Carolin Schafer of Germany wins the Heptathlon (© Getty Images)
Germany completed a World Junior multievent double as rising star Carolin Schafer took heptathlon gold amid a blizzard of personal bests to announce her claims as a potential star of the future.
Aged only 16, Schafer performed with great maturity throughout the competition and her total points haul of 5833 included no less than five lifetime bests.
The race for silver went to wire as World leader Yana Maksimava of Belarus snatched the second prize from Estonia’s Grit Sadieko by just one point - 5766 to 5765 - but this was Schafer’s competition.
After day one the German, who set her previous best of 5659 for in Ratingen in early June, held a 71-point advantage from Maksimava after setting three PB’s in the 100m hurdles (14.10), high jump (1.78m) and 200m (24.53).
The Belarus athlete had endured a day of contrasting fortunes and while her shot of (13.87m) was top quality her 100m hurdles (14.68) and 200m (25.97) were below par.
In the battle for bronze, Russia’s Natalya Gizbullina accrued a first day total of 3388 - 38-points clear of German’s Lea Sprunger and Grit Sadieko of Estonia.
Maksimava clawed back 12 points on Schafer in the long jump, the first event of day two, but the German was undoubtedly the more satisfied of the pair.
The Belarus athlete boasted a pre-event PB of 6.04 – some 0.33 in advance of Schafer – but she could only muster 5.82m while the German leapt to a new lifetime best of 5.78m and still held a 64-point lead with two events remaining.
A new challenger emerged to Schafer after the event six – the javelin - when Sadieko leapt from fifth into the silver medal position after launching a massive 50.04m for 861 points.
The long-time leader claimed her fifth personal best of the competition with a 44.02m effort, but now only 28 points separated the gold and silver medal positions – Schafer (5064) to Sadieko (5036). Maksimava was relegated to third on 4195pts after a modest best throw of 39.63m.
Approximately, only three seconds separated first from second in the concluding 800m but Schafer never looked likely to be beaten.
She circled the two laps in 2:24.05 for 769pts and celebrated by raising her arms aloft in triumph.
Sadieko battled on bravely to post a personal best 2:27.15 but she had not only lost out on the challenge for gold, but also silver.
The blonde-haired Maksimava recorded 2:17.98 for 851 points and had squeezed on to the second tier of the podium by the narrowest of margins.
The Estonian at least had the consolation of scoring a new personal best of 5765.
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Steve Landells for the IAAF
