Carolina Klüft of Sweden throws the Javelin in Arles (© AFP/Getty Images)
World, Olympic and European Heptathlon champion Carolina Klüft of Sweden and Romain Barras of France were the individual winners respectively of the women’s Heptathlon (6665pts) and men’s Decathlon (8416pts) at the European Cup Combined Events Super League this weekend (1 / 2 July).
After two days of tough competition in temperatures in the high 30s, Russia and France were the team victors.
Russia won the women’s Heptathlon (18,149pts) ahead of Sweden (18,078) and Finland (17,503). Last year’s winners, Belarus, and Estonia were relegated to the First League.
France scored 24,185 points in the men's Decathlon, followed home by Russia (23,764) and Estonia (22,968). Finland on 22,273 and Poland, who had only two scoring athletes after Krzysztof Andrzejak and Lukasz withdrew injured on the first day, on 14131 were relegated to the First League.
HEPTATHLON
LONG JUMP - Klüft reached 6.32m (+0.5m/s) for 949pts (overall 4923), establishing a lead of 179pts on Pole Karolina Tyminska who set a new personal best with a leap of 6.59m (+1.4m/s) for 1036pts.
Britain’s Jessica Ennis, the reigning European Junior champion, who reached 6.12m (+0.0m/s, 887 points) was now in third place overall with 4699 points.
JAVELIN THROW - Klüft produced a throw of 46.86m (799pts) and extended her overall lead to 351pts over Tyminska who threw 37.90m (627 points). Ennis achieved a personal best of 36.81m (606) to remain in third (5305pts), 66 behind Tyminska and 80 ahead of Russia’s Olga Levenkova in fourth.
Finland’s Nina Kelo was the leading thrower with a best of 50.62m (872 points) and two other throws of 49.74 and 49.72, moving her from 16th to eighth in the overall standings.
800m – In heat one, Poland’s Tyminska's 2:05.33 (1031 points) consolidated her second place, breaking her personal best set earlier this year in Götzis by 168 points with a score of 6402. Ksenja Balta’s second place in 2:10.35 (960 points) was enough to take her into third place ahead of Ennis, with 6180 points to Ennis’ 6170. Ennis clocked 2:16.95 (865) to finish fourth in the same heat.
In heat two, Klüft’s team mate Jessica Samuelsson made her move on the back straight and pulled away to win in 2:10.33 (960 points). Klüft moved into second with 200m to go and finished in 2:11.48 (943), ensuring that she won the individual title.
Klüft's hamstring getting better
“For me personally, the competition had its ups and downs. I have been having a problem with my hamstring due to overuse and this affected my performance in the Hurdles, 200m and Long Jump, but there were also some positives – my High Jump was very good. However, first of all this is a team competition so I cannot be disappointed (Sweden finished second)."
“The hamstring is getting better and this competition was good for it. I am confident that I will be in my best shape for the European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg.”
Men's DECATHLON
110m Hurdles - France’s Romain Barras, who was lying third overall at the end of the first day, got off to a great start with a personal best of 14.13 seconds (+0.7m/s) to win the fourth heat, to score 958 points and move into the overall lead in the competition with 5195 points.
Overnight leader Attila Zsivoczky (HUN) clocked 14.61 in the fourth heat to score 897 points, and moved down to second place 19 points behind Barras, with Italy’s William Frullani in third a further two points behind.
DISCUS THROW - Zsivoczky was back in front thanks to his throw of 47.81m (822pts). He had a total of 5998 points, 54 ahead of Barras, who reached 44.11m (749 points).
The winner of the Discus was Russia’s Aleksandr Pogorelov with a first round throw of 47.81m (825 points), moving him up into third place overall, just 19 points behind Barras.
POLE VAULT – Pogorelov’s vault of 5.10m (941 points) to equal his personal best took him into the lead in the individual standings on 6866 points but it was very tight at the top with just 19 points covering the first three places. Barras’ 5.00m (910) saw him overtake Zsivoczky and move into second on 6854 points. Zsivoczky’s vault of 4.80m gave him 849 points for a total score of 6847 after eight events.
The best vaulter was France’s Rudy Bourguignon who cleared 5.20m for 972 points.
JAVELIN THROW - Zsivoczky was back in the lead after winning the Javelin Throw with 65.85m (826 points), just 2cm below his personal best, for a total of 7673 points. Barras’ 61.66m (763) kept him in second place on 7617 points, while Pogorelov could only manage 55.00m (8102) and was back in third on 7529.
1500m - In race one, Zsivoczky worked together with team mate Peter Skoumal in the early stages before the latter broke away. At the 800m point Spain’s Oscar Gonzalez passed Zsivoczky and then caught Skoumal, but it was Skoumal who came back to win in 4:28.79 (753 points), with Gonzalez in second place and Zsivoczky in third. He would now have to wait and see if the 717 points he had scored for his time of 4:34.22 would be enough to take the title.
The second heat was even better, with Barras and his team mates Nadir El Fassi and Damien Camberlein working together over the first half of the race. Pogorelov tried to stay with them before fading badly to eventually finish in 11th place. However his time of 4:57.72 to score 572 points was enough to keep him in third place overall.
In the end Barras just edged El Fassi in 4:21.79 to 4:21.82. Both scored 799 points and this was enough for Barras to take the title with a total of 8416 points. This was over 200 points better than his previous personal best, but the score will not be ratified because of the +4.4m/s following wind in the 100m.
Zsivoczky finished just 26 points behind Barras with 8390 points, with Pogorelov in third with 8102 and last year’s winner Mikk Pahapill of Estonia retaining his fourth place with 7890.
EAA
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