World champions Hardee and Ennis set world season leads in Götzis – IAAF Combined Events Challenge

Götzis, Austria – World seasonal best scores by reigning IAAF World Champions Trey Hardee and Jessica Ennis highlighted the 37th edition of the Hypo Meeting in Götzis, the second individual permit meeting leg of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.

Hardee, second in Götzis 2009, added his name to the prestigious list of winners of the famous Austrian meeting by taking the honours with 8689 points to beat Cuban World silver medallist Leonel Suarez (8440 points) and Mikk Pahapill from Estonia (8398 points).

Jessica Ennis won the Hypo Meeting in Götzis for the second time in her career with the new world seasonal best of 6790 points beating Tatyana Chernova (6539 points) and European Indoor champion Antoinette Nana Djimou (6409 points).

Men – Decathlon  

Trey Hardee picked up where he left off at the end of the first day with a fast 13.73, another strong performance in the 110 metres Hurdles which opened the second day of competitions in the Mosle Stadium in Götzis. The reigning World champion from Berlin 2009 increased his gap on Ukrainian Oleksiy Kasyanov (14.26 in the 110 metres hurdles) to 332 points (5563 to 5231 points). Rico Freimuth produced the major upset by climbing from fifth into third overall place with 5132 points after clocking 14.05. Yordanis Garcia, who led the world seasonal list with 8397 points set in Havana this spring, moved up into fourth place 50 points behind Freimuth.

The Discus Throw did not see any changes to the top-three in the overall ranking. Kasyanov (46.94m) slightly reduced his gap on Hardee to 296 points (6334 to 6038 points). Freimuth threw the discus to 46.25 m. and kept the third overall place with 5926 points. Estonia’s former European Indoor champion Mikk Pahapill won the event with 48.79 m (845 points) and climbed into fourth place with 5903 points overtaking Cubans Leonel Suarez (5823 points) and Yordanis Garcia (5818 points).

In the Pole Vault, Hardee needed two attempts to clear 4.76m (his opening height) and 4.96 before clearing 5.06 at the third time of asking and increased his lead over Kasyanov to 388 points (7263 to 6875 points). Eelco Sintnicolaas, who was eleventh after the Discus,  predictably won the Pole Vault with 5.36 (1023 points) and went into fourth place with 6778 points, 55 points off Pahapill who kept the third place with 6832 points after his 5.06.

World silver medallist Leonel Suarez was in the spotlight in the javelin throw where he set an impressive meeting record of  75.49 m. (973 points) to take overall third place with 7664 points, 50 points behind Pahapill. Germany's 2008 World Junior champion Jan Felix Knobel also produced a remarkable performance by producing a massive PB of 72.99 (935 points) to take fourth place with 7629 points. Hardee threw the Javelin to 63.33m. to lead with 8051 points ahead of Pahapill who improved his PB to 69.53 m (882 points) to move up into second place with 7714 points, 337 points behind Hardee.  

With a such gap over the second placer Hardee’s win was never under threat and for the US decathlon star the final time of 4:46.88 in the 1500 metres was enough to cap a nearly perfect week-end with 8689 points.

Suarez completed his catch-up race by clocking 4:25.33 to finish runner-up with 8440 points. Mikk Pahapill (4:39.41 in the 1500 metres) scored his new PB with 8398 points to hold off Sintnicolaas whose strong 4:22.29 earned him the fourth place with 8304 points. In a competition where eleven men went over the 8000 points barrier, Jan Felix Knobel from Germany came to the fore as a potential star of the future finishing fifth with a new PB of 8288 points ahead of Oleksiy Kasyanov (8251 points) and German Rico Freimuth (8158 points).

“It was my first Decathlon in almost two years and my first test before Daegu. I am going fast but technically I need more work. Today was not perfect but overall I achieved a good score. Conditions were great and the crowd were fantastic”, said Hardee.

Women – Heptathlon

The Heptathlon’s Long Jump was highlighted by a superb leap to 6.82m. in the third attempt by Russian Olympic bronze medallist Tatyana Chernova who climbed into overall second place with 4820 points behind World champion and overnight leader who kept a solid gap of 242 points following her second place in the Long Jump with 6.37 in the second attempt. Ennis led with a total of 5062 points to Chernova’s 4820 points. European Indoor champion Antoinette Nana Djimou took third place in the overall ranking with 4690 points after her best leap to 6.29 m to overhaul overnight second placer Jessica Zelinka (4674 points)- German World silver medallist Jennifer Oeser (4662 points) and overnight third placer Dafne Schippers from Netherlands (4657 points) completed the top six.