Women’s heptathlon day one
It is not very surprising to see France’s Amandine Constantin leading the women’s heptathlon after the first day of competition.
Winner of three events out of the four contested today, Constantin will line up tomorrow with 3227 points already scored, but a mere 16 points ahead Germany’s Christine Schulz who scored 3211 today.
Constantin entered the competition this morning with an impressive victory in the 100m hurdles heat. She clocked an overall best of 13.93, an excellent time which would have seen her qualified for the final in the individual event and scored 988 points.
She went on to the high jump pit where she cleared 1.75m, a height that would have enabled her to qualify for the individual event final as well. With the 916 points awarded for a 1.75-clearance, Constantin improved her lead on the USA’s Jacquelin Johnson 1904 points to 1849. Johnson who did not line up for the shot put abandoned the championships.
A very poor shot put contest where Constantin only managed 9.14m (473 points), made her lose the lead to Germany’s Annett Wichmann and Christine Schulz who threw respectively 11.90m and 10.97m.
Constantin managed to return in the lead when crossing the line in 25.40, the fastest 200m time today. The French woman added 850 points to her overall score but still has a hard time to come tomorrow.
With Schulz and Wichman (in this order now) close behind her, tomorrow’s title is very likely to be decided in the 800m, the seventh and last event of the competition.
Three athletes have scored more than 3200 points today and 7 have achieved more than 3000 points.
Tomorrow’s winner will be the first World Youth Heptathlon Champion, the combined events not being disputed in Bydgoczsz two years ago.
