Roman Sebrle in the Decathlon's Pole Vault (© Getty Images)
MonteCarloCzech Roman Sebrle and Carolina Klüft of Sweden are the winners of the 2005 IAAF World Combined Events Challenge and the prize of 30,000$US. The standings were calculated after the completion of the final qualification competition, the Decaster meeting in Talence, France last weekend (17 / 18 Sep).
The outcome of the Challenge which was based on points accumulated at any three of this year’s ten qualifying competitions (NB. European Cup x 3 divisions on the same day) saw victories for the reigning Olympic champions Sebrle and Klüft, who were respectively second in the Decathlon and first in the Heptathlon in last month’s 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland, the penultimate event of the series.
For both athletes it was the third time that they had taken the overall IAAF World Combined Events Challenge title. The Czech, 30, took the title last year and in 2002, while for the Swede, 22, this was her third consecutive win.
Decathlon
In the men’s standing, Roman Sebrle’s season’s total of 25381 points for three Challenge meetings gave him an average Decathlon score of 8460.33, and was highlighted by his fifth victory in the classic Götzis meeting in Austria with a score of 8534. He was comprehensively beaten in Helsinki (8521) by Bryan Clay of the USA who won by 211 points. Sebrle had beaten Clay in Austria after the American fractured a rib during the competition. In Talence, last weekend, Sebrle was pushed all the way to victory (8326) by Russian Aleksandr Pogorelov.
Clay who finishes second in the Challenge ($20,000) with a score of 25,199 points for his three meets had an average of 8399.67. The 25-year-old Hawaii native, who was the Olympic silver medallist behind Sebrle last year, having finished 9th in Götzis thanks to his injury (7961), went on to take the USA title (8506) before killing off the Czech’s title ambitions with the largest margin of victory at the World Championships since Dan O’Brien’s win in Tokyo in 1991. His winning total was 8732 points which included personal bests in the 400m (47.78), Shot (16.25m) and the Javelin (72.00m).
In third place in the Challenge ($15,000) was 28-year-old Attila Zsivóczky of Hungary with a three meet total of 25,185points, an average Decathlon score of 8395.00 points. He was second in Götzis (8480), second in Arles (8320) and was the bronze medallist in Helsinki (8320).
Click here for the Decathlon Standings
Heptathlon
Carolina Klüft for the third year in the row tops the Heptathlon standings in the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge picking up a first prize of $30,000. Her points total was 20,399, with an average score of 6799.67 for her three meetings.
Though she has recently ended her year with a hamstring injury while competing in the individual sprint hurdles in the Swedish verses Finland match, otherwise 2005 has again been superb for the young bubbly Swede.
The World, Olympic and European champion took wins in Götzis, Austria in May with 6824pts, then a win at the European Cup in Jyväskylä, Finland, at the beginning of July with 6688pts but it was her epic duel with France’s 1999 World champion Eunice Barber at the World Championships which was the marker of an outstanding season. Her eventual win which included a 15.02m PB in the Shot, came down to the wire of the last event, the 800m, at the start of which the two were split by just 18 points. In the end her 2:08.89 behind Briton Kelly Sotherton (2:07.96) with Barber back in fourth place in 2:11.94 was enough to give Klüft a 63 point margin of victory for the World title (6887).
Barber, 30, was second in the Challenge standings ($20,000) with 20,388 points, an average Heptathlon of 6796.00. She began her year with a still world season leading 6889 points national record in Arles, France in early June, and then came her titanic battle with Klüft in Helsinki. She was unlucky to encounter a hamstring injury when winning in Talence on the weekend of 17/18 September, as at the time she was on target to beat the Swede’s overall points total for the season, thanks in part to a PB at the Shot of 15.02m. In the end she was just eleven points short of the 2005 World Combined Events Challenge title.
In third place ($15,000) in the season long Challenge was Britain’s Kelly Sotherton with 19,150 points, an average of 6383.33. After starting the outdoor season promisingly with a personal best of 6547 in Götzis at the end of May, she had a disappointing World Championships in which she was fifth (6325), and in Talence, a meet which she won last year, took second (6278).
Click here for Heptathlon Standings
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Prize money in both the men’s and women’s categories descended down to eighth place accordingly – 4th 10,000, 5th 8000, 6th 7000, 7th 6000, and 8th 5000.
Overall, 14 men and 19 women competitors amassed scores in three or more Challenge events this year, as compared to 17 men and 23 women in 2004.
IAAF
Past winners of the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge
2004 Roman Sebrle (CZE) - Carolina Klüft (SWE)
2003 Tom Pappas (USA) - Carolina Klüft (SWE)
2002 Roman Šebrle (CZE) - Sabine Braun (GER)
2001 Tomáš Dvorák (CZE) - Yelena Prokhorova (RUS)
2000 Erki Nool (EST) - Sabine Braun (GER)
1999 Tomáš Dvorák (CZE) - Eunice Barber (FRA)
1998 Erki Nool (EST) - Ursula Wlodarczyk (POL)
