Men’s decathlon day one
Steven Downes for the IAAF
18 October 2000 – Dennis Leyckes took an overnight lead in the men’s decathlon here on Wednesday night, as the young German amassed 200pts more than his previous best at the halfway point in the multi-event challenge.
And they say that the first day is Leyke’s weaker of the two.
A 1.95m high jump had seen Leyckes take the lead for the first time after four events, and an outstanding 400m run in 47.59sec set up the German for a possible 8,000-point 10-event total – easily the best ever at the World Juniors, where the championship best is 7762 by another German, Eric Kaiser in 1990 – as he ended the first day with 4113.
The challenge of Wilfried Gouacide had faded, as the Frenchman suffered poor efforts in the shot and high jump (1.74m), leaving the early leader in just seventh place overnight (3839).
The Kazak, Dmitry Karpov remains Leyckes closest challenger, with 4025, while David Gomez of Spain will be able to sleep in the knowledge that he has a chance of a medal after his first day’s efforts – including a 47.81 400m – yielded 4016.
