Eunice Barber prepares to Shot Put in Arles (© Carole Fuchs)
Arles, France France's Eunice Barber leads the women's Heptathlon with a total of 3893 points after four events, while Russian Pogorelov tops the men's Decathlon standings after five events with 4224 points at the end of the first day of competition at the Arles International - IAAF World Combined Events Challenge 2003 - meeting.
The Heptathlon claimed its first casualty before the beginning of the competition, as Ghana's Margaret Simpson, third in Götzis with 6120 points, withdrew after feeling a pain in her pelvis during warm-up.
Barber started the Heptathlon with a win in the 100m Hurdles in 13.37seconds (1069 points), a time she should certainly improve in the future if she solves a problem of tempo which led her hitting ther hurdles several times.
The 1999 World champion was closely followed by Ukraine's Lyudmila Blonska in 13.45 (1058 points), thus improving by a tenth of second her time achieved last month in Kharkov.
Other performances above 1000 points were achieved by third-placer Janice Joseph of South Africa (13.60), and by Canada's Jessica Zelinka and Kimberley Vanderhoek who respectively won their heats in 13.62 and 13.83 . Svetlana Parfyonova of Russia lost precious points when she fell after the last hurdle.
In the men's 100m, the leading player was Olympic champion Erki Nool of Estonia who set the early pace by winning the first heat with the overall best time of 10.87 (890 points), but it didn't satisfy him. The second best time of 10.89 was achieved by Algeria's Youcef Redouane, without the push of any competition in the last heat.
Nool moved down to second place after the Long Jump, where he had a little scare as he only got his third attempt measured (7.33m - 893pts). He was luckier than Czech Jiri Ryba who had three fouls.
The changing wind undoubtedly disoriented some athletes, but others took advantage of it, such as Frenchman Lionel Marceny who took the overall lead with 1800 points against 1783 for Nool, thanks to a 7.59m jump. Chinese Haifeng Qi moved from 14th to 4th place with 7.58m, while Russian Aleksandr Pogorelov moved from 12th to 5th with 7.57m.
Meanwhile, in the women’s competition Barber kept building her confidence with a victory over Blonska in the High Jump, 1.88m against 1.82m, though her domination didn’t appear obvious at first. Her clearances were generally well over the bar, but she needed at least two rounds to clear each height after entering the event at 1.73m. Her success at 1.88m for her third attempt was accompanied by a shout which mixed rage and contentment.
"It was a training session" commented Barber after the event. "I had too many failures and bore the consequences in the end".
The Shot Put led to the third change in the men's rankings, with the winner taking the lead like in the previous events. Thanks to a throw 15.28m long, Pogorelov scored 807 points for a total of 2571 points, 62 points ahead of Nool. The Estonian was 8th in the event with 13.96m. With 13.25m, Frenchman Lionel Marceny moved back to 4th place, while fellow countryman Bruno Lambese, the only other athlete to break 15m (15.10m), was lifted from 10th to 4th.
The main evolution brought by the women's Shot Put was the move from 7th to 3rd place by Ukraine's Nataliya Dobrynska who won the event with a throw of 15.23m. Barber secured her first place with a 13.99m shot at her first attempt, a new personal best. She even increased her lead over Blonska, who only achieved 13.23m.
The men's High Jump was still on when the women went in the blocks for the 200m. Eunice Barber produced the fastest start, leading all the way through the bend before struggling in the last 60 metres. South Africa's Janice Joseph (who is also one of the best sprinters in her country) then surged to win the race in 23.45 (scoring 1034 points), as Blonska came back in the last metres to take second place in 24.20 (920 points), with Barber third in 24.31 (951 points).
The Overall ranking didn't change and after Day One, Barber leads the event, 3893 points, ahead of Blonska, 3766 points, and Dobrynska, 3567 points.
The organisers announced that at this stage of the competition, Barber was just 50 points behind schedule, compared to her French record of 8861 points set at Seville 99 World Championships. However, Barber had announced one week ago that she would certainly be relaxing in some events.
Asked at the end of the first day in which event she hadn't given 100%, she answered, laughingly : "All! Look, in the hurdles I almost didn't make it to the finish. In the High Jump my pelvis wasn't well positioned. In the Shot Put, I tried to be relax but I lacked speed in the event and I still need to work on my speed in general. The second day is my favourite, so I hope that everything will be going well,” concluded Barber
Pogorelov secured his lead in the Decathlon after the High Jump where he was ranked 3rd with 2.11m, behind Hungary's Attila Zsivocsky and Frenchman Nicolas Moulay who both reached 2.14m. Zsivocsky thus moved from eleventh to second, while Nool was relegated to third overall after he jumped 1.96m.
The 400m allowed Nool to come back to 2nd place overall, after he ran the third best time in the 400m (48.46 - scoring 887) behind Tunisia's Hamdi Dhoubi, winner of heat 5 in 47.80 (919 points), as Dmitriy Ivanov of Russia had run 48.44 in heat 3. Pogorelov now went through hard times in one of his weakest event, finishing last in heat 4 in 51.20. But his score after four events was sufficient for him to keep the Overall lead.
After day one Aleksandr Pogorelov is first with 4224 points, ahead of Erki Nool 4163 points and Attila Zsivocsky, 4116 points.
Carole Fuchs for the IAAF
