News23 Jun 2009


Sebrle takes on Smith and Karpov in Kladno

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Roman Sebrle vaults at the TNT-Fortuna meeting in Kladno (© c)

World Decathlon record holder Roman Sebrle hopes to repeat his win from the inaugural edition of the TNT-Fortuna combined events meeting in Kladno when the competition celebrates its third anniversary next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sebrle scored a high quality 8697 points in 2007 and was second last year here with 8076. His main rivals will be title defender and Osaka medallist Maurice Smith of Jamaica (8434 here in 2008) and 2004 Olympic medallist Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan.

Beijing gold medallist Natalya Dobrynska of Ukraine will headline the women’s Heptathlon.

Sebrle was fourth in Gotzis this year with 8348 and wants to improve his meet record and also the World leading 8522 of Germany’s Michael Schrader.

“I had small difficulties with my heel in the Long Jump in the last days, but I hope all will be ok. My shape should be better than one month ago. The only worry that remains is the weather,” said Sebrle who is planning to defend his World title in Berlin.

The forecast is rain and temperatures below 20 degrees. Interestingly Sebrle is leading the all-time statistics with 6 Decathlons over 8800 points, 20 Decathlons over 8500 points and 43 over 8000 points. In which category will go his next one this week? Kladno will also mark his jubilee 70th decathlon (all competition including DNF and 100 minutes).

After his runner up finish at the Osaka World Championships, Smith did not had too much luck. He was 9th in Beijing and unable to finish Gotzis after he had a no mark in the Long Jump.

“I had good training recently, I hope for a good score and we must accept the weather which we will have,” said the Jamaican at Monday’s pre-event press conference.

Karpov is the bronze medallist from Athens 2004 and Osaka 2007 and his last big success was a bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia in March 2008. In Beijing Karpov did not finish the Decathlon but he’s slowly returning from injury, Kladno will be his first test.

The remaining 8000+ athlete is Algerian record holder Larbi Bouraada (8036 in May this year).

Ukrainian Olympic champion Dobrynska won in Gotzis one month ago with 6558. Uzbekistan’s Yulia Tarasova is another good quality name; she competed in Beijing and improved in May in Desenzano to 5989 points.

Ukrainian Iryna Ilkevich has 5952 and is the fourth placer from the 2006 World Junior Championships. Czech athletics will have junior medallists Katerina Cachova and Nikol Ogrodnikova as interesting forces as the national leader Denisa Rosolova is injured.

Alfons Juck for the IAAF

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