Andrei Krauchanka salutes his victory in Götzis (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)
Andrei Krauchanka produced a stunning upset in the Decathlon while Carolina Klüft notched her fifth straight victory as the Hypo Combined Events Meeting – IAAF Combined Events Challenge – concluded.
This annual gathering of the world’s finest multi-event talent featured the rise of a new Decathlon star as Krauchanka smashed his previous personal best of 8013 points to a sensational 8617 tally, a new world season’s best. But more notably, the 21-year-old from Gomel, Belarus, beat back established stars such as Olympic champion Roman Sebrle from Czech Republic (8518 points) and last year’s Götzis winner, reigning World champion Bryan Clay (8493 points).
The women’s competition went according to predictions with Klüft again emerging victorious but the Heptathlon was full of drama until the end with Ukraine’s Lyudmila Blonska pushing the Swedish legend until the final event, to finish just 55 points behind Klüft.
Krauchanka’s startling breakthrough - Decathlon
Clay began the day in the lead with 4593 points, 39 ahead of his PB pace. The American finished second in the 110m Hurdles in 13.97 behind event winner Maurice Smith who ran 13.83 into a slight headwind (-0.1 m/s).
At the conclusion of the event six, Clay was 59 points ahead of PB pace with 5571 points. In the meantime Krauchanka smashed his PB in the sprint hurdles, running 14.05 after notching four PBs on day one: in the 100m, Long Jump, Shot Put and 400m. The young star gained additional points on his PB schedule and after the hurdles event was impressively 395 points ahead his career best pace with 5496 points, 75 points behind Clay.
Thanks to his victory in the hurdles win in 13.83 for 997 points, Jamaican Maurice Smith moved into third (5327), overhauling the Czech Sebrle who crossed the finish-line in 14.52 (5378).
For Clay, disaster with the discus
But the Discus Throw changed the competition entirely. Clay threw a very disappointing 36.14, far off of his 55.87 PB. Clay had a bad day at work in the following two attempts where he produced two fouls which were beyond the 50 metres barrier but were unfortunately outside the sector.
“I had some technical problems,” said Clay. “It was very disappointing. It was difficult to find motivation again after the discus.”
Smith took advantage and took the overall lead with 6283 points, 125 points ahead of Clay thanks to a solid 51.68 effort which earned him 905 points. Clay dramatically lost ground and faded into second place with 6158 points, just five points ahead of Krauchanka who threw 39.63, and seven points over Dimitry Karpov (fourth in the discus with 48.14). Sebrle, who produced a best release of 45.15, was in fifth place with 6097 points.
The pole vault shook up the overall ranking again. Krauchanka, who came to Götzis with a career best of 4.60, produced a massive PB clearing 5.00 on his second attempt to take the lead with 7063 points, overhauling Smith who vaulted 4.50 to tally a 7043 total after eight events. Karpov (4.90) moved into third with 7031, holding off Clay, who cleared 4.80, by 24 points.
Impressively Krauchanka was 493 points ahead of schedule to break his PB with two events to go.
The Javelin throw brought yet another dramatic change to the overall ranking. Clay regained the lead - 7882 points - following his best throw of 69.09, the third best of the competition, behind Swede Nicklas Wiberg whose 74.41 throw was a meeting record, and Sebrle who returned to 70m territory with a 70.09 throw.
Victory not secured until final event
But the fight for victory was far from over and mantained its drama until the bitter end. With only the 1500m to be contested Clay had to defend a lead of just 16 points ahead of the impressive Krauchanka who speared the javelin to 64.35, good for 803 points for a total of 7866 points. Sebrle was sitting in third with 7837 points. Just 45 points split the top three men who vied for victory before the gruelling and dramatic 1500 metres which proved to be decisive.
Krauchanka finished third in 4:29.10 (751 points) behind event winner Nicklas Wiberg (4:25.21) and France’s Romain Barras (4:26.88). Sebrle ran 4:39.92 to finish second overall while Clay, who crossed the line in 4:51.32, finished third with a 8493 tally.
“Before the competition I expected to score 8200 points but not 8600 points,” said Krauchanka. “I was surprised by PBs in the 400m and in the javelin. I expected to improve to five metres because I had already vaulted 5.20 in a small competition in preparation for Götzis. But the PB in the 400 metres was the biggest step forward mentally and physically. After this result I want to remain focused on the present and not think about the future.”
Both Clay and Sebrle paid tribute to Krauchanka’s outstanding performance.
“Krauchanka is absolutely amazing,” Clay said, while Sebrle added, “I said three years ago that Krauchanka was going to become the new name of the Decathlon. What I said was not a mistake.”
Ten men scored more than 8000 points. New PBs were set by Aleksey Drozdov from Russia (8373 points), André Nicklaus from Germany (8340 points), Janis Karlivans from Latvia (8271), and Norman Müller from Germany (8255).
Closer than anticipated - Heptathlon
Klüft picked up where she left off in the first event of day two, where she leapt to 6.62 in the Long Jump despite a strong headwind which blew in the opposite direction for most of the horizontal jump competition. The Swedish star won her favourite event by producing a solid series in her three attempts (6.60, 6.54 and 6.62). In her best two attempts the head wind was considerably strong (6.60 /-1.6 m/s; 6.62/- 1.3 m/s), illustrating her strong form in the event, while increasing her lead over Briton Kelly Sotherton to 175 points.
Sotherton leaped 6.44 to maintain second position while Blonska managed to return to a podium position with 4803 points, just four points behind Sotherton, thanks to a solid PB of 6.57 to finish behind Klüft in the event. Dutchwoman Karin Rückstühl, seventh after day one, moved up into fourth place with 4742 points after leaping 6.54.
Blonska notched up the event win in the Javelin Throw after massively improving her PB to 51.53 (890 points for a total of 5693 points) while narrowing the gap on Klüft to only 36 points after the Swedish star speared to 44.16. Jennifer Oeser, sixth in the overall ranking after a 6.17 effort in the Long Jump, climbed into third place with 5475 points following her 47.60 throw. Oeser had to defend her third place from the threat of Austra Skujte who followed closely on the heels of the German just four points behind (5475 points to 5471). Sotherton continued to struggle in her weakest event, and faded back into eighth place after reaching just 30.19.
Klüft had to defend a very slight margin in the final event, the 800m, and she had to give all her best to hold off Blonska in an outstanding two-lap race. Klüft won her heat in 2:10.86 (952 points) edging out a strong finish by Canadian Jessica Zelinka who ran 2:10.93. The event win went to German Claudia Tonn who prevailed in the previous heat in 2:07.87.
Klüft ended the gruelling two days of competitions with 6681 points to defeating Blonska, Ukraine’s reigning World indoor champion, who improved her PB to an impressive 6626 points.
“The score was not as good as I wanted,” Klüft said. “I hoped for more. The javelin throw did not go very well. I had bad luck with wind this weekend. It was the hardest fight here in Götzis. But I think it’s nice when there is a close fight because it’s good for the crowd.”
Klüft reiterated that this would be her final multi-event competition prior to August’s World Championships, but she will compete in individual events in the lead up to Osaka.
“I want to have more time for recovery before Osaka. I will take part in many individual competitions in the Long Jump, High Jump and Javelin. I am planning to compete in the Long Jump at the Oslo Golden League meeting on 15 June.”
Four PBs for Blonska
Blonska posed a threat to the five-year winning streak of the Swedish legend until the end.
“I did not think I could beat Carolina,” Blonska said. “She is an outstanding athlete. But I am happy to have finished so close to Carolina because I have much respect for her. Overall I am happy with the result but I could do better in the hurdles and in the Shot Put.”
The woman from Kiev capped a splendid weekend highlighted by four PBs: the High Jump, Long Jump, Javelin and the 800m.
Oeser finished third with 6366 points narrowly missing her PB by just ten points. Zelinka improved her own Canadian record from 6314 points (set last year in Götzis) to 6343 points. Zelinka beat reigning Olympic silver medallist Austra Skujyte (6277 points), European outdoor silver medallist Rückstühl (6260 points) and Olympic bronze medallist Sotherton (6210 points).
As usual the depth of results of the women’s Heptathlon was shown by the fact that 15 women scored more than 6000 points.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
