The husband and wife duo of Oleksiy Kasyanov and world champion Hanna Kasyanova will spearhead Ukraine’s bid for glory at the European Cup of Combined Events Super League in Aubagne next weekend.
As France look to regain the title as the hosts, they will face tough opposition from their seven rivals, and Ukraine have named a team which will be among those bidding to take the crown in this competition where all decathlon and heptathlon points are combined to create a total team score.
Kasyanova - former Melnychenko - won heptathlon gold at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow in 2013 with a personal best score of 6586 as she beat Canada’s Brianne Theissen-Eaton, with 6530, and Dafne Schippers, of the Netherlands, with 6477.
Earlier that year she had won bronze in the pentathlon at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg and this outdoor season has shown her taste for success with victory at the TNT Express meeting in Kladno a fortnight ago with 6277 points.
Overnight in that event, Oleksiy had led the decathlon but had to withdraw with a back injury.
The strength of Ukraine’s women team is shown with Kasyanova joined by Alina Fyodorova, the world indoor pentathlon bronze medallist, Anastasiya Mokhnyuk, who was third in the heptathlon at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Tampere in 2013, and Inna Synytsya with Rimma Hordiyenko in reserve.
Mokhnyuk is one spot above Kasyanova in the European Athletics rankings - they are 10th and 11th respectively - after scoring 6331 points when she was 12th in Götzis at the end of last month.
Along with Kasyanov, the men’s quartet is Vasyl Ivanytskyy, Serhiy Yarokhovych and Oleksandr Palamarchuk with Artur Suyunov in reserve.
A year ago in Torun, Russia were crowned overall Super League champions as the Netherlands won the individual events.
In the team competition, Russia won the Cup with 41,159 from the Netherlands with 41,048 and France, the 2013 champions, with 40,761.
Eelco Sintnicolaas was crowned decathlon champion with 8156 points and Nadine Broersen took the heptathlon with 6539 before going on to win silver at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich the next month.
France, Ukraine, Russia, the Netherlands, Belarus, Estonia, Great Britain, Czech Republic and Ukraine make up the eight teams in the Super League.
The First and Second Leagues are taking place at the same time in Inowroclaw, Poland.