Rene Oruman after winning the 2001 world youth octathlon title in Debrecen (© © Allsport)
With a performance that would have made his personal hero proud of him, Estonian Rene Oruman was the winner of the inaugural octathlon in Debrecen. The youngster scored a total of 6219 from his eight events to beat Saudi Arabia’s Essa Mufarrah by almost 200 points.
“I did not expect to win,” said Oruman, whose hero is 2000 Olympic decathlon champion Erki Nool. “It was a real surprise to me as I did not perform well. I only achieved two personal bests and I thought that the other guys would do better. I have never competed outside Estonia before so it was difficult for me to compete here.
“Decathlon is the most popular sport in Estonia, so I hope that Erki Nool will shake my hand; he is my idol.”
With a personal best performance of 13.49, Germany’s Kathrin Geissler continued her winning streak in Debrecen and took the title in the women’s 100 metre hurdles ahead of the USA’s Ashley Lodree, who took joint silver in a photo-finish for second place with the Republic of South Africa’s Carla Fick, both athletes timed at 13.75. Geissler had looked strong throughout the qualifying series and semis and was unperturbed by the heat (33C) and relative humidity (50%) in the final.
In the men’s 110m hurdles heats run earlier in the afternoon, the die was cast for some exciting semi-finals tomorrow, with just two hundredths of a second separating the fastest qualifier, Eddy Delepine of France (13.45), from the second and third fastest, Nassim Messjian from Qatar and Marthinius Van der Vyver of South Africa, both of whom won their heats with a time of 13.47.
A similar scenario was to be found in the women’s 400 metre semi finals, with the leader, Stephanie Smith (USA) timed at 53.45, her compatriot Jerrika Chapple at 53.63 and the third fastest qualifier Olga Tereshkova from Kazakhstan recording 53.65.
In the men’s event less than .5 seconds separated the first five semi-finalists. The leader was Piotr Kedzia of Poland with 47.51, followed by Jamaican Jermaine Gonzales (47.76), Colombian John Valoyes (47.79), Great Britain’s Ryan preddy (47.80) and Kedzia’s compatriot Karol Grzegorczyk (47.95).
In the one lap hurdles event, Jamaica’s Camille Robinson marked a personal best of 59.06 to take pole position in the final, closely followed by Australia’s Kimberley Crow with a personal record of 59.37 and Olga Nikolayeva (RUS) with 59.97.
In the men’s event, Jonathan Walker (USA) had the fastest qualifying time with 51.35 (PB), ahead of the Syrian Amine Alozen (51.73) and Julius Bungei of Kenya (51.81).
Continuing a national tradition in the event, 16-year-old Georgi Ivanov took gold in the men’s shot put final for Bulgaria with a personal best of 19.73 with his first effort. He was unable to improve on this through the series. In second place was Egypt’s Yasser Ibrahim with his final throw of 19.58 (also a personal best for the Egyptian). The podium was completed by another personal best from Korea’s Min-Won Lee of 19.57. Lee also ensured his place in the medals at his last attempt.
Ivanov put his success down to his mind rather than his muscle: “It was my will power that won the meet,” he said. “I improved my personal best by nearly seventy centimetres, but without this I could not have won as my competitors were rather fierce.” And he added with some little pride: “I have only been an athlete for three years, but I am already a World Champion”
Perhaps the most exciting competition of the day came towards the end of competition with the men’s long jump. In a real cliffhanger, victory finally went to Brazil’s Thiago Jacinto Carahyba Dias, who clinched victory with his last clearance. With a leading 7.52 in the first round and an improvement to 7.61, Dias was overtaken by Abdulla Al Walid, who leapt 7.62 in the penultimate round to move into the lead. But with a superhuman effort at his final attempt, Dias bounded a personal best of 7.72 to clinch the highest place on the podium. Bronze went to Italy’s Andrew Howe-Besozzi with his final attempt of 7.61 metres.
In the other finals of the day, Kun Jiang of China won the women’s 5000m walk in 22:49.21 (PB) ahead of Russia’s Ksenia Ishcheykinaey with 22:58.43. The women’s discus throw final was won massively by another Chinese, the season leader Xuejun Ma, who threw 54.93 metres, more than 5 metres better than second placed Darya Pishchalkinova (RUS) with 49.37. Bronze was won by the USA with 46.13 by Amarachi Ukabam.
Sean Wallace-Jones for the IAAF
