Fellow Ukrainians Natalya Dobrynska and Lyudmila Blonska take heptathlon gold and silver with USA's Hyleas Fountain in third (© Getty Images)
Dobrynska hangs on to the lead in the final event, takes Olympic title
There was going to be a new Olympic champion in Beijing given that reigning champion Carolina Klüft (SWE) was not competing, but few would have picked Nataliya Dobrynska (UKR) for the gold medal. But the 26-year-old Ukrainian, who had not finish higher than 8th before in major championships, set six personal bests (including one in heptathlon total) and two season’s best results during the competition.
Such magic with an athlete setting a season’s best in every of the seven heptathlon events and the total score is very rare. Dobrynska capped heptathlon with a good 800m race finishing in 2:17.72, exactly what was expected from her – in the only other heptathlon this season she ran 2:17.73!
Dobrynska, who was the pentathlon silver medallist at the 2004 World Indoor Championships, had only scored 6268 points in her only heptathlon of the year and had a previous personal best 6387 dating back to May 2004.
She added nearly 400 points for a marvellous World leading 6733 winning score here. But it didn’t come easy in the last event. Although Dobrynska did not fail in the 800m, it was the other top athletes who had not been very good in the first two events of the second day, now impressing.
Lyudmyla Blonska, another Ukrainian, was fighting for the gold in the last event and cut 2.74 seconds off her personal best in the 800m. But 2:09.44 was still a couple of seconds off what was needed and the Osaka World Championships silver medallist got an Olympic silver this time with a season’s best 6700 points.
Hyleas Fountain (USA), who was second after six events, isn’t known for her powerful 800m running, but she did do very well knowing she would get an Olympic bronze medal for her troubles. The American set a personal best 2:15.45 in the 800m bettering her 2006 mark by more than a second. She had not run under 2:20 since 2006 and scored a good 6619 points for the third place just slightly missing her PB 6667.
In fourth Tatyana Chernova (RUS) made a fierce attempt to capture the bronze in the 800m just missing the medal, but ending up with a great 800m personal best 2:06.50 and a total score 6591.
Kelly Sotherton (GBR) set a personal best 2:07.34 in the 800m and was fifth in the competition with a total score of 6517 points, the second best result of her career. In Athens 2004 she only needed 6424 points for the bronze and 6510 points for the same placing in Osaka 2007 so this was a high standard competition.
Jessica Zelinka was 6th with a Canadian national record 6490 and Anna Bogdanova (RUS) 7th with a 6465 personal best. Also Polish Karolina Tyminska set a personal best 6428 for 8th place.
22 athletes went over 6000 points in the competition as opposed to 17 in Osaka 2007, just to show how good a competition the heptathlon was here in Beijing.
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
