Andre Niklaus competing in the Javelin on the second day in Ratingen (© Bongarts)
Ratingen, GermanyNobody could follow the overnight leaders, and so Kylie Wheeler from Australia and Andre Niklaus from Berlin ended up clear winners of the "DLV-Mehrkampf Meeting" IAAF World Combined Challenge meeting in Ratingen.
After the first day, the victory of these two athletes was to be expected, and a day later the young lady from Perth had collected 6231 points, and Niklaus had amassed 8193 points.
HEPTATHLON
Ratingen seems to be a good place for Wheeler from Australia. After winning the Heptathlon last year, the 25-year-old athlete from the Western University in Australia was the number one again in the small city which is close to Düsseldorf.
The 1.80m tall Heptathlete had reached a best mark of 6296 points in 2004, but the terrible weather conditions yesterday on the first day were always going to lead to lower totals this year. Rain during all events and such a darkness that the organizers had to switch on the floodlights in the stadium yesterday, meant that today’s dry conditions were very much appreciated by all.
“It was a test for me,” commented Wheeler. “My season in Australia ended in March. And I wanted to know where I am standing at the moment.”
Wheeler, who was born in Perth, is number one in the Heptathlon in Australia, but before she decided to take up the combined event, she was a very good hurdler. Her best mark in the 400m Hurdles is 58.11, but the tall athlete with dark long hair always loved the Heptathlon, and is a good high jumper (best mark 1.85 m) and long jumper (6.57).
In Ratingen she produced her best results in the High Jump (1.82m in a heavy rain shower); 200m: 24.24 sec; Long Jump: 6.35m.
“I love the Heptathlon”, confirmed Wheeler, who is working as a part time development officer. At the end of July she will come with the Australian Team to a training camp in Loughborough, England. After that she will travel to Helsinki.
In Athens at the Olympic Games she was 18th - in Helsinki she will try to improve her ranking. "My goal is to reach 6300 points and to be in the Top-Ten”.
Ertl makes Helsinki target
The only German to show a good performance this weekend was Karin Ertl. The athlete from the club Fürth/München/Würzburg had the goal from the beginning to reach the 6100 points and after the first day she knew exactly what she had to do, to travel to Helsinki.
"The Long Jump was the key event for me", the 31-year-old athlete said. "After 6.32m and 43.40m in the Javelin, I knew that I could make it,” said the former European Indoor Champion. She collected 6163 points and is fixed for Helsinki now.
In third place was Claudia Tonn (Paderborn) with 6054 points, ahead of Katja Keller (Potsdam/5908). For Katja Keller the result was a big disappointment. She wanted to reach 6100 points for the second time, but it was not possible for her.
Germany’s number one, Sonja Kesselschläger from Neubrandenburg got an injury in her leg after the 100m Hurdles and gave up after the Shot Put yesterday. She collected 6224 points in Götzis and her ticket for Helsinki is almost sure.
A very good result was shown by the 18-year-old Julia Mächtig from Neubrandenburg. The bronze medallist from the World Junior Championships last year in Grosseto, impressed her coach with a improvement to 5777 points after a long time out with a knee and muscle injury. Now the tall German girl is one of the big favourites for the Under-20 European Championships. "Julia is the future in the women’s Heptathlon in Germany", Klaus Baarck, the National Coach said.
DECATHLON
The result was a bit of a disappointment for German hopes. Except Andre Niklaus, who already had a 8074 points result in Götzis in May, nobody took the chance to jump on the plane to Helsinki.
Niklaus won with a new personal best (8193) and was really happy: “It was such a big fight for me,” said the winner who is coached by Rainer Pottel.
8050 points is the qualifying mark for the German decathletes, a result which former greats would have laughed at, but the young generation have big problems to meet this level.
Only Niklaus, the U23 European Champion from 2003 came up with a good performance. "I wanted to collect 8100 points, this was my big goal", said the 23-year-old guy after he crossed the finish line in the 1500m race.
After a difficult year in 2004 when he missed the Olympic Games because of an injury, Niklaus has now developed into the number one in the Decathlon in Germany. It was impressive how he managed the Pole Vault (5.30m).
“I have learnt a lot after this experience. I am able to be more concentrated and focused for the moment,” said Niklaus who was 8th at the World Championships in Paris 2003.
"Of course I would be happy, if we (German squad for Helsinki) would be two or three athletes.”
But nobody else took the chance. The former World Junior champion Dennis Leyckes had a bad first day and lost too many points even though his result on the second day was quite good for him - but only until the Javelin. On his second attempt he injured his ankle and couldn’t fight for the qualifying mark anymore.
With 7556 points Lars Albert was number two in Ratingen. In third place was Kenny Beele (7285).
In general the organizers were disappointed about the situation in Ratingen. “First of all we have to think about the calendar of combined events. We need (to attract) more international athletes to have a good competition (here),” confirmed Claus Marek, the former National Coach, who is now the Team Manager for the German Decathlon Team. “We expected big results from Andre Niklaus, Dennis Leyckes, Lars Albert and Stefan Drews. It was a pity that except of Andre they couldn’t fight for the tickets to Helsinki.”
Ursula Kaiser for the IAAF
