had a decent attempt at 1.98m.
 
“It was absolutely brilliant. I am over the moon,” said a very delighted Ennis in Desenzano.

Later in the season 21-year-old Ennis, now a full-time athlete, won the European Cup of Combined Events title in Szczecin in Poland with 6399 points and won an individual 100m Hurdles bronze medal at the European Under-23 Championships in Debrecen.

In Osaka Ennis finished fourth with a new PB of 6469 points. She dipped under the 13 seconds barrier in the 100m Hurdles with a remarkable 12.97 and ran a 200m PB with 23.15.

Ennis is considered as one of the most genuine medal hopes for the Olympic Games 2012 in London. “I will peak when the Olympic Games come to London. It will be brilliant to compete in front of my home crowd. Hopefully I will be able to pick up a medal there,” said Ennis.

The other rising star who emerged from the IAAF Combined Events Series is Russia’s Tatyana Chernova. The reigning World junior champion from Beijing, daughter of Lyudmila, Olympic champion in the 4x400m relay in Moscow 1980, won in windy Arles with an impressive wind-assisted 6768 points score showing that she may play a big role in the years to come.

Aided by a strong tailwind Chernova ran 13.04 in the 100m Hurdles (+6.1 m/s) and 23.59 in the 200m (+5.9 m/s), jumped a legal 6.61m in the Long Jump and speared 53.43m in the javelin. She also set a 1.82m PB in the High Jump battling with very difficult wind conditions.

“The javelin is my favourite discipline but I love all events,” said Chernova. “I came to Arles to break the World junior record but the wind prevented the ratification. It was hard to run the 200 metres in windy conditions,” said Chernova in Arles.

Still a junior Chernova decided to skip the European Junior Championships in Hengelo to focus on the World Championships in Osaka. In the Japanese coastal city 19-year-old did not finish the competition but she has many years ahead to show her true potential.

Kravchenko impresses while Sebrle takes third Challenge win

Another promising star of the future who emerged during the 2007 season but failed to deliver promise in Osaka is Belarus’ Andrei Kravchenko, the World junior champion from Grosseto 2004.

Kravchenko won two IAAF Challenge meetings in Götzis and Talence and the European under-23 title in Debrecen.

Like Chernova, Kravchenko inherited his sport passion from his family. His father Sergey was a specialist in the sport of Modern Pentathlon, while his mother was the first to encourage him to take up athletics in 2000.

Kravchenko made a sensational impression in Götzis improving his PBs in seven disciplines (10.86 in the 100m, 7.90m in the Long Jump, 13.89m in the Shot Put, 47.46 in the 400m, 14.05 in the 110m Hurdles, 5.00m in the Pole Vault, 64.75m in the Javelin). He also managed to clear 2.15m in the High Jump missing his PB by four centimetres.

He delighted the passionate and knowledgeable crowd packed in the small Mösle Stadium by doing somersaults to celebrate his 2.15m and the final victory after the 1500 metres.

In Götzis Kravchenko notably beat “Mister 9000 points” world record holder Roman Sebrle and 2005 World champion Bryan Clay, who won Götzis in 2006.

The win in the small Austrian mountain resort in the region of Voralberg made Kravchenko one of the strongest favourites to win the World title in Osaka.

Unfortunately Kravchenko had a disastrous day in Japan when he was disqualified due to a double false star in the 100 metres heats.

“I was shocked for one week after Osaka. I don’t really know what happened,” said Kravchenko.

He managed to find the energy and the strength to bounce back three weeks later to take the victory in Talence with 8553 points beating World silver medallist Maurice Smith of Jamaica, Alexey Drozdov of Russia and freshly crowned World champion Roman Sebrle.

In the small French town near Bordeaux he set a new 400m PB with 47.17 and improved his PB in the Pole Vault with 5.15m.

But the man who won the Combined Events Challenge final standings was Roman Sebrle who had already won the circuit in 2004 and 2005. Sebrle enjoyed his big day at the World Championships in Osaka where he won the only title missing in his trophy cabinet to take his first outdoor title with 8676 points and beating Jamaica’s Maurice Smith by just 32 points at the end of a dramatic competition.

Smith was in the lead thanks to impressive results in the Shot Put and in the Discus Throw (17.32m and 52.36m). But the ranking changed after Sebrle managed to spear to a new javelin PB of 71.18m.
 
“It was an emotional competition. I tried six times to become a World champion. Three times I was not healthy. In 2001 I expected a good fight but I picked an injury. Osaka’s Decathlon was a crazy competition of ups and downs. I could not be sure to win before the 1500 metres. This competition proved that the Decathlon is only finished after the tenth event,” said Sebrle. 

Maurice Smith was probably the biggest surprise of the season. He finished second in the IAAF Challenge standings. The former student at Auburn University, Alabama started his season with an eighth place in Götzis with 8241 points and went on to win the Pan American title in Rio de Janeiro and finish second in Osaka. He wrapped up his season with a runner-up place in Talence behind Kravchenko with 8298 points.

“I feel like a winner. I am so proud of my performance. I was expecting Roman to win the gold,” said Smith in Osaka.

Apart from his Osaka success Sebrle took second place in Götzis with 8518 points and a fourth place in Talence with 8067 points, a result which was certainly affected by post-championships tiredness after the gruelling Decathlon competition in Osaka held in hot and humid weather conditions. 

Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

Click here for final standings of the 2007 IAAF Combined Events Challenge