A portrait of Carolina Klüft in Birmingham (© Getty Images)
There won’t be many overwhelming favourites when competition at the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics begins next week in Osaka, Japan, but one athlete carrying that burden will undoubtedly be Carolina Klüft.
Still only 24, Klüft has been the face of the Heptathlon since arriving on the international scene some five years ago, and has been virtually without peer since. In Osaka, she’ll be putting a staggering 17-competition win streak on the line, currently the longest consecutive string of victories by a woman in the sport; the fiercely competitive Swede hasn’t lost a competition since taking the European junior title on 22 July 2001.
There isn’t a title available to her that she hasn’t won, but at month’s end she will nonetheless be chasing another superlative: in Helsinki two years ago she became the first woman to defend her title, and in Osaka she’ll try to become the first to ever capture a third.
She’s made just one multi-event outing this season, a 6681 tally to take her fifth consecutive win at the Hypo Meeting in Götzis in late May, but she’s kept busy. Most recently, she contested four events at the Swedish championships and in each was well ahead of her Pre-Paris tune-up of four years ago.
The challengers are led by Lyudmila Blonska, the 29-year-old Ukrainian who has twice raised her personal best this season, first to 6626 at Götzis and again just over a week ago at the Ukraine Cup where she tallied a national record 6733. She captured the World indoor Pentathlon title last year but there was one major name missing in the Russian capital: that of Klüft.
Russian Tatyana Chernova put together an even better score with her 6768 point victory at June's IAAF Multi Events Challenge competition in Arles. That performance was wind-assisted, but was a major improvement for the 19-year-old, whose previous best was the 6227 performance she pieced together to take the World Junior title in Beijing last year.
Others in the podium mix include Britons Kelly Sotherton and Jessica Ennis, Germans Jennifer Oeser and Lilli Schwarzkopf, and Lithuania’s Olympic silver medallist Austra Skujyte.
Decathlon
The men’s chase for ‘World’s Best Athlete’ honours isn’t nearly as easy to “predict”; indeed defending champion Bryan Clay of the USA will have his hands full.
Clay too has completed one Decathlon, an 8493 effort to finish third in Götzis. He didn’t finish at the US championships, a title won by a resurgent Tom Pappas, the 2003 World champion, who tallied 8352. Pappas is obviously no stranger to high pressure competitions.
Leading the world list is World record holder Roman Sebrle, with 8697 in June, just a few weeks after finishing second in Gotzis. After a pair of back-to-back silver medal performances, the 32-year-old Czech may be hungriest of the lead pack.
Relative newcomer Andre Krauchanka of Belarus, just 21, was the surprise winner in Götzis, tallying an 8617 career best, and is certainly a threat. He followed up with a no-pressure win at the European U-23 championships, with an 8492 performances.
Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan has the year’s third best tally, an 8553 performance behind Sebrle’s world leader in Kladno. As the reigning Olympic bronze medallist, the 26-year-old will certainly be factor.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
