YEAR-ENDER: Multis

ANYTHING the whimsical Lennart Julin and his cohort Mirko Jalava put their names/minds to is definitely worth reading and usually the definitive word on the matter. kk

APPEARS COURTESY OF THE IAAF

2005 - End of Year Reviews - COMBINED EVENTS
Friday 23 December 2005
Statisticians A. Lennart Julin (SWE) and Mirko Jalava (FIN) begin the first of their end of season event category reviews covering all Athletics disciplines, highlighting the best performances which have taken place across our sport in 2005, with the Combined Events. Part One of eight.

MEN – Combined Events

Decathlon
In the men’s Decathlon, the World record holder and reigning Olympic champion Roman Sebrle (CZE), was not near his best performances this summer. Sebrle started with a win in Götzis in May with a total score of 8534 points, but that was almost 500 points below his World record (9026) score which had been set in the same town four years earlier, and 350 points less than his Olympic gold score of 8893 last season.

Roman Sebrle and Bryan Clay after the men’s Decathlon
(Getty Images)

This ‘below-par’ Sebrle gave the Athens Olympic silver medallist Bryan Clay (USA) a brighter medal in the World Championships in Helsinki. Clay scored his personal best of 8820 in Athens (2004) and scored 8506 to win the US Championships before Helsinki. In the World Championships, Sebrle could only manage to deal with Clay during Day One, as the American scored big points in throwing events the following day which he could not match. Clay threw a massive 53.68m Discus and then recorded his first ever 70m throw in the Javelin with his throw being measured at 72.00m. Clay won the competition comfortably with his season’s best of 8732 ahead of Sebrle’s 8521 for the second successive World Championships silver medal. Clay had not finished his two earlier World Championships Decathlons in Edmonton and Saint-Denis.

Attila Zsivoczky (HUN) scored his season’s best of 8480 in Götzis behind Sebrle before finishing in the bronze medal spot in Helsinki. Kristjan Rahnu (EST) scored his personal best of 8526 winning the World Combined Events Challenge meet in Arles in June, but could not finish better than sixth in Helsinki. Two better national records were broken during the season with Qi Haifeng recording the Chinese one of 8290 in Götzis and Maurice Smith setting the Jamaican record to 8232 in San Juan in May.

Roman Sebrle was the winner of the 2005 IAAF World Combined Events Challenge.

Only 19 athletes scored more than 8000 points during the 2005 season, while in 2004 there were 33, and 22 in 2003. United States is the best country with 19 athletes in the world’s top-100, France is second with nine and Germany third with eight.

Men’s Decathlon - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 12 Dec 2005
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

  1. Roman ŠEBRLE 74 CZE 1335
  2. Attila ZSIVOCZKY 77 HUN 1283
  3. Bryan CLAY 80 USA 1274
  4. Aleksandr POGORELOV 80 RUS 1269
  5. Kristjan RAHNU 79 EST 1244
  6. André NIKLAUS 81 GER 1237
  7. Romain BARRAS 80 FRA 1206
  8. Aleksey DROZDOV 83 RUS 1192

WOMEN – Combined Events

Heptathlon
2005 meant that Carolina Klüft (SWE) at the mere age of 22 completed one full Olympic circle as the leading Heptathlete in the world. However, this year Klüft found herself under some kind of pressure as 1999 World Champion Eunice Barber (FRA) finally got her persistent injury problems under control to have probably her best season ever.

That in combination with Klüft spraining the ankle of her take-off foot the day before the start in Helsinki made the World Championships Heptathlon an extremely exciting dual that was very much alive from the start of the hurdles to the finishing straight of the 800m. But in the end it was once more Klüft that prevailed thanks to that extraordinary competitive drive which made her respond to the pressure with new PB’s in both the Shot Put and the 800m.

Anyone just looking at the winning scores - 7001 in Paris 2003, 6952 in Athens 2004 and 6887 now - might think that Klüft has regressed. But discounting the High Jump - where she very clearly lost about a decimetre due to the ankle injury - she actually had her highest point score this time: 5884 vs 5843 in Paris and 5833 in Athens!

At the moment a healthy Barber seems to be the only one capable of truly challenging Klüft at the 6800-7000 level as the next group of athletes - almost all of them also considerably older than Klüft - follow some 500 points below. Perhaps the biggest “threat” comes from Michelle Perry if she could transfer her dramatic 2005 improvement in the Hurdles to the other events. But it should be remembered that Perry is already 25 and that she has a long way to go from her current PB of 6126.

Carolina Klüft was the winner of the 2005 IAAF World Combined Events Challenge.

After experiencing falling standards there seems to be a slight trend of improvement in the last couple of years. As the Heptathlon traditionally has been an event strongly correlated to the Olympic cycle it is also a positive sign that 2005 more or less matched 2004 if one looks at the 10th, 25th and 50th mark in the World lists.

Women’s Heptathlon - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 12 Dec 2005
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

  1. Carolina KLÜFT 83 SWE 1421
  2. Eunice BARBER 74 FRA 1376
  3. Kelly SOTHERTON 76 GBR 1300
  4. Margaret SIMPSON 81 GHA 1260
  5. Austra SKUJYTÉ 79 LTU 1248
  6. Karin RUCKSTUHL 80 NED 1232
  7. Nataliya DOBRYNSKA 82 UKR 1228
  8. Marie COLLONVILLÉ 73 FRA 1218

A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava for the IAAF