European Cup Combined Events Day 1 wrap: Contest wide open at half-way stage
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| Ukraianian Oleksiy Kasyanov took a slender lead in the men's Decathlon at the end of Day One of the European Cup Combined Events Super League in Szczecin, Poland, on Saturday. |
The overnight leader of the Decathlon is Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine, 112 points ahead of Russia's Aleksey Pogorelov and 119 points ahead of the Olympic runner-up Andrei Krauchanka. The Ukrainian's position is by no means assured, as he is not renowned for strong second-day performances.
Kasyanov took the lead from the very first event. His 10.63 was by far the fastest 100 metres performance of the day, over 2/10th of a second faster than the nearest contender. He then cleared 7.59m in the Long Jump, the second longest jump of the competition, to extend his lead to nearly 100 points. Aleksandr Pogorelov, with the longest jump of the day at 7.65, moved into second place.
The Ukrainian and the Russian continued their battle for the top position for the remainder of the day. After Pogorelov proved the strongest shot putter in the field, reaching out to 15.99, Kasyanov's lead was reduced to 30 points. Pogorelov then proceeded to clear 2.04 in the High Jump, a height bettered only by Krauchanka's 2.10 and Aleksey Drozdov's 2.07. With this performance, Pogorelov assumed the lead, 25 points ahead of Kasyanov and 87 points ahead of Drozdov, with Krauchanka back in fourth.
In the 400 metres, Kasyanov once again proved he is one of the fastest decathletes on the track with a performance of 48.34. Krauchanka was not far behind with 48.82, while the Russians struggled. Pogorelov took 51.29 seconds to complete the distance, and Drozdov was only 0.3 seconds faster. This gave the Ukrainian a big lead at the end of the day, but his score of 4360 points is 101 points down on his first-day total when he set his personal best. Pogorelov, at 57 points behind his best at this point, looks poised to get back at Kasyanov on Sunday. So is Krauchanka, who despite a relatively sub-par performance on the first day of his first decathlon of the year is capable of catching up with the two leaders.
Directly behind the top three are two other strong men, the Russian Aleksey Drozdov and Estonian Andres Raja. Vasiliy Kharlamov of Russia, currently in seventh, is over 200 points up on his personal best pace and looks capable of a score well in excess of 8000 points. Romain Barras, despite finishing Saturday's events in seventh place, over 300 points behind the leader, remains a danger as the Frenchman is known as a second-day specialist. The same is true of Aleksandr Parkhomenka, who is at fourteenth place at halfway stage, but is considered much stronger in the remaining five events.
In the team event, Ukraine were the leader after one event, followed by Estonia, but the Russians asserted themselves at the top after the Long Jump and remained dominant for the remainder of the day. Their lead stretched to over 200 points after three events and 400 points after four. It was only in the final event of the day that their competition was able to make inroads into that lead, but in the end, the Russian team ended day one 275 points ahead of Belarus, with Ukraine another 104 points behind. Even so, the win is not a foregone conclusion, as the Belorussian team as a whole appears to have a stronger second day of competition.
Melnychenko leads in Heptathlon
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| Hanna Melnychenko of Ukraine got off to a strong start in the women's Heptathlon. |
After the first event of the day, the 100 metre hurdles race, Briton Phyllis Agbo jumped to lead thanks to a personal best of 13.49. Right behind her, however, was one of the pre-event favourites, Hanna Melnychenko with a time of 13.51.
But Agbo's lead was short-lived, as soon as Remona Fransen of the Netherlands and Melnychenko cleared 1.81 in High Jump, it was clear the Ukrainian would take the lead. Both women managed to clear 1.84 as well - the Dutchwoman on her first attempt, the Ukrainian on her third - which meant Melnychenko's lead grew to 126 points, with Frensen now second and Poland's Kamila Chudzik, the woman with the highest personal best score of the field, third after clearing 1.75.
Melnychenko's shot put of 13.12 might not have been much to brag about, but it was enough to keep her in the lead. Chudzik, however, had an excellent attempt in the first round, reaching out to a new outdoor personal best of 14.84 and moving within reach. The gap between them after three events was reduced to 16 points.
Russian Svetlana Ladokhina, with the best Shot Put throw of the day at 15.55, moved into third place. Karolina Tyminska, as usual well down the field after two events, started to put herself into contention by putting 13.91 and gained five positions to move into sixth at this point.
In the 200 metres race, Tyminska produced the fastest personal best of the field. Even after coming fresh off an injury layoff, was much too strong for her rivals. Her 23.86 was the fastest of the day by over half a second and put her in third position at the end of the day with 3637 points.
Melnychenko ran strongly to finish second in 24.40 and strengthened her overall lead. Kamila Chudzik won her heat, but running into headwind in a tight inner lane was only able to achieve 24.75. She finished the first day on 3706 points, 16 points ahead of her score en route to the personal best of 6494 points last year, but 50 points behind Melnychenko, who is just 17 points off her personal best pace.
In fourth place at the halfway point is the surprising Frenchwoman Yasmina Omrani, who looks set to improve her personal best score by a considerable margin. Russia's Svetlana Ladokhina is in fifth place. European Indoor medalist Antoinette Nana Djimou, sixth after day one, and another Russian Marina Goncharova also remain in contention for top placings, as both appear to have stronger performance in store on day two.
In the team event, Ukraine was dealt a severe blow before the start of the competition when their number two Lyudmyla Yosypenko was denied entry into Poland due to a visa problem. Their team thus reduced to three athletes, the Ukrainians nonetheless put up a good fight on Saturday.
The British team led after the first event, but for the remainder of the day, there was a close four-way battle for the top position. Thanks to their excellent high jumping, the Ukrainian team went into the lead after the second event, only to drop into third place after the Shot Put.
At that point, the Russians were the clear leaders ahead of France, but the order was completely reversed in the final event of the day. With three Poles winning their heats of the 200 metres, the host team surged from fourth into first place. With a slim lead of just 15 points over Ukraine, 51 over France and 61 over Russia, any of these teams could prevail in the end.
