Carolina Klüft (SWE) - Pentathlon - Madrid (© Getty Images)
Madrid, SpainCarolina Klüft may have fallen short in her assault on the Pentathlon World record, but the 22-year-old Swede didn’t give up without a valiant fight en route to her first European Indoor title and the first of the 28th European Indoor Championships.
After a 6.65 third round effort in the Long Jump, the World and Olympic champion needed to run 2:10.40 in the 800, more than four-and-a-half seconds faster than she had ever run before indoors. With 350 metres to go, Kluft flew past Britain’s Kelly Sotherton and into the lead, reaching the bell in 1:40.23. She closed with a 33.25 last lap to clock 2:13.47, an indoor best, for a 4948 point tally, a personal best that solidified her spot as the No. two on the all-time list. Only Irina Belova’s 4991 point performance remains before her.
Collecting the silver medal was Olympic bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton, who capped a phenomenal day with a 6.44 best in the Long Jump and a 2:13.58 effort in the 800, a pair of personal bests to go along with two from the first session, to total 4733 points, adding a massive 341 points to Julie Hollman’s previous British record, set in 2001.
Natalya Dobrynska took the bronze with a 4667 point total to claim the first-ever medal in the event for Ukraine.
60m semis
Producing mild upsets, the semi-finals of the 60 metres were won by a pair of Greek newcomers on the international scene, Maria Karastamati and Yeoryia Kokloni.
Leading virtually from the gun, Karastamati powered to a surprise 7.19 win in the first semi, with Kokloni taking the second in 7.16. Exhibiting a smooth and confident style, the 20-year-old Karastamati shattered her previous personal best of 7.24 while Kokloni just missed her 7.14 PB clocking from the morning’s first round.
Defending champion Kim Gevaert of Belgium showed little strain with her 7.22 finish behind Karastamati to easily move on. German Marion Wagner (7.29) and Finn Heidi Hannula, who equalled her 7.28 PB in the opening round, clocked 7.31 to advance as well.
In the second heat, Kokloni beat back the dual Russian challenge of Larisa Kruglova and Mariya Bolikova, who reached the line virtually inseparable, clocking 7.22 and 7.23 respectively. Alena Neumiarzhytskaya, this winter’s Belarussian double sprint champion, was fourth in 7.28 to advance as well.
NB. Organizers confirmed that Christine Arron sustained a hamstring injury in this morning’s opening round.
800m - surprise departure
The first round of the women’s 800 witnessed but one major casualty. But with defending champion and indoor World record holder Jolanda Ceplak failing to advance, that casualty was a huge and completely unexpected one.
“Yesterday, everything was fine. But today, my legs just felt very, very heavy,” the Olympic bronze medallist from Slovenia said after her disappointing 2:05.27 third place showing in the third heat.
With no sub-two minute performances to her credit this year, it would be expected that the Slovenian would face a challenge in Sunday’s final, but that she wouldn’t even race in tomorrow’s semi-finals was not in anyone’s forecast.
“I know that I should have made into the final. What can I say? I’m not sure why this happened.”
Ceplak moved to the lead after the first lap, with Laetitia Valdonado of France and Russian record holder Naltalya Tsyganova following closely. Disaster struck the Slovenian with 150 metres to go, when she was quickly dropped by a trio of runners. Visibly struggling, she could only watch as Tsyganova and Valdonado fought for the lead, with the Russian prevailing 2:04.57 to 2:04.95.
Ceplak’s early departure from the picture further paved the way for Spanish record holder Mayte Martinez. With just the winners from each heat guaranteed a spot in the semis, the fourth heat, won by Martinez was predictably the fastest. Taking the lead for good with 100 metres to go, Martinez ensured that the automatic spot was hers. Her 2:03.06 bested Polish champion Ewelina Setowska’s 2:03.11 PB, who outsprinted Belgian Sandra Stals (2:03.16) and Maria Carmo Tavares (2:03.47 PB) of Portugal.
Irina Vashentseva took control of a tightly knit pack with 300 metres to go to win the first heat in 2:04.02. Spain’s Esther Desviat led the race through the first half with a cautious 1:03.28 first half split, with Virginie Fouquet of France following most closely. After Vashentseva broke, German Claudia Gesell followed to finish second in 2:04.21, with Fouquet a distant third in 2:05.30 and failing to advance.
After following German Monika Gradzki for all but the final 110 metres of the race, world leader Larisa Chzhao took heat two in 2:03.41, comfortably ahead of Gradzki’s 2:03.75. Tetyana Petlyuk of Ukraine spent most of the race in third place only to be outleaed by Portuguese Nedia Semedo, 2:03:77 to 2:05.06. Both advanced.
Women 1500 heats
No surprises emerged from the opening round of the 1500. In the first heat, it was primarily a five-woman battle, with the lanky Alesya Turova of Belarus, the defending silver medallist, prevailing down the homestretch in 4:13.98. Briton Helen Clitheroe (4:13.99) and Corina Dumbravean of Romania (4:14.35) took the remaining two automatic qualifying spots for tomorrow evening’s final, with Spaniard Nuria Fernandez (4:14.35) and Antje Moldner (4:14.72) of Germany advancing on time.
Cruising to a big lead with three laps to go, Romanian Elena Iagar was an easy winner in the second heat, stretching her legs en route to a comfortable 4:10.25. Russian Anna Alminova and Hind Debiha of France were next to reach the line in 4:13.49 and 4:13.69 respectively, with Wioletta Janowska of Poland, the upset winner of last August’s Zurich Weltklasse race, taking the final spot in 4:14.24.
Deciding not to double, World 1500m season leader Lidia Chojecka of Poland contested only the 3000m today, and led all qualifiers with her 8:58.99 win in heat two. Unheralded Tezeta Desalegn-Dengersa of Turkey was a surprise runner-up with a PB 8:59.62, the only other sub-nine minute performance in the pair of hotly contested races. Ukraine’s Tatyana Holovchenko was third in 9:01.55, with Briton Jo Pavey, a strong pre-meet favourite advancing as well after a comfortable 9:02.30.
Austrian record holder Susanne Pumper notched a narrow 9:02.12 win in the first heat, just ahead of German hope Sabrina Mockenhaupt’s 9:02.17. Kristztina Papp of Hungary, a finalist in Vienna, was third in 9:02.56. In all, only five of the 17 entrants did not advance to Sunday’s final.
On the infield
4.40 was the qualifying cut-off in the Pole Vault, and here too the other big star in Madrid this weekend, Olympic champion and World record holder Yelena Isinbayeva was among the leading qualifiers. But it took the Russian two tries at her opening height of 4.50 before a massive clearance ended her evening after just two jumps, by far the fewest of any competitor here. With Polish super duo Monika Pyrek and Anna Rogowska, Russian Tatyana Polnova and German newcomer Carolin Hingst all clearing 4.50, no surprises emerged for Sunday afternoon’s final. Czech record holder Pavla Hamackova, Briton Janine Whitlock and Tania Stefanova also advanced after 4.40 efforts.
In Triple Jump qualifying, Viktoriya Gorova of Russia led all qualifiers after her 14.56 PB, while six others went beyond 14 metres, including Magdelin Martinez (14.39), Carlota Castrejana (14.32) of Spain and Romanian Adelina Gavrila (14.27).
1.92 was needed to advance to tomorrow’s High Jump final, with nine meeting the task. Venenlina Veneva of Bulgaria, reigning World Indoor silver medallist Anna Chicherova along with Russian teammates Tatyana Kvimyagi and Yekaterina Aleksandrova, Romanian Oana Pantelimon, and Spaniand Marta Mendia all glided through the round without a miss. The only surprise was Romanian Monica Iagar, the 1998 champion, who couldn’t manage better than 1.88.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
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