Over night leader Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine competes in the men's Decathlon 110m Hurdles in Berlin (© Getty Images)
American Trey Hardee continued his quest for the World title clocking a season’s best 13.86 seconds in the first event of day two in the Decathlon, 110m Hurdles.
The 25-year-old has a personal best of 13.71 from last season, but this result now makes him the only favourite for the gold at the moment. Hardee has scored 153 points more after six events than he did in his 8513 points season’s best and gained important points.
The second favourite in the competition, Cuban Leonel Suárez, who has scored a world leading 8654 points this season, fell back a bit from his earlier results in this event finishing with 14.45 result in the hurdles. Suárez is still in only ninth place with 5237 points, but he will rise in the total ranking later today day two being a 77-metre javelin thrower and very fast 1500m runner with a 4:16.70 personal best.
Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine, who lead the competition after the first day, is in second place with 5473 points after a decent 14.44 performance in the 110m Hurdles. Another Cuban Yunior Díaz hurdled to 14.56 having scored 5415p now for third place.
Russian Aleksandr Pogorelov is really doing well at the moment and going for a medal. The 29-year-old Russian was fourth at the Olympics last season and is looking to better that performance here. Pogorelov ran a season’s best 14.19 in the hurdles and is ranked fourth after six events with 5325 points. He also has a chance to break his four years old personal best 8429 in the competition.
Yordani García of Cuba is in fifth place with 5312 points after a 14.08 clocking in the first event of day two. German Pascal Behrenbruch, who is very good in the remaining events of day two, is in 10th place now, but will be moving up later in the competition. Behrenbruch is fighting for a medal, but had to be a bit disappointed with his 110m Hurdles performance 14.24 which was not near his best times. Reigning champion Roman Sebrle has also fallen a bit back in the last two events. In the hurdles he clocked 14.44 for eighth place at the moment with 5242 points.
Overall the competition is a very high standard one. A total of eight athletes still have a chance to score 8400 points in the competition. In recent years 8400 points have been reached by four athletes in Athens 2004 and Osaka 2007 so this competition might turn out to be the best ever measuring the depth in the field.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
