Men’s Review – Day 2 / Morning Session

DOHA, March 13, 2010 – Combined Events
Heptathlon 60m Hurdles
Trey Hardee was the only heptathlete to run below eight seconds in the 60m Hurdles. With a time of 7.79 the World outdoor champion moved up from fifth to second, 46 points behind leader Bryan Clay.

“I am quite satisfied. I knew I was the one with the best SB here. There are still two events left” the 26-year-old US athlete said

Olympic Champion Clay was responsible for a false start and that seemed to tie his shoes on the blocks at second call as his reaction time (0.213) was similar to a 1500m runner. Clay who ran a PB 6.71 earlier this year had to settle with an 8.00 finish which gave him 982 points and a total score of 4485 points after five events.

“The false start definitely had an impact. I was one of the last guys out of the blocks” Clay admitted. 

60 m hurdles is not Aleksey Drozdov’s favourite event but he at least managed to run, 8.34, close to his season best (8.32) although he didn’t avoid seventh place. The result moved him back to fourth place with 4446 points, 85 behind Clay.

Oleksiy Kasyanov was the only one who set a SB, 8.01, in the race and with that result he moved ahead of Drozdov by 10 points.

Two times World Indoor Champion, Roman Sebrle lost a place after an  8.30 run, With a total of 4373 points the Czech lies fifth ahead of Andrei Krauchanka (4359 p.) and Cuban Leonel Suarez (4.156 p.) who seems to be out of form.

Heptathlon Pole Vault
Nobody sailed over 5.10m in the Pole Vault and thus the event didn’t actually caused any notable changes to the heptathlon tables with only one event (1000m) to go.

Both USA athletes Bryan Clay and Trey Hardee cleared 5.00 although Clay chose the hard way to reach the height as he earlier failed twice in 4.70 and 4.80 before eventually made a valid effort.

Hardy tried successfully in 4.80 but had to use all three attempts in order to clear 5.00. But as you already know in combined events only height matters.

After Pole Vault the gap between them remained at 46 points (5441 to 5395) and their personal bests in 1000m are quite similar.

Andrei Krauchanka cleared also 5.00 and gained two places going from sixth to fourth with a total of 5.269.

The Belorussian Olympic silver medallist refreshed his chances of winning a medal, especially after Aleksey Drozdov didn’t jump higher than 4.90. Drozdov’s total was raised to 5326 and his main interest in the last event will be to defend his place after  his chances of winning the event faded away,