Yordani Garcia of Cuba produces the furthest javelin throw of the first group in the decathlon (© Getty Images)
Clay ensures gold, Suárez storms to top three – decathlon after nine events
Bryan Clay (USA) made sure there was no mistake in the javelin this time by throwing a season’s best 70.97m result for a total 8269 points before the last event, 1500m. 2004 Athens Olympics silver medallist leads the competition by a huge margin of 479 points before Andrei Krauchanka (BLR) who is in second place.
Krauchanka didn’t succeed in the javelin, but still walked away with a decent 60.23m mark giving him a good position to fight for the silver medal in the last event. Russian Aleksandr Pogorelov had a lot of points between him and Leonel Suárez (CUB), who was in sixth place before javelin, but a monster throw 73.98m by the Cuban in comparison to Russian’s 64.01m brought them both to 7777 after nine events. Pogorelov threw well, only a bit more than a metre from his personal best, but Suárez added 2.5 metres to his previous best from 2007.
The medallists are quite clear before the last event – Suárez is easily the best of the three fighting for two medals with a 4:16.70 personal best and will probably grab the silver. Pogorelov is much slower than Krauchanka so the Belarussian will end up with the other medal.
Behind the top four reigning Olympic champion Roman Sebrle reached 63.93m in the javelin and is in fifth place before 1500m with 7620 points. The Czech has to run in the last event too because 4:20 runners Oleksiy Kasyanov (UKR - 10th 7486) and Andre Niklaus (GER – 9th 7494) are on striking distance. Mikk Pahapill (EST) is 6th with 7541p, Romain Barras (FRA) 7th 7504p and Andres Raja (EST) 8th 7497p, but these three will lose points against the faster Kasyanov and Niklaus in the last event.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
