Report: Heptathlon Long Jump – Moscow 2013

As anticipated yesterday, Germany’s Claudia Rath dramatically moved up in the rankings, producing a personal best of 6.67m in the Long Jump. The 27-year-old added five centimetres to her previous best of 6.62m in this event from earlier this summer and moved to third place overall with 4795.

Rath has a Javelin PB of just 41.57m, but others will need to be as far away from her as possible before the 800m where she has clocked a 2:08.68 PB this season, considerably faster than the other medal contenders.

Hanna Melnychenko came up with a 6.49m season’s best and has a big lead of 120 points before the final two events with a total of 4916. The 30-year-old is still the best pick for the win here, but a lot will be decided in the Javelin Throw, where she is quite equal with Rath and will lose considerably in the 800m.

Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands is still in second place with 4796 points, but is now out of medal contention. Her Long Jump result was too low as she will lose points against the others in both the Javelin and 800m.

Canadian Brianne Theisen Eaton looks good for the bronze medal, she has 4775 points after a 6.37m personal best in the Long Jump. She is not going to break her Heptathlon personal best of 6440, but a little less than 6400 points could be enough for a medal here.

Briton Katarina Johnson-Thompson is in fifth place after five events and jumped a 6.56m personal best in the Long Jump. The European under-23 champion is going for the top six in this competition and has scored 4766 points for the fifth place.

Eliska Klucinova of the Czech Republic is sixth with 4626 points and in seventh place lies Sharon Day, who failed to record a decent mark in the Long Jump. A 5.79m result means that she will not fight for the gold medal here anymore. The US champion is a good javelin thrower and an improvement on her 47.38m personal best would see the world-leading athlete go into the final event as a medal contender.

Mirko Jalava for the IAAF