Previews04 Mar 2014


Women's pentathlon preview – IAAF World Indoor Championships Sopot 2014

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Ukraine's Hanna Melnychenko in the long jump at the IAAF World Indoor Championships (© Getty Images)

The heptathlon at last year's World Championships was lacking some of the big hitters from the combined events world, but it ended up being one of the most enthralling contests of the championships. Many of those same athletes will resume battle again in Sopot.

Sharon Day-Monroe will go to Sopot as the 2014 world leader after setting a US record of 4805 points at the US Indoor Championships. If she wins, she would become the first US winner of the title since 1999 when DeDee set the previous national record of 4753.

However, she faces the heptathlon gold and silver medallists from Moscow: Ukraine’s Hanna Melnychenko and Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton, the latter having not competed in a pentathlon since 2012.

Melnychenko is in great shape and has set two personal bests during the indoor season with 8.20 in the 60m hurdles and 14.19m in the shot put.

European indoor silver medallist Yana Maksimava of Belarus is second on the 2014 world list with a 4686 personal best and has since won her national indoor high jump title with a PB of 1.93m.

The host nation's hopes are carried by Karolina Tyminska, who just missed out on a medal last time in Istanbul. She has a best this year of 4530, some 239 points down on her lifetime best, but she has since improved on her season's best in the long jump and will doubtless be among the fastest in the final event, the 800m.

Mirko Jalava for the IAAF

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