From left: Crystiane Barroso, Tamara de Sousa and Noor Vidts of Belgium in the Multistars 200m (© organisers)
Jefferson Santos and Tamara De Sousa claimed the overnight lead for Brazil in both the decathlon and heptathlon after the first day of the 30th edition of the Multistars in Florence, the Italian leg of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
Santos leads the decathlon by just 11 points over Italian Simone Cairoli with 4022 while De Sousa leads the heptathlon with 3597, 39 ahead of Colombia’s Erelis Aguilar.
Cairoli, the Italian decathlon champion, won the men’s 100m in 11.13 (-1.5 m/s) edging world junior silver medallist Maksim Andraloits from Belarus by 0.01.
Rafal Abramowski from Poland followed up his 11.26 in the 100m with a lifetime best leap of 7.52m in the long jump which moved him into the lead with 1744 points, ahead of Cairoli, who collected 1677 after jumping 7.13m.
In the shot put, Abramowski produced a best release of 13.38m to consolidate his lead with 2434 points, with Roman Gastaldi of Argentina moving up to second after a 13.84m effort with 2368.
Santos, who was sixth after clocking 11.47 in the 100m, a 7.20m leap in the long jump and 13.53m in the shot put, won the high jump at 2.10m --the third best performance in the the history of the Multistars-- to take over the lead with 3217 points. Gastaldi cleared 2.01m to remain in second with 3181. Abramowski cleared 1.92m to sit in third with 3165, nine points ahead of Cairoli, who jumped 2.01m.
Cairoli then notched his second win of the day after clocking 49.14 in the 400m to move up to second overall with 4011, just 11 points behind Santos, who ran 50.21. Abramowski clocked 51.28 to end the first day in third with 3922.
Gael Querin of France, who is expected to have a strong second day, is currently in tenth place with 3701.
South Americans strong - heptathlon
The heptathlon opened with Allison Reaser of the USA and 18-year-old Celeste Mucci from Australia sharing the lead with 1043 points after running a virtual dead heat in the 100m hurdles, clocking 13.55 in the fifth heat.
Morgan Lake from Great Britain bounced back from a sluggish 14.97 (-2.3) in the opening event with a 1.90m clearance in the high jump before missing three attempts at 1.93m. Notably the 2014 world junior high jump and heptathlon champion produced the first 1.90m mark at the Multistars since 2007 when Jessica Ennis set the meeting record of 1.95m when the event was held in Desenzano del Garda. Mucci cleared 1.75m to take the overall lead with 1959, just four points over Marthe Koala of Burkina Faso, the 2014 African champion, and seven ahead of Lake. In a close contest, just 23 points separated the first five women.
Yana Maksimava, fifth after the first two events with 1936 after opening with 14.51 in the hurdles and 1.84m in the high jump, finished second in the shot put with 14.16m to move into the lead with 2741. Brazil's de Sousa won the shot put with 14.48m to move from sixth to second with 2722 points. Koala was third with 2658 after her best release to 12.63m, 27 ahead of Mucci. Lake, who didn't produce a valid effort, was eliminated from contention.
De Sousa clocked 25.13 in the 200m to move into the overnight lead with 3597 points. Propelled by her 24.32 dash, the fastest on the day, Colombia's Aguilar moved into second with 3558. Koala is third after four events with 3534.
Czech decathlon legend Tomas Dvorak is attending the competition as the coach of his twin daughters, Katerina and Barbora Dvorakova, who were born in 1997, the year he won the the first of his three world titles. Dvorak began his international career competing in the 1992 edition of the Multistars. Katerina is currently in 16th place with 3176 points, just one ahead of her sister.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
