Andrei Kravchenko in Talence (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)
Andrei Kravchenko ended first day of the Décastar IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Talence as the overnight Decathlon leader with 4460 points. In the women’s Heptathlon, Lyudmila Blonska, the World silver medallist is in the lead.
DECATHLON
This year’s surprising Götzis winner and European U23 champion Andrei Kravchenko, the rising star from Belarus collected three Louis D’or awards for his three impressive individual wins in the Long Jump, the High Jump and the 400 metres. Jamaica’s Osaka world silver medallist Maurice Smith ended up in second place over night with 4305 points while World champion Roman Sebrle finished day one in third place with 4193 points.
Smith got off to a flying start running 10.89 (885 points) in the 100 metres held in wet weather conditions during the first morning. Kravchenko, who was disqualified during the 100 metres heats at the World Championships in Osaka, finished second in 10.98 (865 points).
Kravchenko showed that he has fully recovered from his Osaka setback leaping to a solid 7.73 in the Long Jump (992 points) and went to the lead after two events with 1857 points with a gap of 107 points over Drozdov. European Championships bronze medallist Alexsey Drozdov from Russia, took the provisional second place thanks to a new long jump PB of 7.35 (898 points).
As in the World Championships in Osaka reigning World, Olympic, and European champion Sebrle had a tentative start in the 100 metres where he ran 11.24 but he bounced back with a best jump of 7.37 (903 points) on his third attempt moving into overall fourth place. Smith did not jump further than 7.08 (833 points) and took third place after the first two events.
Weather conditions improved during the afternoon. Smith confirmed his reputation as the strongest shot putter among the Decathlon specialists improving Dan O’Brien’s meeting record (16.69 set in 1992 when he set his 8891 points World record) with a best release of 16.72 (896 points). The Jamaican took the overall lead after the Shot Put with 2614 points. Drozdov also performed well putting 16.11 (858 points). Kravchenko did not produce better than 14.00 and faded into third place.
Kravchenko regained the lead after winning the High Jump very easily with 2.13m. Then he produced an impressive show in the 400 metres running a remarkable 47.17 PB (950 points). Kravchenko leads by 155 points over Smith and 267 points over Sebrle.
Despite tiredness after a long season just three weeks after the end of the World Championships in Osaka, Kravchenko showed today that Osaka was just an unlucky experience in his young career. “I was shocked for one week after Osaka. I really don’t know what happened. Today I found again energy and there were perfect conditions. I know that I can run faster in the 400 metres. Shot put was good. In the high jump I have felt a problem in my leg which has plagued me for three months. I want to finish my season with a strong performance,” said Kravchenko.
Smith, a former student at the Auburn University in Alabama said about his overall runner-up place: “I felt a cramp after I jumped 1.98. For this reason I stopped not to get hurt. I am excited about Osaka but I don’t want to speak about it too much. It is behind me now. I have decided to come after the World Championships but I did not think about doing better than in Osaka.”
Sebrle, who in Osaka won the only big title missing in his trophy cabinet, came to Talence without pressure after the tough battle in the Japanese coastal city. “I have not trained at all after Osaka. My shape has gone down. I want to score points for the Combined Events Challenge,” said Sebrle.
HEPTATHLON
Lyudmila Blonska did not show the same level of performance as in Osaka where she won the silver medal behind Swedish superstar Carolina Klüft with 6832 points but her 3736 points score is enough to lead over Natalya Dobrynska by 37 points.
Sara Aerts from Belgium held off Osaka World silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska in 13.53 (1046 points) to 13.54 (1044 points) in the 100m Hurdles. Russia’s Anna Bogdanova ran the third fastest time with 13.79.
Bogdanova from Russia, tenth at the World Championships in Osaka, won the High Jump improving her PB by three centimetres to 1.85 (1041 points) and took the overall lead with 2049 points, just two points over Blonska (2049 to 2047 points). The Ukrainian star, who cleared 1.92 in Osaka, had a below-par high jump performance compared to her recent standards clearing 1.82 (1003 points).
Blonska was below her best in the Shot Put producing 13.72 (775 points far from her 14.44 PB) but it was enough to go to the lead in the overall ranking with 2822 points in a very close competition with her compatriot Dobrynska who won the Shot Put with 15.59 (900 points). Bogdanova was in third place after her 13.43 m. With just the 200 metres to be run Blonska had a margin of just one point over Dobrynska.
Blonska ran 24.71 (914 points) increasing her lead to 37 points over Dobrynska who crossed the finish-line in 25.10. Lauren Hoos from the Netherlands went from fifth place into third place after running the fastest time of 24.51 (932 points). Hoos defends a 8-point gap over Bogdanova (3630 points to 3622 points) after the first day of competitions.
Of note…
Two stars of French athletics, Ladji Doucouré, World 110m Hurdles champion in Helsinki 2005 and the 2001 European Junior Decathlon champion from Grosseto 2001, and Yohann Diniz, European champion in Gothenburg last year and World silver medallist in Osaka 2007 in the 50 km Race Walking race, attended the 31st edition of the Décastar meeting in Talence as V.I.P. guests.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
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