Decastar hosts final leg of Combined Events Challenge | 12.09.2012

Tatyana Chernova of Russia.

The 36th edition of the Decastar combined events meeting, which takes place this weekend in Talence, France, will feature a strong women’s heptathlon field in what is the final leg of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.

Among the competitors will be Olympic silver medallist Lilli Schwarzkopf of Germany and Olympic bronze medallist Tatyana Chernova of Russia, who will be looking to defend her 2010 and 2011 titles.

Other Olympic top ten athletes competing are Lyudmyla Yosypenko of Ukraine (fourth in London), Austra Skujyte of Lithuania (fifth), European champion Antoinette Nana Djimou of France (sixth), Jessica Zelinka of Canada (seventh) and Hanna Melnychenko of Ukraine (tenth).

Javelin Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Barbora Spotakova is also entered, and should smash the top javelin mark within heptathlon competition of 56.96m, set by Sofia Ifantidou of Greece in the Olympics.

In the men’s decathlon, Olympic fourth placed Hans Van Alphen of Belgium will be defending his title, while Ukrainian Oleksiy Kasyanov, who finished seventh in the Games and won the Talence meet in 2009, will also compete.

Other athletes competing include Eelco Sintnicolaas of the Netherlands (eleventh in the Games), Brent Nedwick of New Zealand (twelfth), Yordanis Garcia of Cuba (fourteenth) and Kevin Mayer of France (fifteenth).

In the IAAF Challenge ranking Pascal Behrenbruch leads with a score of 25,117 points, Van Alphen needing a score equal to or above 8152 points to surpass him.

In the women’s rankings Yosypenko leads with 19,506 and can still improve her score (her third best score is 6,387).

If Yosypenko doesn’t improve, Chernova will need 6,105 points to pass her, while the third scores of Schwarzkopf, Skujyte and Zelinka will also determine the final rankings and distribution of prize money.

IAAF Vice-President Sergey Bubka visited his native city of Donetsk to supervise preparations for the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships.

During the two-day visit, Bubka inspected the main venue for the future championships, the RSK Olympiysky, where a brand new running track is being installed.

He also looked around the Kirovets arena, which will be the training site for the championships, as well as the warm-up venue and the throwing field.

Bubka, who is also the president of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee, met the local authorities’ representatives to discuss preparations for what will be the country’s first ever IAAF event: Preparations for the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships are going well.

“It is key that these preparations, both in terms of team logistics and venue construction, stay on schedule. The organising committee has been able to perform well thanks to the full support of government at both national and local level,” said Bubka.

“I’m positive that the Championships will be held to the world’s highest standard.”