Roman Sebrle in action in the Decathlon's 100m (© Getty Images)
Decathlon World record holder Roman Sebrle won for the third time in a row the 100 minutes event which was held on friday in the Austrian City of Wolfsberg. Nearly 2000 spectators followed the dash of three top decathletes to finish the ten events within one hour and fourty minutes.
The ever present rain just stopped before the first event and continued at the end. So conditions were not great. The Olympic champion achieved 7451 points; in fact Sebrle scored 7510 points but was given a 59 seconds (59 points) penalty for not finishing inside the 100 minutes limit.
His training partner Attila Zsivotzky finished second with 7234 points and Russia‘s Alexander Pogorelov did not finish the event because of a hamstring injury which did not allow him to start the Pole Vault.
Sebrle started well with 11.21 at 100m, long jumped twice (7.05 and 7.20) and continued with a solid shot of 15.42. But then he mastered only 1.90 in the high jump and the chance for a high score started to fade.
As always the 400m is a slow event for Sebrle and he clocked 55.74 and got beaten by Zsivotzky 55.69. Pogorelov was also doing well having scored better results than Sebrle in the shot put, high jump and the 110m hurdles.
Sebrle was still hoping to reach at least 7600 points, but then a very average javelin throw made this target impossible.
"It was great fun, but I cannot be satisfied with my results. Mainly with the javelin, which in the last years was always a strong event for me. This year I’ve been making too many mistakes.“
“Conditions were difficult, so when I saw the pouring rain the whole day I knew my chances for a good score were gone. But we decathletes are happy that such events are organised," he said.
Now Sebrle will take a few days off with his family and then start the preparation for his last decathlon of the season in Talence, France. The goal is clear - to win the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
Results - 100 min decathlon
1. Roman Sebrle, CZE 7451 (11.21-720-15.42-190-55.74-14.58-45.02-480-58.78-5:11.03), penalty 59 seconds (in reality 7510)
2. Attila Zsivotzky,HUN 7234 (11.32-662-14.93-190-55.69-15.09-46.13-460-57.04-4:56.59), penalty 44 seconds (in reality 7278)
3. Aleksander Pogorelov, RUS 5415 (11.24-692-15.54-200-57.28-14.56-45.30-did not finish)
Alfons Juck for the IAAF
