29th June 2008 07:12
Kravchenko gained 8585 points, not too far from his personal best of 8617 (Götzis 2007), but certainly a BWP (was 8504 of Dmitriy Karpov in Götzis). Melnychenko added 163 to her personal best from last year and won with a score of 6306 points. She had p.b.'s on the hurdles, shot put, 200m, javelin and 800m.
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| Mens winner Andrei Kravchenko (BLR) Photo by Erik van Leeuwen |
Men
In a sunny Fanny Blankers-Koen stadium Kravchenko started the second day of the decathlon like he finished the first day: by winninganother event. Thre leader in the competition was by far de fastest men over de hurdles: 14,17 (+0,4 m/s). Andres Raja and Ingmar Vos, both also in ‘podium-position' also won their heats. The man from Spain in 14,39 (0,0) and the home-favourite in 14,90 (+0,9).
In the discus the strond men from Belarus took over the lead: Aliaksandr Parkhom won with a distance of 46,10, followed by Mikalai Shubianok (45,34). Raja and Vos had some poor distances and Vos fell back. Romain Barras had a fine throw of 44,18 and was third now.
The pole vault brought another win for Kravchenko, who was the only athlete left at 5,20. Aleksandr Kislov jumped over the bar at 5,10 in his third attempt and decided to concentrate at the javelin. Pelle Rietveld (NED) had a p.b. with 5,00.
Parkhomenko was - even as in shot put and discus - by far the best thrower with the javelin in the field. After two throws of 68 metres he had a 69,67 in the final round. Ludo van der Plaat, who usually throws over 70 metres, was a bit injured and couldn't do better than 65,31 to become second. In the last round however his countryman Pelle Rietveld reached a p.b. of 66,83 to replace him. Both scored a good bunch of points for the Netherlands, who went up to the second position. Kravchenko also waited for the last round for his best throw: he had a 64,09.
In the 1500 metres tried to escape from the zeventh position - with Belgium finishing last because only two athletes made it till the ninth event. Alvero Contreras lead Oscar Gonzalez and David Gomez to some good performances, but it was not enough to beat Poland. The fastest man in the field was however Mikhael Logvinenko (RUS), winning in 4.27,86.
In the team's competition Belarus gained 24160 point, followed bij the Netherlands (23367) and France (23268). Spain and Belgium will step down to the first league next year.
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| Ukrainian Anna Melnychenko Photo by Erik van Leeuwen |
Women
Three Russian women were doing all they could in the 800 metres to attack the leading team of Ukraine. But overall-winner Anna Melnychenko and her competriots hung on till the finish to defend t