Last year&rsquo;s winners, Germany&rsquo;s Kai Kazmirek and Canada&rsquo;s Brianne Theisen-Eaton, will return to the famous Mosle Stadium to defend their titles at the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis, part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Saturday and Sunday (28-29).
Kazmirek and last year&rsquo;s world championships decathlon bronze medallist Rico Freimuth will lead a strong German contingent to the famous Mosle Stadium, which also features 2015 European indoor championships heptathlon silver medallist Arthur Abele and 2008 world junior champion Jan Felix Knobel.
Germany dominated the decarthlon at the 2015 edition, filling three of the top four places.
Kazmirek set what was then world-leading mark of 8462 points, just nine shy of his personal best set in 2014 when he finished second to Trey Hardee in Gotzis, before going on to finish sixth at the 2015 IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015.
Freimuth will compete for the sixth time in his career in Gotzis. Last year he finished fourth with with 8380 points, just 18 away from a place on the podium, and in Beijing&nbsp; he won the bronze medal with a personal best of 8561.
Gotzis is a special place for the Freimuth family, as his father Uwe won here in 1985 and 1988.
The German team will be also represented by 20-year-old Tim Novak, who finished third at both the 2013 European junior&nbsp; championships and 2014 world junior championships.
<h3>Warner aiming for second victory</h3>
Canada&rsquo;s 2015 world championships silver medallist Damian Warner will be looking to win at this meeting for the second time. In 2013, he scored 8307 points for victory in Gotzis and then went on to finish third at the world championships in Moscow.
Warner, whose national record is 8695 points from Beijing last August, could potentially threaten the Commonwealth record of 8847 set by Great Britain&rsquo;s Daley Thompson, when the latter won at the 1984 Olympics, if he can maintain his recent good form. He recently ran a wind-assisted 100m in 10.09, the 400m in a personal best of 46.54 and the 110m hurdles in 13.42.
South Africa&rsquo;s Willem Coertzen will be looking to improve his third place achieved last year when he broke the African record with 8398 points while Belgium&rsquo;s Hans Van Alphen will return to Gotzis four years after his outstanding win with his personal best of 8519.
Now 34, the Belgian went on to finish fourth at the London 2012 Olympic Games but has had to battle with injury problems since then.
Reigning world junior champion Jiri Sykora, from Czech Republic, will make his second appearance in Gotzis while others in the decathlon field include Cuba&rsquo;s 2005 world youth octathlon champion Yordani Garcia, France&rsquo;s 2014 European sillver medallist Kevin Mayer and the Netherlands&rsquo; 2015 European under 23 champion Pieter Braun.
Theisen Eaton returns to Gotzis after winning the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 pentathlon title in March.
She has won in Gotzis in 2013 and 2015. Last year, the Canadian broke her own national record heptathlete with a score of 6808 points here and went on to win her second consecutive world championships silver medal.
<h3>German challenge</h3>
Theisen-Eaton will renew her rivallry with Germany&rsquo;s Carolin Schafer, 2008 world junior and 2009 European junior champion, who finished second with a personal best with 6547 last year.
Claudia Rath, who finished second in the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge will compete for the no less than the seventh time in the Mosle Stadium. The German finished fourth at the 2013 world championships when she set her current personal best of 6462 points.
Two established stars of the German multi-events scene, Lilli Schwarzkopf and Jennifer Oeser, will also fight for a place on the plane to Rio.
Schwarzkopf won the 2012 Olympic silver medal with 6649 points but ruptured her Achilles tendon in Talence one month later. She made a remarkable comeback when she finished fifth at the 2014 European Championships.
Oeser won the world championships silver medal on home soil in Berlin in 2009 and took the bronze two years later in Daegu.
She came back last year from maternity leave and finished 10th in Beijing.
Laura Ikauniece-Admidina, from Latvia, should also be in contention for a place in the top three after wining the world championships bronze medal last summer with a personal best of 6516 points.
<h3>Can KJT win again?</h3>
Great Britain&rsquo;s Katarina Johnson-Thompson will return to the venue where she won her first big meeting in 2014 setting her personal best of 6682 points. She went on to win the 2015 European indoor pentathlon title with 5000 points, the second best score in history.
Great Britain will be also represented by 18-year-old reigning world junior heptathlon champion Morgan Lake.
The traditionally strong Dutch contingent will feature Nadine Visser and Anouk Vetter.
Visser, a training partner of Dafne Schippers, set her heptathlon best of 6487 points when she finished fifth in Gotzis last year, one place ahead of Vetter, who also set a career best with 6458.
Belgium&rsquo;s 2013 European junior champion Nafissitou Thiam will be looking to improve on her fifth place at the 2014 Hypo Meeting when she set a national record with 6508.
Ukraine&rsquo;s 2013 world champion Hanna Kasyanova will return to Gotzis, where she finished second in 2009, hoping to post a good score after several years of injury problems.
The star-studded field also features France&rsquo;s two-time European champion Antoinette Nana Djimou, USA&rsquo;s indoor pentathlon record holder Sharon Day Monroe as well as Lithuania&rsquo;s 2004 Olympic silver medallist and 2012 world Indoor championships pentathlon bronze medallist Austra Skujte and this year&rsquo;s Florence Multistars winner Vanessa Spinola, from Brazil
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

Last year’s winners, Germany’s Kai Kazmirek and Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton, will return to the famous Mosle Stadium to defend their titles at the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis, part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Saturday and Sunday (28-29).

Kazmirek and Theisen-Eaton out to defend their titles in Gotzis

Organisers of the Hypo Meeting have added a host of leading European combined events athletes to the list of confirmed names for IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Gotzis on 28-29 May.
Having finished fourth in 2014, third in 2015 and second in 2013, Nadine Broersen will be aiming for her first victory in the Austrian town. The Dutch heptathlete, who won the world indoor title in 2014, has a personal best of 6539 and has exceeded 6500 points in her two most recent Gotzis appearances.
Compatriots Nadine Visser and Anouk Vetter will also be in Gotzis. Visser took bronze medals in both the heptathlon and 100m hurdles at the IAAF World Junior Championships Oregon 2014, and then went on to improve her heptathlon PB to 6467 in Gotzis last year. Vetter also set a PB in Gotzis last year, finishing one place behind Visser with 6458.
Belgium&rsquo;s Nafissatou Thiam will also be returning to the site of her lifetime best. The European indoor silver medallist set a national record of 6508 when finishing fifth in Gotzis in 2014.
Ukraine&rsquo;s Hanna Kasyanova will be looking to recapture the kind of form that earned her the world title in 2013. The 33-year-old, who finished second in Gotzis in 2009, has battled injuries in recent seasons, but produced a score of 6277 last year.
Other additions to the heptathlon field include Czech record-holder Eliska Klucinova, two-time world indoor bronze medallist Alina Fodorova, 2007 world youth champion Katerina Cachova, 2013 European indoor silver medallist Yana Maksimava, 2011 European under-23 champion Grit Sadeiko and Swiss Olympian Ellen Sprunger.
Belgium&rsquo;s 2012 Hypo Meeting winner Hans van Alphen will also be returning to Gotzis. The 34-year-old set a national record of 8519 when he triumphed in Gotzis four years ago and then went on to finish fourth at the Olympics in London. He has battled with injuries since that season, but produced a solid 7876 in Gotzis last year.
World junior champion Jiri Sykora will be making his second Gotzis appearance, as will Belgium&rsquo;s Niels Pittomvils.
Others set to compete in the decathlon include European under-23 champion Pieter Braun of the Netherlands, 2013 European under-23 bronze medallist Adam Sebastian Helcelet and 2014 Hypo Meeting fourth-place finisher Pelle Rietveld.
Organisers for the IAAF

Organisers of the Hypo Meeting have added a host of leading European combined events athletes to the list of confirmed names for IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Gotzis on 28-29 May.

Broersen, Thiam and Van Alphen among latest additions to Gotzis fields

Belgian record-holders Hans van Alphen and Nafissatou Thiam will return to the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, the site of their PBs, to take on some of the best all-round athletes in the world at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting on 30-31 May.Van Alphen is a former winner in the Austrian city, having triumphed in 2012 with a national record of 8519. He went on to finish fourth at the Olympic Games later that year, but missed most of 2013 and 2014 through injury.Fellow Belgian decathlete Niels Pittomvils will be competing in Gotzis for the first time. The 22-year-old has a PB of exactly 8000.World junior champion Jiri Sykora will also be making his Hypo-Meeting debut. The 20-year-old Czech decathlete set a PB of 7927 in the senior decathlon last year.Following the withdrawal of Dominik Distelberger, who has had to undergo shoulder surgery, namesake Dominik Siedlaczek will represent the host nation. The Austrian&rsquo;s PB of 7430 was set in Gotzis 12 months ago.Thiam, the European indoor silver medallist, is the latest addition to the heptathlon field. The European bronze medallist has improved significantly over the past few years and has twice broken the Belgian record, doing so most recently in Gotzis last year with a score of 6508.Eliska Klucinova finished just one place behind Thiam at this year&rsquo;s European Indoor Championships, setting a Czech pentathlon record of 4687. She also holds the outdoor national heptathlon record with 6460. This will be her fifth appearance in Gotzis with her highest finish to date being eighth.There will also be two Austrian athletes in the heptathlon field. Ivona Dadic showed much promise as a junior, setting a PB of 5959 in Gotzis in 2012 and then coming with 24 points of that mark at the 2012 Olympics. Her last heptathlon was in 2013, so her appearance in Gotzis this year will be something of a comeback.Compatriot Verena Preiner will be making her Hypo-Meeting debut. Since finishing ninth at last year&rsquo;s IAAF World Junior Championships with a PB of 5530, the 20-year-old has showed much improved form during the 2015 indoor season.Organisers for the IAAF

Belgian record-holders Hans van Alphen and Nafissatou Thiam will return to the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, the site of their PBs, to take on some of the best all-round athletes in the world at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting on 30-31 May.

Van Alphen, Thiam and Sykora latest additions to Gotzis line-up

Two-time world champion Trey Hardee and world indoor champion Nadine Broersen have been added to the line-up for this year’s Hypo-Meeting, the 40th edition of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Gotzis, which this year will be held between 31 May and 1 June.It will be Hardee’s fourth appearance in Gotzis. The 30-year-old finished second in the Austrian city in 2009, just three months before winning his first world title. After failing to finish in Gotzis in 2010, he returned in 2011 to win with 8689, the second-best score of his life.But since taking the silver medal at the Olympics two years ago, Hardee has been hampered with niggling injury problems and failed to finish his two decathlons last year, at the US Championships and the IAAF World Championships.With no major championships to seek qualification for this season, and with the worst of his injuries now behind him, Hardee can focus on trying to win the overall title in the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.Another former Gotzis winner, Belgium’s Hans van Alphen, is also set to compete. The 32-year-old set a national record of 8519 when winning in Gotzis in 2012 and then went on to finish fourth at the Olympic Games later that year.With defending champion Damian Warner also in the field, it means the past three winners of the decathlon at the Hypo-Meeting will clash in Gotzis.Van Alphen’s team-mate Thomas Van der Plaetsen will also be in Gotzis. The 23-year-old is the World University Games champion and recently took the bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships with a national record of 6259.European indoor champion Eelco Sintnicolaas, who went to the top of the 2014 IAAF Combined Events Challenge standings with his 8161 victory in Florence last weekend, will also be in Gotzis, along with team-mates Pieter Braun, who smashed his PB in Florence with 7773, and Ingmar Vos.Nadine Broersen surprised many with her world-leading national record score of 4830 to win the world indoor title earlier this year. The 24-year-old, who finished second in Gotzis last year with a PB of 6345, will now look to translate her stunning indoor form to a big score in the heptathlon this summer.Her compatriot and namesake, Nadine Visser, will be making her Hypo-Meeting debut. The 19-year-old impressed during the indoor season with a 4268 score in the pentathlon, indicating that her 5774 heptathlon PB could be in for revision as she builds towards this year’s IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene.Another Dutchwoman, Anouk Vetter, will also be in the field. The 21-year-old was the surprise winner of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Florence last year, scoring a PB of 5872.Like fellow 19-year-old Visser, European junior champion Nafissatou Thiam will also be competing in Gotzis for the first time. The Belgian teenager set a senior record of 6298 last year while still a junior and looks set to improve on that mark this summer, having set indoor PBs this year in the 60m hurdles, high jump, long jump and shot.Thiam’s team-mate Marjolein Lindemans, who took the European junior bronze medal behind Thiam last year, is also on the start-list, along with USA’s Kiani Profit, winner of the 2013 Thorpe Cup with a PB of 6133.Jon Mulkeen and organisers for the IAAF

Two-time world champion Trey Hardee and world indoor champion Nadine Broersen have been added to the line-up for this year’s Hypo-Meeting, the 40th edition of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Gotzis, which this year will be held between 31 May and 1 June.

Hardee and Broersen among latest additions to Gotzis field

Despite the withdrawal of two-time world indoor champion Abubaker Kaki, the men’s 800m still remains one of the most interesting events to look forward to at the Flanders Indoor meeting, an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, in Gent on Sunday (9).Kaki recently told the organisers that he will miss the rest of the indoor season, meaning his show-down with two-time European indoor champion Adam Kszczot will not happen.But Kszczot, one of Poland’s top medal hopes for the IAAF World Indoor Championships next month, is still part of a fascinating race.His recent 1:45.42 win in Dusseldorf makes Kszczot the favourite to triumph in Gent, but Bahrain’s Abraham Rotich impressed with his 1:46.30 victory in Karlsruhe last week.Kenyan Olympian Anthony Chemut and 2010 world junior champion David Mutua, both sub-1:44 runners outdoors, are also expected to challenge.Strong 3000m field Four main contenders will be chasing the world-leading mark of 7:34.68 in the men’s 3000m. Isiah Koech won in Gent in 2011, while fellow Kenyan Paul Kipsiele Koech has fond memories of the stadium as it is where he set the world indoor 2000m steeplechase best in 2011.Albert Rop is fresh from an indoor PB of 7:39.24 in Dusseldorf, and world indoor 1500m champion Abdalaati Iguider will be making his 2014 indoor debut.In the 1500m, world junior silver medallist Hillary Ngetich from Kenya will be looking to bounce back after failing to finish the 3000m last week in Dusseldorf. He will be up against 2011 European indoor champion Manuel Olmedo and Morocco’s Zakaria Mazouzi.World steeplechase silver medallist Lidya Chepkurui had a baptism of fire on her indoor debut in Stockholm on Thursday as she was part of the race where Genzebe Dibaba set a world indoor record of 8:16.60. The Kenyan finished sixth in 8:55.21, but in Gent she will likely be among the favourites, along with African junior champion Haftamnesh Tesfay of Ethiopia. Maslak vs Santos over 300mThe rarely-run 300m provides an exciting clash between the Czech Republic’s European 400m champion Pavel Maslak and the Dominican Republic’s Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos.Santos, 20, finished second to Maslak in Stockholm on Thursday as Maslak tied his own Czech 400m record of 45.66 and Santos broke his country’s indoor mark with 45.89.The pair also hold national indoor records over 300m, Santos with his recent 33.27 and Maslak with his 32.58 from his victory in Gent last year ahead of local hero Kevin Borlee.The 60m features world leader Yunier Perez, the Cuban who is undefeated this year with wins in Valencia, Dusseldorf and Moscow. Perez equalled the Cuban record in the Russian capital with his world-leading time of 6.49. National record-holders Su Bingtian of China and Jaysuma Saidy Ndure of Norway, both with PBs of 6.55, will have their work cut out to prevent the Cuban from extending his winning streak.Billaud takes on local challengeTraditionally the Flanders Indoor Meeting provides the best Belgian athletes with the opportunity to compete against world-class fields. In the absence of the Borlee brothers, local hopes are this year carried by Eline Berings in the women’s 60m hurdles.Berings, the 2009 European indoor champion, celebrated her best ever season opener with 8.00 and 7.98 races in Gent and in Karlsruhe respectively. The local crowd will support Berings in her bid to beat Cindy Billaud from France who already has a 7.96 to her credit this year.The other Belgian Sara Aerts, Yvette Lewis from Panama and Austrian Beate Schrott will also be gunning for the victory in what’s expected to be a close race.Kenya’s 2008 Olympic 800m champion Pamela Jelimo failed to impress on her season debut in Moscow, clocking 2:11.29. Unless Jelimo suddenly rediscovers her best form, the victory in the women’s 800m in Gent will likely go to either European indoor 1500m silver medallist Isabel Macias or European under-23 cross-country champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.Belgian decathlon record-holder Hans Van Alphen will try to please the local crowd in a triathlon competition in which European indoor champion Eelco Sintnicolaas, world leader Oleksiy Kasyanov and European indoor silver medallist Kevin Mayer are the main contenders.Croatian Ana Simic leads the field in the women’s high jump, where she’ll face Ukraine’s European bronze medallist Olena Holosha and European junior heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam.In the women’s pole vault, 2009 world champion Anna Rogowska will face Switzerland’s Nicole Buchler, who recently improved her national record to 4.56m.Ivo Hendrix for the IAAF

Despite the withdrawal of two-time world indoor champion Abubaker Kaki, the men’s 800m still remains one of the most interesting events to look forward to at the Flanders Indoor meeting, an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, in Gent on Sunday (9).

Kszczot faces African challenge over 800m in Gent

The 16th edition of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge starts with in exactly a week and the first of 15 meetings which will decide this year’s men’s and women’s winners will be the famous Multistars meeting, which this year will be in the Italian city of Florence on 2-3 May.Click here to download the the <a href="http://dt9guucc6nuua.cloudfront.net/competitioninfo/2885bd44-6a75-4817-9c3f-02c07fe091fb.pdf">ENTRY LIST</a> for 2013 Multistars The Multistars meeting is one of five individual IAAF Permit meetings which are at the core of the Combined Events Challenge.Challenge points can also be accumulated at a number of area competitions, the US Championships, the Universiade (World Student Games), Mediterranean Games, Francophone Games and, of course, the IAAF World Championships in Moscow this coming August.The challenge rankings will be determined by the addition of the best three scores achieved by an athlete in any of the 15 competitions, and this determines who will get a share of more than USD $200,000 in prize money when the season ends in Talence, France, on the weekend of 14-15 September.The top eight athletes ranked in the men’s decathlon and women’s heptathlon will receive prize money with the winner getting the handsome reward of USD $30,000.The big question is who can dethrone Russia’s Tatyana Chernova after her victories in the challenge for the past three years? The 2011 world champion has been a model of season-long consistency since 2010 and will be bidding to become the second woman to win the challenge on four occasions, following Sweden’s Carolina Kluft who won from 2003-2006.Last year saw a new name emerge victorious in the men’s competition, Belgium’s Hans van Alphen. He has the chance to be the first man to retain his title since the Czech great Roman Sebrle won back-to-back challenges in 2004 and 2005, two of his four wins.However, it cannot be denied that all eyes will be on the Olympic champion and world record-holder Ashton Eaton.The US combined events exponent has committed to competing at the renowned Hypo-Meeting in the Austrian city of Gotzis on 25-26 May and he also has the US Championships and World Championships in his diary.Potentially, Eaton could attack the challenge record tally of 26,476 points set by Czech Republic’s Tomas Dvorak in 1999.Click&nbsp;<a href="http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-combined-events-challenge/calendar/2013">here</a> to view the 2013 calendar of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.IAAF

2013 IAAF Combined Events Challenge - One Week To Go

2013 IAAF Combined Events Challenge – one week to go

&nbsp;The 15th edition of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge saw Belgium’s Hans van Alphen and Russia’s Tatyana Chernova emerge as the overall winners for the all-rounders premiere series. Both received the US$30,000 first prize that was available for the winners of the Challenge. &nbsp;The Combined Events Challenge is an important competition as for the multi-event exponents as the possibilities to earn prize money in their event are very limited. &nbsp;Physically, the participation in a Decathlon or Heptathlon is for most elite athletes is usually &nbsp;limited to a maximum of three top level competitions &nbsp;a year. &nbsp;This year only 11 men and 14 women completed three competitions that counted for the IAAF Combined Events Challenge and were therefore eligible to be contenders for the overall prize money for the series. In total 215 athletes completed at least one &nbsp;Decathlon or Heptathlon that was in the Challenge.&nbsp;The series started in April with the African Championships in Bambous (MRI). Other continental championships counting for the IAAF Combined Events Challenge included: the NACAC Championships in Ottawa (CAN), the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, and the most important meeting of 2012, and the Olympic Games in London. &nbsp;Five international meetings were also part of the series: Desenzano (ITA), the Hypo-meeting in Götzis (AUT), Kladno (CZE), Ratingen (GER) and the season ending Talence (FRA).&nbsp; &nbsp;Van Alphen was the most prolific points scorer in his three Decathlon appearances in 2012. The 30-year-old athlete started with a win at the prestigious meeting in Götzis in a national record of 8,519 points, followed by an 8,447 points score at the Olympic Games, where he narrowly missed out on the podium, and he ended the season with a victory in Talence. &nbsp;He is a pupil of Wim Vandeven, who is the husband and coach of 2008 Olympic High Jump champion, Tia Hellebaut. His best result in the Combined Events Challenge before was sixth in 2007 and 2011. With Germany’s 2012 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Pascal Behrenbruch and Ukraine’s Oleksey Kasyanov&nbsp; finishing second and third, the 2012 Challenge podium was completed. &nbsp;In the Heptathlon, Olympic Games bronze medallist Chernova took the victory for the fourth consecutive year. This performance was earlier only achieved by Sweden’s Carolina Klüft who ruled supreme between 2003 and 2006. &nbsp;However, the struggle for second place was very close. Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Yosypenko had the edge with 19,520 points, only 10 points ahead of France’s 2012 European champion Antoinette Nana Djimou. This year was a very strong one for the women’s Heptathlon. The all-time top 20 list of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge also saw the entry of Lithuania’s Austra Skujyte, who finished fourth in the 2012 Challenge with 19,408 points. &nbsp;In the opening meet of the season at the African Championships, the Decathlon victory went to Kame Ali (MAD) with 7,409 points, ahead of Guillaume Thierry (MRI). As both athletes also competed in Desenzano and Kladno this year, the African pair ended among the top 12 in the final standings.&nbsp;In the first weekend of May, Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Karpov took the victory in the Multistar meeting in Desenzano where he totaled 8,172 points. The Asian champion eventually finished in fifth in the overall final standings. &nbsp;In Kladno, Karpov bettered his result from Desenzano by one point, while he totalled 7,926 points at the Olympic Games.The most prestigious combined events invitation meeting is traditionally held on the last weekend of May in the Austrian village of Götzis. Here the world top combined events athletes usually &nbsp;meet for the first time of the season. In the polls most mentioned names for victory that weekend started with S (Sintnicolaas, Sebrle and Suarez), but Van Alphen had other ideas. &nbsp;The Belgian had ended the previous season with a victory in Talence, where he improved his national record to 8,200 points, enough to guarantee him a ticket for the Olympics. Van Alphen was therefore quire relaxed when he arrived in Götzis and he opened with personal best performances in the first two events, enough to find himself at the top of the standings at the end of the first day. &nbsp;When Van Alphen started the second day with yet another personal best in the hurdles it became clear that he would fight very hard not relinquish his leading position. However., despite another personal best in the Pole Vault, he found himself back into third behind Sintnicolaas whose 5.36m was good enough to take the lead by 36 points. &nbsp;Van Alphen reduced the gap to only eight points before the final event in which he needed to defeat his Dutch opponent by four seconds to claim the win. At the end of the 1500m race Van Alphen was six seconds ahead of Sintnicolaas for an overall total of 8,519 points, while Sintnicolaas’ counter stopped at 8,506. For both athletes, there performance was a national record.&nbsp;Behrenbruch finished third in Götzis. One month later, he took the gold medal at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki with 8,556 points. This, together with his 8,126 points score in London, was enough to secure him the second position in the IAAF Challenge.For the US athletes, the only possibility to qualify for the Olympics is at the Trials. It was perfect timing for 24-year old Ashton Eaton who was in the shape of his life right when it mattered. In the first two events - 100m in 10.21 and 8.23m in the Long Jump - he produced all-time best performances in Decathlon. &nbsp;Despite awful weather conditions during the two days he continued to chase the World record of Roman Sebrle. At the start of the 400m Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic champion and still the owner of the all-time best performance in 400m Decathlon (45.68), looked to heaven and said: “Oh, Lord. Thank you,” knowing that it would sadly be impossible to break this mark now.&nbsp;At the start of the last event, Eaton knew that he needed 4:16.00 to break the World record and although for most of the decathletes this would have been an impossible task, his coach, Harry Marra, advised him to go for it. &nbsp;With the help of Curtis Beach and Joe Detmer, the pace plan worked to perfection and Eaton clocked an incredible 4:14.48. Sebrle’s World record from 2001 was history and, with a score of 9,039 points, Eaton became the second athlete ever to break the 9,000 barrier. Two months later, at the Olympic Games in London, Eaton proved again that he was the best when he beat 2011 World champion Trey Hardee by a massive 198 points for the gold medal. &nbsp;After the Olympic Games many athletes, including Eaton and Hardee, decided to end their season. The Americans only completed two decathlons this year and therefore did not feature among the top-10 in the overall standings. However, &nbsp;Van Alphen took the opportunity to repeat last year’s victory in Talence and secured the win in the 2012 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.&nbsp;“It was a crazy season in which I won Götzis and Talence. I could have become the third athlete in history of Decathlon to score in all 10 events above 800 points, but at the start of the 1500m I was too tired. I could not predict such a year before the start of the season,” he said. &nbsp;In the two most important meetings of the season, Jessica Ennis proved that she was the best heptathlete in 2012. In Götzis she opened the season with a personal best performance of 6,906 points, a British national record. Yet, since being forced out of the Beijing Olympic Games through injury there was only one competition that mattered to her: the London 2012 Olympic Games for which she was the Poster Girl.&nbsp;0n the morning of 3 August, Ennis stormed out of the starting blocks of the 100m Hurdles and went on to clock 12.54, the fastest ever time in Heptathlon. With four more athletes finishing under 13 seconds it was the fastest Heptathlon race ever. &nbsp;After day one, Ennis had totalled 4,158 points and 176 points ahead of her opponents. When the ‘Golden Girl’ of British athletics did not fail in the first event of the second day she knew that she almost only had to finish to secure the title she had focused on during four years. As it turned out she totaled 6,955 points, another British record. With 23 athletes scoring over 6,000 points it was the best ever competition in the history of the Heptathlon.&nbsp;The silver medal in London went, perhaps surprisingly, to Lilli Schwarzkopf who unfortunately tore her Achilles tendon a month later in Talence. &nbsp;With both Ennis and Schwarzkopf not completing a third Heptathlon this year, Chernova had an easy ride to the top of the overall standings with her second place finish in Götzis, third in London and fourth in Talence. The Daegu World champion totalled 19,717 points. &nbsp;The struggle for second position was much closer as only one point separated Lyudmyla Yosypenko from European champion Antoinette Nana Djimou before the final meeting in Talence. &nbsp;Both athletes were motivated not only to take the victory in Talence, but also to get the second position in the challenge. At the start of the 800m, the gap between the two athletes was less than two seconds. The French woman may have been ahead of her opponent but Yosypenko followed very closely just one second behind and therefore secured victory in Talence and the overall second position by a mere 10 points. Hans van Kuijen for the IAAF&nbsp;Leading Overall Standings&nbsp;Men1. Hans van Alphen (BEL) 25259.00 2. Pascal Behrenbuch (GER) 25117.00 3..Oleksiy Kasyanov (UKR) 24822.00 4. Eelco Sintnicolaas (NED) 24481.00 5. Dmitry Karpov (KAZ) 24271.00 6. Adam Sebastian Helcelet (CZE) 24106.00 7. Yordani Garcia (CUB) 24022.00 8. Ashley Bryant (CUB) 23194.00&nbsp;Women1. Tatyana Chernova (RUS) 19717.00 2. Lyudmyla Yosypenko (UKR) 19520.00 3. Antoinette Nana Djimou Ida (FRA) 19510.00 4. Austra Skujte (LTU) 19408.00 5. Laura Ikauneice (LAT) 19031.00 6. Jessica Samuelsson (SWE) 18790.00 7. Sharon Day (USA) 18731.00 8. Eliska klucinová (CZE 18543.00<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;"><tbody><tr style="height:120.85pt;"><td style="width:1.0pt;background:white;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:120.85pt;" valign="top" width="1"> </td><td style="width:1.0pt;background:white;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:120.85pt;" valign="top" width="1"> </td><td style="width:325.3pt;background:white;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:120.85pt;" valign="top" width="434"> </td><td style="width:61.95pt;background:white;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:120.85pt;" valign="top" width="83"> </td><td style="width:70.4pt;background:white;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:120.85pt;" valign="top" width="94"> </td><td style="width:72.25pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:120.85pt;" valign="top" width="96"> </td></tr></tbody></table>

2012 IAAF Combined Events Challenge Review – Van Alphen and Chernova take overall honours 