News10 Feb 2013


Sintnicolaas world-leading 6341 points, Taiwo set heptathlon high jump world best

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Hans Van Alphen (L) of Belgium and Eelco Sintnicolaas of Netherlands compete in the Men's Decathlon 1500m of the London 2012 Olympic Games on 9 August 2012 (© Getty Images)

Dutch multi-event exponent Eelco Sintnicolaas excelled at The Netherlands’ national championships in his home town of Apeldoorn when he set a 2013 world-leading heptathlon total and national record of 6341 points on Sunday (10).

The 2010 European Athletics Championships Decathlon silver medallist improved his own record by 166 points, which he set when finishing fourth at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships, and moves up to 11th place on the world all-time list.

He started off on Saturday with marks of 60m – 6.97, Long Jump – 7.50m and Shot Put – 14.01m but what really put him in record contention was a huge improvement in the High Jump when he added eight centimetres to his best with a clearance at 2.08m.

He started Sunday in similarly impressive fashion with a 60m Hurdles personal best of 7.88 before finishing off with a 5.40m Pole Vault and 1000m in 2:41:30.

Combined events experts seemed to thrive in the High Jump this weekend. University of Washington student Jeremy Taiwo set a heptathlon world best in the event of 2.25m on Friday at the Boise State Team Classic in Nampa, Idaho on Friday.

Taiwo added no less than 13cm to his previous High Jump personal best and went on to score 6156 points on Saturday, which briefly was a world-leading tally.

His marks were: 7.02, 7.42m, 14.18m, 2.25m, 8.08, 4.25m, 2:33.44. He scored five personal bests, in all the events apart from the 1000m and Pole Vault. As well as his High Jump, he made a notable improvement in the Shot Put, going more than a metre further than ever before.

Taiwo spent 18 months out of competitive action between the start of June 2011 and his return last month as he recovered from surgery to his elbow, hips and pelvis.

Czech Republic’s Adam Sebastian Helcelet also did well at his national championships in Prague and put together a heptathlon personal best of 6040 points with marks of 7.10, 7.39m, 15.13m, 2.05m 8.07, 5.00m, 2:50.20.

Phil Minshull for the IAAF

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