News26 Sep 2004


Sebrle and Sotherton take Decastar titles – Collonvillé produces 8150 for women’s Decathlon

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Roman Sebrle celebrates success in Talence (© Vazel)

There were wins for the overnight leaders, Czech Olympic champion Roman Sebrle in the men’s Decathlon, and for Britain’s Kelly Sotherton, the Athens bronze medallist in the women’s Heptathlon in the Decaster meeting, the last leg of the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge 2004.

In an historic separate competition, France’s Marie Collonvillé with a 8150 points total became the first woman to battle past the 8000 barrier in the Decathlon.

Decathlon - Sebrle reigns thanks to 5.02 vault and 63.19 javelin

The second day of the Decaster started with cold and humid weather. The men’s Decathlon standings after the five first events were: 1. Roman Sebrle 4277, 2. Dimitriy Karpov 4249 and 3. Claston Bernard 4245.

Karpov took the lead after the 6th event this morning, with a 14.09 run in the 110m hurdles, while Sebrle looked like he was still feeling sore from the previous day, and finished last in his heat (14.69).

Bryan Clay, disturbed by a minor thigh injury was only 7th yesterday (4092p), but came back to his best level in winning the hurdles in 14.05. As such, the American moved to 5th, and after he threw the Discus to 50.72m, he then raised his position to 2nd. Karpov still led the standing thanks to a 48.95 throw. Bernard maintained his 3rd place, whereas Sebrle descended to 4th.

The Pole Vault was seen as a decisive event in this close contest, as each bar cleared gives about 30 points, and the risk of failing at any bar is high.

With the mark of a true champion, at the moment when it was most needed to rescue his faltering position, Sebrle established a new season's best (5.02m). Karpov had troubles on his first attempts as his poles were broken during the trip to France, and he had to borrow some from his opponents. However, he still jumped 4.92; just like Clay.

Then the Javelin saw Sebrle's complete comeback to the top of the overall points total thanks to a 63.19m effort, as Clay wasn't able to throw farther than 60m. This event is usually a difficult moment for Karpov but he didn't lose as many points as had been expected, due to a reasonable 50.31 throw.

”It was like a rollercoaster ride for me”

Yet still nothing was completely settled coming into the 1500m. The first three men were in the same order as in the Olympics: Sebrle – Clay – Karpov. Clay needed to run the 1500m about 6 seconds faster than Sebrle to win the Decathlon, and Karpov about 10 seconds, so the suspense was huge as remembering the Athens' 1500m, Karpov was then the fastest and those three were separated by only 3.54 seconds.

But Sebrle was again not to be denied and made the extra effort during the last lap to finish in 4:51.69, well ahead Karpov 5:00.21 and Clay 5:01.45. So the final ranking remained the same, even though of course the points totals were clearly inferior to Athens - Serble scored 8217, Clay 8122, and Karpov 8099.

”It was like a rollercoaster ride for me, I had many ups and downs this week-end. But I'm very, very happy to win my first Decastar,” confirmed the Czech star.

Heptathlon - Sotherton dominates

During the Heptathlon, Olympic bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton continued the domination showed on the first day, by long jumping 6.47m, and wasn't worried by her opponents Yelena Prokhorova 6.06 and Nataliya Dobrynska 5.92.

Southerton isn't a Javelin specialist, and furthermore her 34.01m throw was below her usual standard, but her margin on the overall standings was wide enough to start the last event, the 800m, with the victory clearly in mind. She did it in style however, as she won in 2:12.13, a time which was even faster than in Athens. Her 4 individual victories, and the gap between her and Dobrynska (6010p) say more about her superiority in the absence of Klüft than the points total she finished with today (6242p). Prokhorova finished the season, with 5887.

Women's Decathlon - Collonvillé breaks 8000 barrier

The women's Decathlon saw a new World all-time best by Marie Collonvillé, 8150p, which will be officially ratified as a record on 31 December 2004 if no other woman sets a higher score before that date.

The detail of her performance indicates her high consistency: 100m 12.48, Discus Throw 34.69m, Pole Vault 3.50m, Javelin Throw 47.19, 400m 56.15, 100mH 13.96, Long Jump 6.18m, Shot Put 11.90m, High Jump 1.80m, 1500m 5:06.09.

Overall, a huge 308 points improvement on the 7845 previous World Best by German Mona Steigauf in 1997, and 419 better than Collonvillé's own personal best set in 2000.

Irina Naumenko, second in this historic competition, set the 3rd all time best performance with 7798p (12.58, 34.63m, 3.30m, 37.57m, 55.91, 14.42, 5.98m, 12.51m, 1.77m, 4:59.03).

”I'm delighted, and the total is in accordance with my plans. Even if we're tired, we all had a fun time competing in a Decathlon,” said the winner.

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