Sebrle
confirms his form with 8701 points victory in Ratingen
By IAAF Correspondent
16 June 2002 - Ratingen, Germany - Not everyday goes as planned. The
decathletes could tell you a lot of stories on this subject. For example Olympic champion
Erkki Nool, who failed at his opening height of 5.10m today in Ratingen in the Pole Vault.
Or the out of form World Champion Tomas Dvorak, who was at the end of the day happy with the 8226 points which meet the standard of the Czech Federation for Munich.
But one athlete stood out from the crowd this weekend: World record holder Roman Sebrle won in Ratingen as decisively as he had 14 days ago in Götzis. This time he had 99 points less, with 8701 against his 8800 point total in Austria, but his historic feat is there, nobody has ever before been able to complete within 14 days two decathlons at that level. The score is Roman´s fourth best mark ever and new meet record for Ratingen.
"Overall I’m pleased with the result, but individually not too much. I can accept high jump and pole vault, maybe shot put and the 1500 m race where I did not run with all my powers.
“I felt the 14 days, but it is not dramatic. The main feeling is good, really. Sunday started in rain, this is nothing for me. So I am happy to have won. My discus could be better; then I had a very good pole vault, I used new poles for first time and learned to handle them. Next time I think I could go for 5.10-5.20. Javelin was not good, I tried too hard and lost my technique. The result around 68 metres which I was looking would have put me back on track for a possible 8800. In the 1500 m race I was faster in the last lap and that was the key to my 8700 points.
“Now I will take one week’s rest and then one month of preparation for Munich. And before the champs I want to do some competitions in individual events. I missed that before Götzis and Ratingen, because there was no time," commented on his decathlon Sebrle.
Coach Dalibor Kupka: "I´m satisfied, but we have learnt that if it can be avoided we would not do two decathlons within 14 days. He was extremely tired at the end. His best events were high jump, shot put and pole vault. On Sunday the hurdles in rain and discus in a wet circle were not very good as Roman likes hot weather. The disappointment came in the javelin, he really felt there everything that has happened in the last 14 days and lost his technique. In the final 1500 m race he did exactly the 4:30 pace for the 8700 final score. He is excellent competitor."
Sebrle started on Sunday with a hurdles win in the rain timing at 14.04 and was able to beat Dvorak (who was in the past superior in the hurdles) by 0.03 seconds. Discus was then an affair for Lobodin, Magnusson and winner Yurkov (48.16). Sebrle was fourth with 46.52. In the pole vault Sebrle equalled his decathlon PR in clearing 5.00 metres at his first attempt, to take third place. His attempts at 5.10 were not bad. But in the javelin he lost his hope for an 8800 total, achieving only 62.17 metres. But then he again showed his potential by running the third best 1500 m time with 4:29.76 which was clearly better than in Götzis (4:38.16). In the last event Lobodin overtook Magnusson and gained second place. Next time the multi-event heroes will meet together will be in Munich at the European Championships. The form chart could be different, but one thing will be clear - Roman Sebrle will be the superfavourite.
The women´s heptathlon ended with victory for the legendary Sabine Braun (World Champion 1997), who achieved 6254 points. It is her last year on the track so she was quite satisfied with her result and ticket to Munich. Third placed heptathlete, Portugal’s Naide Gomes achieved two national records - 656 in Long Jump and 6160 in Heptathlon. Her very poor javelin was the reason why she lost the leading position after the long jump.
