Eventual Decathlon winner Trey Hardee of the United States throws three personal bests in the men's Decathlon Javelin Throw in the Berlin Olympic Stadium (© Getty Images)
Trey Hardee did not finish his Decathlon at his first major championships in Beijing last year, but in Berlin his first World championships turned out to be golden one.
The 25-year-old American capped his competition with a 4:48.91 1500m run to score a total of 8790 points for a clear win by 150 points before Cuban Leonel Suárez who won the silver medal here in addition to his Olympic bronze from last season.
Hardee added a huge 256 points to his 2008 personal best 8534 points with his win not much in doubt during the second day competition. The competition was one of the best ever looking at the depth with the ninth place finisher (Yunioz Diaz Cuba) result 8357 points being exceptionally high. The best ever for ninth before this was 8307 at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta which remains the best depth Decathlon in history. In Atlanta the first eight scored more than 8400p (seven here) and a total of 22 over 8000 points in Atlanta and 20 in Berlin 2009.
Suárez expectedly passed Russian Aleksandr Pogorelov in the 1500m clocking 4:27.25 to score 8640 points for the silver medal, just 14 points shy the pre-Berlin World leader 8654p which is also a personal best for the Cuban. In the most important 1500m race of his career Pogorelov came very close to his five-year-old personal best 4:47.00 clocking 4:48.70 for 8528p personal best score and at last a medal, bronze, in a major championships.
Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine completed a stunning Decathlon scoring 8479 points personal best after 4:24.52 1500m, almost 200 points more than his earlier best 8286p from earlier this season for the fourth place in the competition to better the seventh place Kasyanov achieved in Beijing. Aleksey Sysoyev of Russia also surprised a lot of people with his fifth place scoring a 8454 points season’s best. Sysoyev had only scored 8030 points this season prior to Berlin.
German Pascal Behrenbruch scored a personal best 8439 points for the sixth place with Nicklas Wiberg setting the Swedish national record with 8406 total points after a very impressive day two of Decathlon. 24-year-old Swede knew he had a shot at the record and ran a commanding 1500m race to win in 4:17.05 and capture the record by a mere three points from Henrik Dagård, who scored 8403 points in Talence back in 1994.
Yordanis García and Yunior Díaz completed a great day for Cuban Decathlon scoring 8387p (eighth) and 8357p (ninth) respectively. Belarussian Andrei Krauchanka was 10th with 8281p and reigning champion Roman Sebrle of Czech Republic had to surrender this time with 8266 points for 11th place.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
