Carolina Klüft in the 100m Hurdles on the first day in Götzis 2005 (© Hasse Sjögren)
There were many ups and downs contributing to an exciting first day at 31st Hypo meeting - IAAF World Combined Events Challenge - the Wimbledon or Roland Garros for multi-eventers, on Saturday (28 May). As expected there was virtually tropical weather and the enthusiastic spectators made the Götzis meeting even more special.
In the men’s battle, USA's Olympic silver medallist Bryan Clay started with clear win in the 100 metres, but then failed in the Long Jump and the duel with Czech Roman Sebrle was over. In the Heptathlon, World and Olympic champion Carolina Klüft of Sweden started with two personal bests and was heading in the direction of a European record but then due to some pain in her right arm had a below-par Shot Put.
HEPTATHLON
Carolina Klüft has a clear lead at the end of the first day with her third best score ever of 4054 (bettered only in Paris and Athens).
“I must be satisfied with the Hurdles and Long Jump. Because of the pain the Shot was not good but I had a good finish in the 200 metres,“ confirmed Klüft. “So all in all it is good and ok. Doing the High Jump in warm weather cost me a lot of energy… I was not thinking about points and records, I just went for every event and tried to get the possible result. And that will be my strategy also for Sunday,” said Klüft who has sustained a 11 Heptathlon winning streak since 2001.
Olympic bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton of Britain is second with 3911 points and is on the way to better her personal best. Third placed is American Hyleas Fountain with 3854 and she could better her best by nearly 200 points if successful on Sunday. Also representing the new generation is Dutch Laurien Hoos, third in the Shot Put and 4th in the 200m and is on her way to achieve her first 6000 points competition.
Time Sequence
11.19hrs – 100mH: Klüft was second in the last race but bettered her personal best by 0.03 (from Paris 2003 Worlds) to 13.15. US hurdler Fountain won the event in a personal best of 13.09, despite the worst reaction start time. A personal best was also set by Kelly Sotherton, third with 13.27.
13.59hrs – High Jump: Klüft went over 1.94 at the third try, the bar was shaking but it remained there. She equalled her best and was trying at 1.97 – that would be not only a new world best for the season, but also a Götzis record and the best ever in the Heptathlon for that event. She did not make it but her third try was the best one, and for sure in the future she can do it.
15.46hrs – Shot Put: Klüft achieved her best on her second attempt with 13.33, but due to the pain in her arm the result did not meet her expectations. Olympic silver medallist Austra Skujyte from Lithuania achieved a new Götzis record with 16.92, it was also the third best ever in a Heptathlon. With it she jumped into overall second place.
17.15hrs – 200m: Klüft ran the best of all with 23.34, Sotherton with second best with 23.77 and came back into second place overall behind the Swede.
DECATHLON
Olympic Champion and World record holder Roman Sebrle is not leading after the first day but is behind the European Indoor Silver medallist Alexandr Pogorelov from Russia by only five points.
“I’m not feeling well, something is going on (inside) me, hopefully until Sunday morning I will be ok,” said Sebrle. “The Sprint was not good at all, I could be satisfied with the Long Jump, in the Shot Put I had 16 metres in my hands, but was technically not right, while in the High Jump I also expected more, and the 400m was just a fight,” explained the Czech.
As Sebrle has a stronger second day his chances are higher, and also because his main rival Bryan Clay of USA made two fouls in Long Jump and fortunately the judges measured his one other ‘try’ (5.54), so he is going to finish the competition and get a decent score. However, after the 400m he felt some pain in his Achilles but is determined to continue.
Sebrle aiming for an unprecedented fifth win in Götzis started with only an average at 100m (11,06), but came back into contention with the best Long Jump of 7.85m. Russian Alexandr Pogorelov won the Shot Put in a personal best of 16.03 and went past Sebrle in the process. The Russian even enlarged his overall margin by bettering Sebrle in the High Jump by 3 centimetres (2.09-2.06).
In the last event of Saturday, Pogorelov achieved another best with 50.16 in the 400m, and Sebrle needed to be better the time by more than one second to go to the Hotel for the night as number one. But he missed that target just and is behind by five points overnight. A very good first day was had by Hungarian record holder Attila Zsivóczky who achieved personal bests in 100m (10.90) and Shot Put (15.96) and was also best in High Jump with 2.15m. He is third just 32 points behind Pogorelov. His preparation in Sebrle’s training group under the guidance of coach has clearly Kupka paid-off. One of the all-time heroes of the Decathlon, Czech Tomas Dvorak did not made it further than to 3 events, due to thigh injury he did not continued.
Time Sequence
11.53hrs – 100m: In the last race Clay clearly won in 10.51 despite having the worst start reaction time. Sebrle was not a factor with 11.06. So the American was leading by 126 points. Overall, 8 personal bests were registered.
13.10hrs – Long Jump: Sebrle achieved the best mark of the day with 7.85m with his last jump and despite his earlier poor sprint is number one overall. This happened two minutes before Clay made his second foul and expectations for a thrilling duel as in Athens were suddenly no more a reality. Clay had a clear foul of around 7.60m on his first, then just ran over through on is second but it was fortunately measured as 5.54. His third effort was again a very close foul of around 7.80m. Seven personal bests were registered.
14.25hrs – Shot Put: Sebrle was the best with his second try of 15.36, but was not satisfied at all, as he wanted to get closer to 16 metres, Clay continued with a solid 15.20m. But the best was Pogorelov with a PB over 16 metres by 3 centimetres, also Zsivóczky achieved, with his first and third tries, his bests of 15.84 and 15.96. Pogorelov leads Sebrle by 23 points.
16.00hrs – High Jump: Sebrle went over 2.06m on his third try, then tried for 2.09 but with no success. But Pogorelov made that height and his lead was now 51 points. After that Zsivóczky confirmed his excellent shape as he jumped over 2.15, and new generation athletes Anders Black from Denmark, and World Junior champion Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus also went over 2.15. Zsivóczky also made two respectable attempts at 2.21.
18.00hrs – 400m: Sebrle finished exhausted in 49.17, fourth in his race and made ground up on Pogorelov, but just could not grab the overall lead. The best was Chiel Warners from Netherlands with 48.46. Pogorelov was fourth in the second race, but improved his best from 50.49 to 50.16. Chinese Qi Haifeng was third best in this event behind Warners and Clay, and could be a factor for medals on Sunday.
By an IAAF Correspondent
