Men's Heptathlon 7th and final event1000 metres
The fact that Roman Sebrle had a rather safe lead after six events didn't keep the Czech athlete from putting on a fine display of running in the 1000 metres.
The Sydney silver medalist posted the second-fastest time of his career, a 2:37.86, to win both the final event as well as the two-day struggle with 6420 points.
It represented the best performance by any heptathlete during the current season, but more tellingly, it was the third-best performance of all-time, being surpassed only by the 6424 of Tomás Dvorák in winning last year's European championships, and the current world record of 6476 established by Dan O'Brien in winning the 1993 world indoor title.
The main focus in this final event involved the battle between Iceland's Jon Arnar Magnusson and Lev Lobodin of Russia for the silver medal.
Going into the event, Magnusson's lead over Lobodin was 46 points, which translated into slightly more than four seconds in the kilometer race.
As the runners moved out from the start, Magnusson held the last position, immediately behind Lobodin. For Magnusson, the final point totals were immaterial: his only goal was to keep Lobodin in check, a task he accomplished without problem.
The tactic pushed Lobodin to a personal best of 2:43.59 for a final total of 6202, but the Russian fell short of Magnusson's silver-medal performance of 6233, resulting from a 2:44.99 kilometer.
The US champion, Stephen Moore, finished the 1000 metres in second place behind Sebrle with 2:42.35, and his total of 6132 (a personal best) earned him fourth place ahead of the Sydney decathlon champion, Erki Nool, who completed the seven events with 6074.
