World's 2019 report: combined events

Usually my report on global championships is split into two parts: track events and field plus combined events. This time I decided to separate the combined events from the rest because they were two really exceptional competitions which gripped the spectators interest and did not relinquish it till the last event.

The men's decathlon started as expected with Warner shining in the 100 m and Lepage just behind him. Mayer was third with a personal best, so everything looked fine. The first two athletes exchanged position at the long jump with Mayer registering a season's best. The latter threw a PB in the shot put and took control of the event. He kept it through the high jump, but there the first clouds did make their appearance. Mayer could manage a meagre 1.99 m and we discovered that he was jumping with a strapping over his ankle. So he was not in top condition as everybody expected. Still his performances were maintaining him in a 9000 points trajectory. After the 400 m the classification was D. Warner first with 4513 points, P. Lepage second with 4486, followed by K. Mayer, 4483, and L. Victor who had had an exemplary first day 4th with 4476 points. I. Shkurenyov and M. Uibo were 5th and 6th with 4340 and 4317 respectively, followed by K. Kazmirek at 4315. This classification was, in theory at least, including all potential medalists. But in view of what happened, it is interesting to have a look at the 11th place where the U18 and U20 world champion, 21 year old N. Kaul, had completed a well-balanced first day with 4146 points.

Kazmirek after having missed the third hurdle

The disasters started on the second day. From the outset Kazmirek found himself eliminated  by missing a hurdle in the 110 m. The event was won, as expected, by Warner with Mayer second. However something was amiss, since Mayer did not sprint after the last hurdle finishing on his momentum. Just after the race he made a sign to his coach that he was feeling pain in his thigh. He threw a decent 48.34 at the discus (in his second attempt, having fouled the first) and stopped there. Another disaster struck at this point with Victor fouling out in the discus, an event where he has a 55 m PB. (He was 4th after the hurdles and would have been at worst 2nd had he thrown over 50 m at the discus). Kaul threw a PB of 49.20 m in the discus and climbed to the 9th place. At that point in the decathlon  Mayer was first but the final disaster had yet to come. He presented himself at the pole vault and even opted for a very conservative 4.50 m initial height but it was clear that his injury did not allow him to jump at all. 

Mayer realising that he cannot jump

With Mayer gone the pole vault was the turning point of the decathlon. Uibo jumped a huge PB of 5.40 m, with Lepage at 5.20 and Kaul equaling his PB at 5.00 m. Warner had to content himself with 4.70 m. So after the 8th event Lepage was leading with 7097 points, with Shkurenyov second (he had jumped 5.20 m), 7095 points, while Warner and Uibo were sharing the 3rd place with 7073 points. In the meantime Kaul had progressed to the 6th place with 6822 points. He was not going to stay at this position for long. 

That's where we knew that Kaul would win the decathlon

As he is an excellent javelin thrower and moreover very good at the 1500 m there was no doubt that he was going to win. The question was rather whether Shkurenyov and Lepage were going to obtain a medal. It turned out that this was not to be. Kaul threw a humongous 79.05 m in the javelin, while Uibo and Warner had throws around 63 m. Shkurenyov and Lepage with 59 and 57 m slipped out of the medal positions. At the 9th event we had Uibo first with 7869 points, Warner second with 7856 and Kaul third with 7850. 

That's where it was clear that Warner was not going to win

In the 1500 m Kaul flew towards the victory, with 4:15.70, with Uibo hanging on behind him and Warner making sure to arrive in front of Shkurenyov and Lepage. The final classification was Kaul 8691 points, Uibo 8604, both a personal best with Warner third and 8529 points. Shkurenyov did beat Lepage for the 4th place, 8494 to 8445, and J. Oiglane was 6th with 8297 points.

At the arrival of the 1500 m: Kaul is in the centre

Had anybody asked my medal prediction after the first day I would have given Mayer, Victor and Warner in that order, with around 8800, 8600 and 8500 points respectively. It turned out that things were quite different. Although I was sad for Mayer, who is still in my eyes the second best decathlete of all times  (J. Thorpe is and will always be number one), and also for Victor, in particular after his great first day, this decathlon kept us in suspense till the end. Kaul is the name to follow in the future, provided he improves his basic speed. 

A great photo of the Uibo's, both silver medalists

The women's heptathlon was viewed as a duel between Thiam and Johnson-Thompson. It turned out that it was not a real duel after alll. Things started rather tame with the 100 m hurdles which saw J-T registering a personal best with 13.09 and Thiam a season best with 13.36. The event was won by K. Williams with an impressive 12.58 (which would have given her a place in the final of the individual event). It also saw the elimination of I. Dadic, one of the contenders for a medal, who injured herself early in the race. The bad news for Thiam appeared in the high jump. She could only manage 1.95 m a height cleared also by J-T. But the worse thing is that she gave an impression of heaviness. She was far from the flying Thiam I had watched in Talence where she had cleared 2.02 m. The situation for Thiam improved temporarily at the shot put where she threw 15.22 m taking the control of the event with 3116 points. Johnson-Thompson was not far behind, with 3067 points, having thrown a PB of 13.86 m. She went on to register a season best of 23.08 in the 200 m, while Thiam could manage only 24.60. At the end of the first day J-T was first with 4138 points while Thiam was almost 100 points behind with 4042. The fight for the third place was on with four athletes (K. Williams, E. Bougard, A. Kunz and V. Preiner) separated by just 34 points.

Thiam and Johnson-Thompson

On the morning of the second day I was having a coffee with my friend K. Tsagkarakis and we were discussing the heptathlon. We ended by betting, himself for the victory of Thiam and myself for Johnson-Thompson. The very first event confirmed my intuition. Thiam, who had jumped 6.86 m just a month before, could only manage 6.40 m. Meanwhile J-T flew to 6.77 m and consolidated her position. Williams was still 3rd after the long jump but Preiner had come within 9 points from her. Everybody was expecting something exceptional from Thiam in the javelin. I was less optimistic having followed her in Talence. I knew that she had an elbow problem and she was far from her usual performances. She could only manage 48 meters while J-T registered again a PB with 43.93 m.The event saw 5 athletes over 50 m: Ruckhstuhl 55.35 m, Vetter 54.17 m, Oosterwegel 54.01 m, Voronina 5160 m and Broersen 50.41 m. It is impressive that all three dutch "wondermeisjes" threw beyond 50 m. And in fact, E. Oosterwegel, the new member of the team was the only one among the heptathletes throwing in perfect style of a specialist javelin thrower. 

Oosterwegel throwing the javelin

After the 6th event the two major medals were decided and Preiner was occupying the third position. Still only 77 points were separating the third from the seventh so nothing was decided yet for the bronze. Johnson-Thompson went on to win the 800m, with panache, and her 2:07.26 PB allowed her to break the UK record with a total of 6981 points. 

Johnson-Thompson has just won the heptathlon

Thiam was second with 6677 points, her worse performance since 2015. Preiner finished just behind J-T in the 800 m beating Bougard with almost 100 points for the bronze medal (6560 to 6470). Williams was 5th with 6415, with the two dutch heptathletes Broersen and Oosterwegel obtaining the two next positions with 6392 and 6250 points. Curiously A. Vetter did not present herself at the final event and thus was not classified. Unfortunately she seems far from the shape which allowed her to win European gold in 2016 and World bronze in 2017. Among the newcomers the names to watch are K. Williams, who must seriously improve her shot put, E. Oosterwegel, who must improve her speed, and O. Ahouanwanou (she was 8th with a NR for Benin of 6210 points) who must improve her track events. 

The heptathletes at the end of two efforts

(but why is Broersen on the wheelchair?)

And I found the fact that both combined events were held in the same time a great idea. (On the other hand having all events in one long afternoon-evening should have been taxing for the athletes, which adds even more value to their performances).