Tatyana Chernova of Russia in action in the Heptathlon (© Getty Images)
Russia’s Tatyana Chernova, reigning IAAF World Junior and Youth champion, and Canadian record holder Jessica Zelinka who compete in the women’s Heptathlon are the headliners for the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge meeting in Arles, France this coming weekend (2 / 3 June).
Heptathlon
Last year Chernova was one of the stars of the IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, China where she scored 6227 points, a result which ranks her seventh in the World all-time junior list. It was also the best junior score in women’s Heptathlon since Carolina Klüft’s World record set in Munich 2002 during the European Championships.
In the process of achieving her Beijing victory Chernova won five events and set four PBs in the 200 metres (24.05), Long Jump (6.35m), in the 100m Hurdles (13.70), and High Jump (1.80).
Tatyana Chernova’s mother Lyudmila won an Olympic gold medal in the 4x400m relay competing for Soviet Union in Moscow 1980. Tatyana Chernova was born in 1988 and is still a junior athlete.
The Russian will face a strong challenge from Canadian Jessica Zelinka who improved her national record last week in Götzis to 6343 points finishing fourth. Zelinka, who finished fourth at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, is the defending Arles champion. Last year the Canadian scored 6314 points.
World bronze medallist Margaret Simpson from Ghana will make her second appearance in the Heptathlon since giving birth to her child last year. In her comeback competition Simpson finished third in Desenzano del Garda with 5954.
The Ukrainian challenge will be led by 2004 World Indoor silver medallist Natalya Dobrynska (PB 6387 ponts set in 2004) and by Hanna Melnichenko (tenth at the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham last March) who finished third in Arles in 2006 with her PB of 6010 points.
The solid women’s line-up is completed by reigning Commonwealth Games silver medallist Kylie Wheeler from Australia (PB 6298 set in Melbourne 2006) and by Lithuania’s Viktorija Zemaiyte, World junior silver medallist in Grosseto 2004.
Decathlon
Jaakko Ojaniemi of Finland is the Decathlon specialist with the highest score in the Arles field with 8192 points set at the European Championships in Munich 2002 where he finished fifth. The Finn also finished ninth at the World Championships on home soil in Helsinki 2005 with 8042 points.
Former Asian champion Vitaliy Smirnov from Uzbekistan (third in Desenzano this year with 7825 points), Belarus’ Aliaksandr Korzun (fifth in Desenzano 2007) and Belgium’s Fréderick Xhonneux (ninth at the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham last March) and 2005 World University Games silver medallist François Gourmet (eighth at the European Indoors in Birmingham) are some of the other leading contenders in the men’s Decathlon.
French hopes are carried by Laurent Hernu, fifth at the World Championships in Paris 2003 and seventh at the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 with 8237 points.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
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