Bryan Clay and Trey Hardee both of USA celebrate winning gold and silver in the Heptathlon (© Getty Images)
American Bryan Clay became the first athlete to retain the World indoor Heptathlon title with 6204 total points, but it didn’t come easy.
Compatriot Trey Hardee, the outdoor World champion from Berlin, knew exactly how much he needed to win in the 1000m, but that just wasn’t enough. Clay looked to be on his way down, but ran a great last 200 metres to finish in 2:50.28, in the end well enough to beat Hardee, who ran 2:47.76 for 6184 points and a silver medal.
Clay now has four World indoor medals, two golds and two silvers and Hardee got a medal with his first try at this competition. Both Americans completed their first full Heptathlons of the season.
Although Belarussian Andrei Krauchanka, defending his silver medal from Valencia 2008, tried his best but Russian Aleksey Drozdov successfully held on to the bronze medal finishing 1000m in 2:45.35 for a total of 6141 points.
Krauchanka was fourth this time with 6124p having won the 1000m race in 2:41.70. Also competing in his first Heptathlon competition in 2010 Czech Roman Sebrle finished in fifth place with 6024p clocking 2:46.55 and just holding off a challenge from Ukrainian Oleksiy Kasyanov who got within five points of the Decathlon World record holder running a 2:43.78 1000m for 6019p in the competition.
Cuban Leonel Suárez was seventh with 5764p and Aleksandr Pogorelov of Russia did not finish the competition.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
