News23 Sep 2007


Overnight leaders Kravchenko and Blonska take Talence wins – World Combined Events Challenge

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Andrei Kravchenko from Belarus in the Talence Pole Vault (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)

Andrei Kravchenko from Belarus clinched his second win of the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge with 8553 points which puts an end to a successful season in which he won the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis and the European Under 23 title in Debrecen. 

Kravchenko had suffered a major setback at the World Championships in Osaka where he was disqualified in the 100 metres heats due to two false starts but he is a very young athlete who has the potential to produce a major impact in the years to come.

In the women’s Heptathlon in Talence, Lyudmila Blonska crowned her successful season by winning the Décastar IAAF Combined Events Challenge with 6437 points.

Decathlon

Maurice Smith opened the second day of competitions with a solid 14.01 seconds to win the 110m Hurdles (973 points) which enabled him to reduce the gap from 155 to 146 points on overnight leader Andrei Kravchenko (5424 to 5278 points) who finished second in that event in 14.08 (964 points).

The entire Discus Throw event had to be repeated due to a technical problem in the measurement of the implements. In the re-run of the competition Smith managed to keep his focus setting a new meeting record for this event with 53.83m (950 points) in one of his strongest disciplines. This performance moved the Jamaican into the lead with 6228 points, 56 more than Kravchenko who threw 44.08m. The young star from Belarus also gained 19 points on his schedule to break his personal best. Aleksey Drozdov overhauled a tired Roman Sebrle for third thanks to his best release of 48.45 (838 points). 

After vaulting 5.15m (957 points), a new PB in the Pole Vault, Kravchenko was well inside schedule to improve his personal best with 60 points more than he had achieved at this point of the Decathlon at the end of May in Götzis. In this event, Kravchenko finished second on count-back behind France’s Rudy Bourgignon.
Thanks to this result Kravchenko climbed to the lead again with 7129 points with a lead of 126 points over Smith who lost ground with his 4.55m clearance in one of his weakest events. Drozdov also performed well clearing 4.95 (895 points) missing his PB by just five centimetres and increased his gap on Roman Sebrle to 97 points.

The Javelin Throw win went to Kravchenko who threw near to his PB with 64.08 metres (799 points). The overall ranking did not undergo any significant changes with one event to go: Smith (51.36 in the javelin) defended his second place with 7612 points ahead of Drozdov (7508 points) and Sebrle (7433 points).

Kravchenko capped his successful weekend with a 4:48.99 run in the 1500 metres. After the competition he delighted the crowd with his somersault show.

“It was difficult to repeat the Discus. We had six events instead of five and it was very tough mentally. My Decathlon was not very good but it’s ok. I know that I can vault 5.25 in the future but today I was too tired. I had some problems in my leg during the warm-up for the 1500 metres. Now I have one month to recover. My next competition? I will go back home to take one month to recover from my leg problem and then I will start my preparation for Beijing,” said Kravchenko.

World silver medallist Maurice Smith, second in the 1500 metres with 4:39.17, finished second with 8298 points beating Aleksey Drozdov (8124 points) and Roman Sebrle (8067 points).

“When I received the news that we had to repeat the Discus Throw, I was not happy because I was very tired. But it’s no problem because my result in the Discus was good. All my performances were ok. I am happy just to have finished the competition without injuries because I felt very tired after Osaka,” said Smith.

Heptathlon

Lyudmila Blonska, World silver medallist in Osaka and overnight leader over her compatriot Natalya Dobrynska, increased her gap from 37 points to 91 points following her 6.46m (994 points) in the Long Jump. This performance was far from her 6.88m in Osaka but was enough to beat Dobrynska who leapt to 6.29 (940 points), the same result was achieved by Russian Anna Bogdanova who regained third spot in the overall ranking over Laurien Hoos with 4562 points.
  
The main change in the Heptathlon’s overall ranking was produced by Laurien Hoos who won the Javelin Throw with 51.18m returning to third place with a total score of 5369 points which overhauled Bogdanova who could not throw further than 33.60m. Blonska backed up her first overall first place with a solid 49.13 increasing her lead over Dobrynska to 176 points.

Blonska ended up her Heptathlon with a fourth place in the final 800 metres in 2:17.02. Winner in the two-lap event was Karolina Tyminska who won the 800 metres in 2:08.46 very easily.

The final overall win went to Blonska who capped her outstanding season with a score of 6437 points. Last year’s Talence winner Dobrynska took second place with 6238 points. Bogdanova from Russia (2:14.75 in the 800 metres) went to the podium in third place with 6003 points.

“I am very happy with my performance this weekend although I felt very tired after Osaka. The crowd were very supportive and gave me a lot of energy. My next goal is to defend my World Indoor title won in Moscow next winter,” said Blonska.  
        
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

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