Sonja Kesselschlager in the Long Jump (© IAAF)
With the leaders’ places apparently firmly settled in both the Decathlon and Heptathlon Standings of the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge, the competitors in this weekend’s Decastar meet in Talence will be going all out to settle the minor placings in the Challenge.
At present, the second placer in the Decathlon, Czech Republic’s Roman Sebrle has a cumulative 2056 point advantage from his three competitions over third placed Romain Barras (FRA), who leads fourth and fifth placed Stephen Moore (USA) and Laurent Hernu (FRA) by 117 and 136 points, respectively. With 26119 points to Sebrle’s 26047 and no more competitions in the series scheduled for either athlete, the new World Champion Tom Pappas looks unassailable in the number one spot.
In the women’s competition, Sweden’s Heptathlon dynamo Carolina Kluft is way out ahead of the rest of the field with her three competition total of 20295 points, 1869 points clear of Germany’s Sonja Kesselschlager in second. Here, however, the minor places appear wide open, as there are four other athletes within less than 200 points of the German’s tally (18426). They are headed by Lithuanian Austra Skujyte (18343), followed by Gertrud Bacher (ITA – 18298), Larisa Netseporuk (EST – 18264) and Irina Butor (BLR – 18235).
Of the male challengers, Barras, Hernu and Moore are all competing over the weekend in Talence; with Bacher, Netseporuk and Butor competing in the women’s field.
Conditions are likely to be ideal for some excellent results, despite Decastar taking place late in the season, with France Meteo forecasting temperatures as high as 30 degrees centigrade for this part of the Gironde region of France over the weekend.
After Talence, just one competition remains to be taken into account for the Challenge, the African Championships, which will be held in Abuja, Nigeria on 14-18 October. However, no serious contenders for the higher places will be in contention, other than Ghana’s Margaret Simpson in the Heptathlon. She currently has an average score from two events of 6036 points after failing to finish in Paris and could be back up with the leaders if she turns in a good performance in Nigeria.
