Alina Fodorova in the pentathlon shot at the IAAF World Indoor Championships (© AFP / Getty Images)
The women’s pentathlon took a turn to an even tighter finish than initially expected.
USA’s world leader Sharon Day-Monroe did not gain as many points as expected in the shot put, the third event of the pentathlon, and is still more than 100 points behind the leader Nadine Broersen after three events.
Broersen continued well, reaching 14.59m in the shot put, 34cm shy of her best mark, and is leading with 3035 points after three events.
Day-Monroe is now in second place with 2919 points after 14.95m in the shot put, but now faces an uphill battle for the gold medal. She will have to earn a lot of points in the next event, but is not considerably better than Broersen in the long jump.
Brianne Theisen-Eaton bounced back nicely from the little disappointment in the high jump. She started the shot put with 13.86m in the first round, adding 40 centimetres to her previous personal best from nine days ago.
The Canadian is in third place with 2914 points and is closely followed by Alina Fodorova, who has just eight points fewer, 2906, for fourth place. The Ukrainian did well in the shot put with 15.05m and has a possibility to win a medal here.
Yana Maksimava was as good as expected in the shot put and her 14.93m puts her the fifth place after three events with 2886 points, just 20 fewer than Fodorova.
World heptathlon champion Hanna Melnychenko is nearly out of the medals. Her 13.02m in the shot put was nowhere near what she needed and 2808 points for sixth place doesn’t give her much of a chance anymore.
Claudia Rath is in seventh place with 2756 points having set a 13.66m personal best in the shot put and Karolina Tyminska of Poland is in eighth with 2751 points after 14.36 in the shot.
The long jump will make the medals picture a bit clearer. The projected total scores of the first six athletes are within less than 100 points after three events, so any of these six might still win a medal.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
