Is Kluft a tough competitor? That question was asked firmly in the affirmative by the 20-year-old Carolina Kluft, the early leader in the women's Pentathlon at the 9th World Indoor Championships, when she stepped into the circle for her third and final attempt in the third discipline of the day, the Shot Put.
Having set personal bests in the first two events, the 60m Hurdles and High Jump, Kluft, from Sweden, had built a 99-point lead over the defending champion, Natalya Sazanovich, of Belorus.
After modest efforts by Kluft in the shot, with a best effort of 13.19, she then saw her big rival gain 130 points on her when Sazanovich lobbed the steel ball out to 15.17m, for 872pts and a lunchtime total of 2952.
The ball - or the shot - was in Kluft's court. Belying her slight frame, the blonde-haired woman somehow summoned up an immense effort, sending the shot out to 14.48m. That was her third personal best of the morning, with a massive improvement of 70cm, and a valuable 826pts to maintain her lead with 3005pts.
Contesting the other medal positions behind Kluft and Sazanovich were Portugal's Naide Gomes, after a put of 13.44m for 757pts and a total of 2790, and Sonja Kesselschlager (GER), whose 13.11m put earned her 735pts for a running tally of 2784.
Perhaps most significantly of all, Kluft's astoundingly high levels of performance had so far out-scored the marks of Irina Belova when the Russian set the world's best of 4991 in Berlin 11 years ago.
With just the long jump and 800 metres to come later in the afternoon, Kluft would need further personal bests to keep pace with Belova's record score (where the Russian's 2:10.26 for the final event surely puts her total out of reach). But in this form, it is hard to imagine that Kluft will not go close to adding the senior Pentathlon world best to the Heptathlon world junior marks she set last summer.
