Kelly Sotherton sets a PB in the 200m to move up to third in the overall standings (© Getty Images)
Fountain retakes the lead after day one - Heptathlon 200m
The women’s heptathlon competition is tightening up before the remaining three events tomorrow. World leading athlete Hyleas Fountain (USA) was fastest in the fourth event of day one, the 200m, clocking 23.21s bettering her earlier personal best by 0.10 seconds. The American has now gathered 4060 points to lead after day one, but athletes behind have been packed closer than expected.
In second place after day two is Nataliya Dobrynska (UKR), who had a marvelous day one. The Ukrainian set big personal bests in three of four events including a 17.29m Heptathlon World best in the Shot Put. In the 200m race she set another PB 24.39s, an impressive 0.45 seconds faster than her earlier best of 24.84s from Arles in 2005. Dobrynska’s personal best is only 6387 points, but here she is going for a score in the region of 6600-6700 points.
Briton Kelly Sotherton, third in the Athens Olympic Heptathlon in 2004, set a personal best 23.39s in the 200m, just dipping under earlier PB 23.40s from last year’s Osaka World Championships. Sotherton is slowly moving towards a medal position and the decisive event for her will be the Javelin Throw which is easily her weakest event. In Osaka she only managed 31.90m, which is nowhere near what she needs here. The 31-year-old has thrown only 34.41m this season and has a personal best of 40.81m from 2004.
Anna Bogdanova (RUS) is fourth with 3922 points after a 24.24s clocking in 200m, but her second day is not among the strongest and she will be going downwards during the last three events. Osaka World Championships silver medallist Lyudmyla Blonska (UKR) ran a season’s best 24.14s and will be very close to a medal tomorrow. The Ukrainian has 3912 total points for fifth place.
Tatyana Chernova (RUS) is now in 10th place with 3749 points, but the 20-year-old Russian has an extremely powerful day two – she jumped 6.78m long jump, threw a 53.51m javelin and ran a 2:12.11 800m in her personal best Heptathlon earlier this season.
The first event of day two, the Long Jump, will decide a lot about what will happen later as the day progresses. First-day leader Hyleans Fountain jumped a commanding 6.88m at the Olympic Trials and Tatyana Chernova (6.78m), Kelly Sotherton (6.68m) and Lyudmyla Blonska (6.66m) have very strong marks in their season’s best series. These good long jumpers also have the most points to lose – it will be interesting to see what happens if any of the top competitors foul their first jumps.
German Lilli Schwarzkopf, who is also very close to the medals (14th after day one with 3694p) because of her strong day two, has the best Javelin result among the top names in season’s best series with 54.81m. Lyudmyla Blonska has thrown 48.29m, Tatyana Chernova 48.15m and Hyleans Fountain 48.15m too.
In the 800m Kelly Sotherton, Lilli Schwarzkopf and Tatyana Chernova can all run close to 2:10 if needed, but for Hyleas Fountain this is the difficult event. Her personal best is 2:16.79 set back in 2006, but she hasn’t run close to that lately – at the Olympic Trials she only clocked 2:27.69 and it will be interesting to see what happens if the last event decides the Olympic gold. Presumably Fountain can then drop a lot of seconds off her season’s best time.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
Please NOTE when reading each event report that Silver medallist Lyudmyla Blonska failed a drugs test and so lost her medal
