Roman Sebrle in action in the Decathlon's 100m (© Getty Images)
Czech Olympic Decathlon champion and World record holder Roman Sebrle decided finally to compete this weekend and so has travelled today to Tallinn, Estonia to compete at 9th Revel Hotels Cup Combined Events competition (4/5 Feb).
The meeting is one of the very few international Heptathlon indoor meetings on the circuit and is an EAA indoor permit event.
Sebrle’s decision was last minute because his daughter Katerina (second child) was only born on Monday (30 Jan). “I wanted to wait until the birth and only then make the decision. Now all is clear, my wife Eva and Katerina are ok, so I can go,“ said the reigning World and European Indoor champion.
The 31-year-old is ready to go for his fifth win in the event after a total of seven appearances at the meet. He won there in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004, was second in 1999 and fifth last year but he came without any special training.
“This time I’m in better shape than last year so the aim is clear – to win and attack 6200 points. My shape should peak in Moscow (World Indoor Champs 10 to 12 March 2006), so I’m not expecting anything big, but a solid and good competition. We had very good preparation in South Africa in December...all is long term, aimed towards Beijing Olympic Games,“ explained Sebrle.
His main opponents in Tallinn should be other three decathletes in the start list who were in top-ten at last year’s World Championships – Andre Niklaus (Germany, 4th), Kristijan Rahnu (Estonia, 6th) and Jaakko Ojaniemi (Finland, 9th).
