A decathlon battle between South Africa&rsquo;s Willem Coertzen and Algeria&rsquo;s Larbi Bourrada is the expected highlight of TNT Express Meeting Kladno, part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Saturday and Sunday (17-18).
The heptathlon, meanwhile, could be Czech affair with national record-holder Eliska Klucinova set to face defending champion Katerina Cachova.
Bourrada is returning to Kladno after eight years and will be hoping to do better than his DNF in 2009. Since then he has become a three-time African champion and has broken the African record numerous times, raising it to 8521 when finishing fifth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
&ldquo;Training is completely different,&rdquo; said Bourrada, who is now training in Paris after changing his coach in February. &ldquo;I just need some time to adapt, but I feel good and Kladno is an important test for me before World Championships in London.&rdquo;
Coertzen briefly took the African record from Bourrada after finishing ninth at the 2013 IAAF World Championships with 8343. The 34-year-old, who was third in Kladno in 2011, improved his PB to 8398 in 2015, but he failed to finish at the World Championships later that year and at last year&rsquo;s Olympic Games.
&ldquo;Last season didn&rsquo;t go well,&rdquo; said Coertzen, who had a season&rsquo;s best of 7879 in 2016. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve changed my training a bit and I hope to start this one better.&rdquo;
The third competitor in the field with a personal best in excess of 8000 points is Poland&rsquo;s Pawel Wiesiolek, who has a PB of 8140 and recently finished 15th in G&ouml;tzis.
The winners from the past two editions of the TNT Express meeting will try to repeat their successes. 2015 champion Marek Lukas, who was only three points shy of 8000 points in G&ouml;tzis, will be the biggest Czech hope. Compatriot Jiri Sykora, the 2014 world U20 champion, is concentrating on the European U23 Championships, while Adam Sebastian Helcelet is a late withdrawal due to slight achilles tendon problems.
Meanwhile, defending champion Lars Vikan Rise will form a strong Norwegian duo with Martin Roe.
<h3>Klucinova aiming for fourth victory</h3>
Czech heptathletes have won at four of the past seven editions of this meeting. This year, three-time winner Klucinova and reigning champion Cachova will try to delight Czech fans once again.
Klucinova has once equalled and twice improved the national record in Kladno. Her best Kladno score, 6460 from 2014, is the second highest in the history of the meeting.
Last year the 2015 European indoor bronze medallist had to pull out of the competition because of a small injury. After finishing 22nd at the Olympic Games in Rio, she underwent shoulder surgery, which might still limit her a bit in the javelin.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to expect in the last two events,&rdquo; said Klucinova, who has started the season strongly with PBs in the 100m hurdles and marks close to her PBs in the high jump, shot and long jump. &ldquo;I am slowly improving in the javelin in training and I didn&rsquo;t train much for 800 meters.&rdquo;
Cachova, the 2007 world U18 champion, set her PB of 6328 when winning in Kladno last year. This weekend she will be looking to improve on her performance from G&ouml;tzis, where she finished 20th with 5963.
&ldquo;I feel much better now,&rdquo; said Cachova, who is yet to beat Klucinova in a heptathlon. &ldquo;I tried some events last weekend in Trinec at the Czech Championships and the results were promising.&rdquo;
Cachova's score from Kladno last year was in excess of the World Championships qualifying standard. In line with the stipulations from the Czech federation, she now simply has to confirm her form by scoring 6000. Klucinova, meanwhile, needs to attain the qualifying standard of 6200.
Burkina Faso&rsquo;s Marthe Koala showed good shape in G&ouml;tzis to surpass the 6000-point barrier for the first time in her career. She set three individual PBs on her way to scoring 6036. Koala, who competed in the 100m hurdles at the past two Olympic Games, will be contesting her third IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting this season after competing in Florence and G&ouml;tzis.
Norway will be represented in Kladno by prolific competitor Ida Marcussen. The 2006 world U20 silver medallist set her PB of 6226 back in 2007; her most recent 6000-point score came in 2014.
The Czech Championships will be incorporated into the TNT Express Meeting Kladno for the first time. Barbora and Katerina Dvorakova, the 20-year-old twin daughters of three-time world champion and Czech head coach Tomas Dvorak, will be making their senior debut in Kladno.
Michal Osoba for the IAAF

A decathlon battle between South Africa’s Willem Coertzen and Algeria’s Larbi Bourrada is the expected highlight of TNT Express Meeting Kladno, part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Saturday and Sunday (17-18).

Clash of top African decathletes and Czech heptathletes expected in Kladno

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

South Africa&rsquo;s Willem Coertzen and Hungary&rsquo;s Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas both put in storming second-day performances to secure wins at the 39th Decastar combined events meeting on a sun-drenched Sunday (20) in Talence.Day two of action in the southwest of France also brought the IAAF Combined Events Challenge series to an end for 2015. Russia&rsquo;s Ilya Shkurenev finished in third in Talence to secure the decathlon title, while Latvia&rsquo;s Laura Ikauniece-Admidina &ndash; who was not competing in Talence &ndash; was gifted the heptathlon crown after Nadine Broersen, the only woman able to displace her at the top of the standings, withdrew injured during the long jump.Trailing Ukraine&rsquo;s Oleksiy Kasyanov by 72 points at the halfway stage, Coertzen had work to do on the second day in Talence.The gulf widened after the first event of the day, as Kasyanov clocked a PB of 13.92 in the 110m hurdles; the fastest time of the field. Coertzen was second fastest overall with 14.27 to leapfrog Kurt Felix, who clocked a 14.85.In the discus, Kasyanov was again the best in class, throwing 48.35m in the first round.Coertzen posted a best of 43.69m, while Felix&rsquo;s 45.09m saw him move back up to second overall, and at that point it looked like the Grenadian would be the more likely challenger for the win.With a 199-point gap between first and second, Felix needed a strong pole vault if he was to put any pressure on Kasyanov, but the Pan American Games silver medallist failed all three attempts at his opening height of 4.25m to put him out of the running.With the raucous crowd spilling on to the track, just yards from the pit that had been set up in front of the main stand, Coertzen took up the mantle. He cleared a personal best of 4.65m, eclipsing Kasyanov&rsquo;s 4.55m best to reduce the gap to 184 points.Shkurenev was the clear winner of the event with a 5.25m best, moving him from ninth to third place in the standings.Coertzen followed up his PB performance in the pole vault with a javelin throw approaching his best. His 67.21m was the longest effort of all the athletes, while Kasyanov&rsquo;s 46.98m effort was the second shortest. Shkurenev recorded a solid 60.09m to cement his third place standing.Those javelin heroics brought Coertzen&rsquo;s tally to 7479, giving him a 119-point lead going into the 1500m decider. With the home straight cast in long, lazy shadows on a blissful autumnal evening, the South African eased home in 4:35.64 to wrap up the win with 8187 points.&ldquo;Usually the javelin is my strong event and I know Kasyanov&rsquo;s is not the best so I was waiting and waiting in anticipation for the javelin,&rdquo; said Coertzen after becoming the first African winner at the Decastar meeting. &ldquo;And then the 1500m &ndash; I can run a lot quicker than that but I just had to do what I needed to do. Basically I just took a nice little jog around the track.&rdquo;That nice little jog was indeed enough, as Kasyanov was four seconds back to finish in second with 8043.The French crowd were wooed by home favourite Gael Querin, who had earlier posted a personal best of 5.05m in the pole vault, and won the 1500m in 4:20.44 to finish fourth overall with 7914.Meanwhile, Shkurenev was in cruise mode as he finished his day with a 4:41.44 1500m to amass 7973 points, confirming him as the year&rsquo;s Combined Events Challenge champion.<h3>Zsivoczky-Farkas takes advantage</h3>She might have been down in fifth and 191 points off the lead overnight, but Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas wasn&rsquo;t in the mood for coasting.In front of a packed and noisy stand at the Stade de Thouars, she recorded the second-best mark of the day in the long jump, going out to 6.26m to move up to fourth.Katarina Johnson-Thompson, leader after day one, recorded only one legal jump, a second-round 6.17m effort. Her lead was cut to a single point as Anastasiya Mokhnyuk notched a leap of 6.32m with her first jump that she didn&rsquo;t improve on.Nadine Visser looked disappointed with her best effort of 6.09m, which meant she dropped to third, 48 points off the lead.Her fellow Dutchwoman Nadine Broersen retired injured following two fouls, scuppering her chances of retaining her Combined Events Challenge crown.It soon became clear that Johnson-Thompson was also struggling with injury.She attempted only one throw in the javelin, posting 29.15m off a short run up in round two that proved to be her last involvement in the competition.Mokhnyuk&rsquo;s second-round PB of 39.76m gave her the overall lead, 76 points ahead of Zsivoczky-Farkas, who threw 45.82m to move into second.Nadine Visser&rsquo;s best of 38.14m meant she stayed in third, just two points behind Zsivoczky-Farkas. Ivana Dadic threw a PB 52.48m &ndash; the best throw of the day &ndash; to move into fourth overall.With just 78 points separating the top three, the 800m provided a dramatic end to the contest. Zsivoczky-Farkas came home first in a personal best of 2:11.88 to win with 6306 &ndash; the second-best haul of her career.&ldquo;I never thought that I could win this Decastar,&rdquo; said a delighted Zsivoczky-Farkas. &ldquo;I always want to do my best and focus on the event I&rsquo;m doing. I was very happy because this is my second-best result and I did two PBs here. It&rsquo;s a very good atmosphere here, it&rsquo;s good to compete here because the people are very supporting and it helps a lot.&rdquo;Mokhnyuk&rsquo;s 2:17.75 in the 800m meant she just clung on to second place with 6269 points ahead of 20-year-old Visser, who ran a personal best of 2:13.08 to finish with 6257. Fourth place went to Dadic, who improved her own Austrian record by scoring 6151.Thomas Byrne for the IAAF

South Africa’s Willem Coertzen and Hungary’s Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas both put in storming second-day performances to secure wins at the 39th Decastar combined events meeting on a sun-drenched Sunday (20) in Talence.

Coertzen and Zsivoczky-Farkas turn the tables to win in Talence

Britain&rsquo;s Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Ukraine&rsquo;s Oleksiy Kasyanov lead after a compelling first day at the 39th Decastar meeting in Talence, the first half of the final act of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge on Saturday (19).A missed connection in Amsterdam meant Johnson-Thompson took to the track following a late arrival into Bordeaux on Friday night, but she showed no sign of fatigue in the 100m hurdles, the opening event of the heptathlon. In the mild, changeable conditions, the European indoor champion clocked 13.46, which placed her third in the fastest heat behind 20-year-old Nadine Visser of the Netherlands, who won in a meeting record of 12.88, and last year&rsquo;s runner up Anastasiya Mokhnyuk of Ukraine, who finished in 13.33.Entering the high jump at 1.75m, Johnson-Thompson&rsquo;s performance wasn&rsquo;t dampened by the brief rain shower as she outstayed the competition, making it to 1.87m to wrestle the lead from Visser, whose 1.78m saw her drop to second.Hungary&rsquo;s Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas and Belarussian Yana Maksimava were next best in the event with 1.84m, while world indoor champion Nadine Broersen and Mokhnyuk both cleared 1.81m.Johnson-Thompson lost ground and drifted back to fourth after a poor shot put of only 12.07m, after which her coach Mike Holmes used an empty water bottle to issue a playful tap on the European indoor champion&rsquo;s head. Under a blast of autumn sunshine, Mokhnyuk took the lead with 13.86m with 2851 points, with Maksimava being the best in this discipline with 14.14m.Visser, watched on from the grass terrace by training partner and world 200m champion Dafne Schippers, threw a personal best of 13.24m to stay in second place. Zsivoczky-Farkas, who finished in sixth at the World Championships, posted a best effort of 13.78m to move into third overall.Holmes&rsquo; tap on the head must have done the trick, because in the last event of the day Johnson-Thompson regained the overall lead with a well-executed 200m in 23.17, the fastest time by the huge margin of 0.74.Her points haul after four events stands at 3851, 23 more than Visser. A personal best of 24.30 in the final event put Mokhnyuk into third place overnight with 3802 points.As a world-class long jumper, Johnson-Thomson could build a commanding lead on Sunday morning and she will want to put behind her the nightmare of the World Championships when she had three fouls. However, Visser and Mokhnyuk have both performed impressively here in Talence, and are well-placed to possibly provide an upset. Broersen is down in seventh on 3578 points and has a battle to defend her overall IAAF Combined Events Challenge title. The Dutch athlete would need her combined score in the long jump, javelin and the 800m to be a considerable improvement on anything she&rsquo;s posted this year to score 6401 points or more, and snatch the title from Latvia&rsquo;s Laura Ikauniece-Admidina, who isn&rsquo;t competing here but is currently in first place. <h3>Kasyanov and Felix profit from Shkurenev&rsquo;s day off</h3>Oleksiy Kasyanov took the decathlon lead early after coming home fastest in the 100m, winning his heat in 10.73. Japan&rsquo;s Asian champion Akihiko Nakamura finished just behind him in 10.74. Nakamura briefly shaded Kasyanov thanks to a best of 7.52m in the long jump, taking the lead after two events, while the Ukranian&rsquo;s single legal jump, his round-two 7.33m, was well short of his season&rsquo;s best of 7.70m but moved his tally along to 1815.Meanwhile, South Africa&rsquo;s Willem Coertzen jumped up to third place overall with 7.44m, the second-best long jump result.Kasyanov regained the lead after a shot put of 14.63m. Nakamura could only muster a modest 11.52m, which saw him plummet to fifth. Coertzen&rsquo;s best of 13.66m saw him cement his position in second, while Granada&rsquo;s Kurt Felix reached 14.07m and moved up to third overall. In the fourth event, the high jump, Kasyanov&rsquo;s 1.98m meant he just clung on to first place, a mere 20 points ahead of Felix &ndash; the pair having 3367 and 3347 points respectively &ndash; the latter moving into second after winning the event with a 2.10m leap. Coertzen, who also went over 1.98m, dropped down to third. The big move came from Russia&rsquo;s Sergey Timshin, who was second in the event with a 2.07m, which catapulted him from 13th&nbsp;to fifth overall. &nbsp;Things got even tighter at the top after the 400m brought the first day to an end. Kasyanov laboured through one lap of the track in 49.17 to finish fifth in his heat, and take his total after five events to 4220 points, while in the preceding race Felix came home in third in 49.06 to reduce the gap between the top two to just 15 points.Coertzen&rsquo;s 48.92 leaves him third at the halfway point with 4148 points, while Timshin clocked 48.65 to move up one place overall to fourth. Nakamura was the fastest 400m man in 48.59, shifting him back in to the top five.Russia&rsquo;s Ilya Shkurenev, fourth at the World Championships three weeks ago, is down in ninth with 3940 points but still on course to secure the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge crown. But he hasn&rsquo;t finished inside the top five in any event and looks to be out of the running for victory in Talence.Thomas Byrne and James Charlton for the IAAF

Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov lead after a compelling first day at the 39th Decastar meeting in Talence, the first half of the final act of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge on Saturday (19).

Johnson-Thompson and Kasyanov have narrow leads after day one in Talence

The 2015 world champions have been crowned and the Diamond Race contests settled but athletics fans have one final feast of running, jumping and throwing to enjoy at the 39th edition of the Decastar combined-events meeting in Talence, a suburb of the French city of Bordeaux, on Saturday and Sunday (19-20).With his personal best of 8538, Russia&rsquo;s 24-year-old Ilya Shkurenev was 23 points &ndash; about four seconds in the 1500m &ndash; away from a bronze medal in the Bird&rsquo;s Nest stadium three weeks ago. The last competition of this year&rsquo;s IAAF Combined Events Challenge should provide some partial compensation for missing out on a place on the podium in Beijing.As his two nearest rivals in the challenge standings, Germany&rsquo;s Michael Schrader and Canada&rsquo;s Damian Warner, are not competing in Talence, it means that the European indoor champion and two-time European decathlon bronze medallist is tipped to go home with this year&rsquo;s challenge title and the US &euro;30,000 first place prize that comes with it.If he does so, he will also become the first Russian male athlete to win the challenge in its 18 editions since it started in 1998. But Shkurenev&rsquo;s attempt to win Decastar itself should prove trickier. Willem Coertzen finished two places above him to grab third place in Gotzis back in in May, setting an African record of 8398 points. The South African is looking for redemption after failing to finish the first day at the World Championships and could, in theory, take the challenge title if he improves to 8521 points.Grenada&rsquo;s Kurt Felix and Ukraine&rsquo;s Oleksiy Kasyanov, eighth and ninth in Beijing respectively, are also capable of challenging for the win. Felix won a silver medal at this year&rsquo;s Pan American Games; while 2010 European silver medallist Kasyanov was also a runner-up here last year.Also competing is Belgium&rsquo;s Hans van Alphen, the Decastar champion in 2011 and 2012, and challenge winner in 2012. He has struggled for form and fitness since then, with a succession of injuries, but were he to take an unlikely victory this weekend, he would be only the second athlete to win a hat-trick of Decastar titles &ndash; a feat managed by France&rsquo;s Christian Plaziat in 1989. Although Kevin Mayer has withdrawn through injury, there are still five Frenchman competing at Decastar. Bastien Auziel will fancy his chances of a podium place on home soil after setting a personal best of 8147 in Gotzis in May and placing 13th in Beijing.Joining him will be Romain Barras, a 35-year-old veteran of the 2004 Olympics and 2010 challenge winner, the oldest man in the field who, at the European Cup Combined Events in July, chalked up his 10th consecutive season above 8000 points.<h3>&nbsp;KJT and Broersen out to bounce back after Beijing</h3>Whatever happens, Talence will crown one heptathlete as a Decastar champion for the first time on Sunday. A strong women&rsquo;s field features five of the top-10 finishers from last month&rsquo;s heptathlon at the World Championships but the woman who is probably the favourite in Talence was not among them.&nbsp;European indoor champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson had her genuine gold medal prospects dashed when she had three fouls in the long jump but the Briton has indicated that she&rsquo;ll use Talence to try to secure the Olympic qualifying standard of 6200 points. &ldquo;This isn't me trying to finish off the 2015 season,&rdquo; Johnson-Thompson tweeted earlier this week. &ldquo;It's the start of my Rio campaign."She won&rsquo;t be the only woman looking to bounce back after disappointment in Beijing. World indoor champion Nadine Broersen was beaten to a bronze medal by Latvia&rsquo;s Laura Ikauniece-Admidina. Yet if 2014 challenge winner Broersen can score 6401 points or more in Talence, the 25-year-old will pip Ikauniece-Admidina &ndash; who is not competing in Talence &ndash; to this year&rsquo;s title.Broersen&rsquo;s fellow Dutchwoman Nadine Visser is the best candidate to pounce, should she or Johnson-Thompson falter. Aged just 20, the world junior bronze medallist is the youngest woman in the field, but her personal best of 6467 to finish seventh in G&ouml;tzis, and eighth place in Beijing last month, underline her potential. Both will vie to become the first Decastar winners from the Netherlands.The three other top-10 finishers from the World Championships who are in Talence all did so with personal best scores.Hungary&rsquo;s Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas will be full of confidence after notching 6389 points to finish in sixth &ndash; the 30-year-old&rsquo;s&nbsp;first-ever major championships finish. Ukraine&rsquo;s Anastasiya Mokhnyuk scored 6359 to finish seventh, and returns to Talence after finishing second here last year. In the 14-strong field, French home interest will be represented by a pair of 24-year-old heptathletes who both set PBs this summer: French champion Gaelle le Foll (5848 points) and Sandra Jacmaire (5739). James Charlton and Thomas Byrne for the IAAF

The 2015 world champions have been crowned and the Diamond Race contests settled but athletics fans have one final feast of running, jumping and throwing to enjoy at the 39th edition of the Decastar combined-events meeting in Talence, a suburb of the French city of Bordeaux, on Saturday and Sunday (19-20).

Shkurenev and Broersen have IAAF Combined Events Challenge titles in sight in Talence

Germany&rsquo;s Michael Schrader and the Netherlands&rsquo; Anouk Vetter held on to their overnight leads to emerge as the winners of the Erdgas Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on Sunday (27).Schrader, the world silver medallist and a local hero in Ratingen as he hails from nearby Duisburg, put together a total of 8419 to win by 78 points from South Africa&rsquo;s Willem Coertzen, who was just 57 points short of his recent African record.Coertzen was the fastest man in the opening event of the second day, the 110m hurdles, clocking 14.06 but with Schrader just 0.02 behind, the latter lost only three points from his first-day lead of 100.Germany&rsquo;s Tim Nowak led the way in the discus with 44.98m, with Schrader second with 44.97m, although the overall leader was a little disappointed he was not closer to his recent best of 47.19m.After seven events, Schrader led with 6060 points and Coertzen, who threw 43.94, was still in second with 5942.Schrader was one of two men, the other being Kai Kazmirek, to clear 5.00m in the pole vault to consolidate his lead with Coertzen going over 4.50m.By now Scrader realised that, barring accidents, he was secure in victory but also not likely to get close to his best of 8670 points, set in Moscow two years ago at the IAAF World Championships, and so was only concerned with finishing the competition in respectable fashion.He tossed the javelin out to 56.57m with his first attempt, and although the throw was more than 10 metres below his best, he passed his last two attempts.Coertzen, by contrast, is a good javelin thrower and led the way from the remaining eight men, throwing a season&rsquo;s best of 68.79m, just 61cm down on his best set last year.With just the 1500m to go, Schrader had 7656 points while Coertzen had a tally of 7573.With little between the two men in terms of 1500m ability, Schrader was able just to shadow Coertzen around the track. The latter took the win in 4:26.52, unable to muster enough energy to find the extra seconds required to improve his African record set in Gotzis four weeks ago when he ran 4:22.22.Schrader crossed the line in 4:27.28 to complete his victory, having led the competition since the second event on Saturday morning.&ldquo;The 1500m was very easy this time, I just followed Willem all the way," said Schrader. "In the 110m hurdles I hoped to go under 14 seconds and in the javelin, well, I just saved the other two throws for Beijing."Germany&rsquo;s 2012 European champion Pascal Behrenbruch was a distant third overall with 7826 points.Unlike Schrader, Vetter lost her lead in the heptathlon after the first event on Sunday with two-time World Championships medallist Jennifer Oeser taking over in pole position after long jumping 6.26m to the Dutch woman&rsquo;s 6.07m.Oeser had 4658 points after five events, just two ahead of Vetter.Claudia Rath was the best long jumper and went out to 6.57m, moving up to third.But Vetter is one of the best javelin throwers among the top echelon of heptathletes and proved this when she launched her implement out to 52.75m, the best throw of the day and just 35cm down on her best.Oeser could only throw 45.03m and the lead changed hands again with Vetter having a total of 5569 and an advantage of 147 points ahead of the last event, the 800m.Rath dominated over two laps of the track and won in 2:08.91, more than three seconds faster than anyone else. Further down the field, Vetter trudged round in 2:20.38 to finish eighth of the nine finishers with Oeser clocking 2:15.63.Nevertheless, Vetter had enough in hand to emerge as the winner with 6387, 81 points ahead of Oeser and 97 in front of third-placed Rath.Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Germany’s Michael Schrader and the Netherlands’ Anouk Vetter held on to their overnight leads to emerge as the winners of the Erdgas Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on Sunday (27).

Schrader and Vetter take the honours in Ratingen

Germany&rsquo;s Michael Schrader and the Netherlands' Anouk Vetter lead at the end of the first day of the Erdgas Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on Saturday (27).Schrader, the world silver medallist and a local hero in Ratingen as he hails from nearby Duisburg, put together a total of 4330 to lead the decathlon by exactly 100 points from African record-holder Willem Coertzen of South Africa.Schrader&rsquo;s compatriot and 2014 Ratingen winner Rico Freimuth was the fastest man over 100m with 10.63 but Schrader was not far behind with 10.78 for second place in the quickest heat of the opening event.He then took the overall lead with a do-or-die last effort of 7.81m in the long jump, following two fouls.&ldquo;I thought to myself, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll give it everything&rsquo;. Having a safe jump from a metre behind the board is just not me,&rdquo; said Schrader after the end of Saturday&rsquo;s session.The feat saw Schrader move into first place after two events with 1922 points, 142 more than Freimuth.The latter ate into his rival's lead a little after the shot put, although Schrader&rsquo;s 14.80m was just eight centimetres off his recent personal best and moved his tally along to 2699 points, with Freimuth putting a personal best of 15.62m to reduce the deficit to 91 points.The high jump is not one of Schrader&rsquo;s better events but he cleared 1.92m which was enough to maintain his lead as Gotzis winner Kai Kazmirek went over 2.07m and moved up to second place. Freimuth under-performed and only cleared 1.86m to slip down to fourth.Schrader finished off the day with a 48.19 400m, the fastest of the 13 remaining competitors, to consolidate his lead as Coertzen moved up to second place after a run of 48.50 to retain his ambition of improving on his recent African record of 8398 set in Gotzis just four weeks ago.Kazmirek pulled out shortly after the start of his 400m race having felt a groin twinge.&ldquo;I had hoped for a couple of personal bests on Saturday but it&rsquo;s still a really good score,&rdquo; said Schrader, who is 100 points shy of where he was after the first day at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, when he set his personal best of 8670.<h3>Vetter has personal best in view</h3>Cindy Roleder, a regular German 100m hurdles international, was unsurprisingly the fastest in the opening event of the heptathlon with 13.05, Vetter coming home third in 13.55.But Carolin Schafer moved into pole position after the high jump when she equalled her personal best of 1.84m.Vetter&rsquo;s strength showed in the shot put, which she won with a personal best of 15.50m, although Schafer still led after three events following her 13.39m in the shot put.Two-time world heptathlon medallist Jennifer Oeser was second, just eight points behind, and Vetter had moved up to third.However, everything changed after the 200m as Vetter won her heat in 24.12, the second-best time of the day behind Roleder&rsquo;s 23.68 win in the supposedly the faster heat.Vetter&rsquo;s first-day total of 3785 saw her finish Saturday 57 points ahead of Oeser, with Roleder third on 3667 points. The Dutch athlete was also only 88 points behind her first-day score in Gotzis last month when she went on to finish sixth in a personal best of 6458.Schafer decided not to start the 200m as a precaution in order to conserve her energy for the IAAF World Championships in August. &ldquo;Everyone has seen that I am in the best shape of my life,&rdquo; said Schafer, who finished second in Gotzis with a personal best of 6547.Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Germany’s Michael Schrader and the Netherlands' Anouk Vetter lead at the end of the first day of the Erdgas Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on Saturday (27).

Schrader and Vetter lead at the end of the first day in Ratingen

Germany&rsquo;s leading decathletes and heptathletes will be hoping to impress on home soil at the Erdgas Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on Saturday and Sunday (27-28).The 2013 and 2014 decathlon winners Pascal Behrenbruch and Rico Freimuth return, the latter having also won the 2014 IAAF Combined Events Challenge. But Freimuth finished fourth in Gotzis at the end of May and the three men who finished in front of him are also in the Ratingen field.Kai Kazmirek, the 2013 European under-23 champion, set what was then a world-leading tally of 8462 when winning in the Austrian town and was just nine points away from his personal best.His German compatriot Michael Schrader, the world silver medallist, put together a score of 8415 for second place while South Africa&rsquo;s Willem Coertzen produced an African record of 8398 but still had to settle for third place.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in as good shape as I was in Gotzis, maybe even a little better,&rdquo; said Schrader, who hails from nearby Duisburg, on Thursday.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for good performances again in the pole vault and 400m, I want to be running in the 47s again,&rdquo; he added, reflecting on the fact that he has a best of 47.66 in this discipline and ran 48.21 in Gotzis.&ldquo;The one event where there is room for improvement over Gotzis is the discus,&rdquo; he added, well aware that there he was more than five metres down on his recent personal best of 47.19m.&ldquo;I basically never throw less than 45 metres in training so it was disappointing to only just throw over 42 metres in Gotzis.&rdquo;<h3>Coertzen looking for another continental record</h3>Coertzen made no secret on Thursday of the fact he wants to become the first African decathlete to go over 8400 points. &ldquo;And the German athletes should help push me,&rdquo; said the man who only started in the sport at the age of 24, after first trying his hand at cricket and rugby.Belgium&rsquo;s Hans van Alphen struggled in Gotzis and finished down in 15th but the Belgian record-holder with 8519 from 2012, the year he won the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, will be looking to do much better in Ratingen and get back over 8000 points for the first time since his halcyon summer three years ago.There will also be a lot of interest in the performance of Serbia&rsquo;s talented two-time European under-23 medallist Mihail Dudas, who injured himself on the first day of the 2014 Gotzis meeting and didn&rsquo;t compete again last year.Dudas also pulled out of the Multistars meeting last month in the Italian city of Florence after just two events, and Ratingen offers him another chance to prove his fitness.<h3>More of the same will satisfy Schwarzkopf</h3>The heptathlon also has a strong contingent of Germans, including 
three-time winners Jennifer Oeser and Lilli Schwarzkopf, the latter 
taking the title last year after wins in 2007 and 2008.Schwarzkopf had to cancel her planned outing at Gotzis last month due to an ill-timed bout of bronchitis and so has a point to prove in Ratingen."I'm hoping for a similarly good performance as last year," said the Olympic silver medallist, who won in 2014 with 6426.Oeser won in Ulm last month with 6145 but the two-time World Championships medallist is still getting back to her best form after becoming a mother last year.Both women will have to look out for the in-form Carolin Schaefer, who finished second in Gotzis with a personal best of 6547, a score better than anyone has achieved in Ratingen since the first edition in 1997 when Sabine Braun set the meeting record of 6787.Claudia Rath is another German heptathlete who showed good form in Gotzis, the 2013 IAAF World Championships fourth-place finisher putting together the second-best total of her career with 6458 to finish seventh.One place in front of Rath in Gotzis and also competing in Ratingen is arguably the best of the overseas athletes, the Netherlands' Anouk Vetter, the Dutchwoman getting no fewer than four individual personal best marks en route to an overall personal best total of 6458.Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Germany’s leading decathletes and heptathletes will be hoping to impress on home soil at the Erdgas Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen, an IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, on Saturday and Sunday (27-28).

Germany's top combined-events exponents look to impress in Ratingen

Germany&rsquo;s Kai Kazmirek and Canada&rsquo;s Brianne Theisen-Eaton hung onto their overnight leads with strong second days to emerge triumphant at the 41st Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, the third leg of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Sunday (31).With a world-leading score of 8462, Kazmirek &ndash; who finished second last year in the Mosle Stadium &ndash; added his name to the prestigious roll of honour of this meeting, six years after the last German win was achieved by Michael Schrader.Schrader, the world silver medallist, crowned a successful comeback after almost two years of injury problems with 8415 for second place while South Africa's Willem Coertzen had a strong second day to finish third and improve his own African record to 8385. Kazmirek started the second day with 14.52 in the 110m hurdles to defend his leading position by just 10 points over his compatriot Rico Freimuth, who clocked the second-fastest time with 13.99. Canada&rsquo;s 2013 Gotzis champion Damian Warner, who had made three fouls in the shot on Saturday, set a meeting record of 13.54. After six events, Kazmirek led with 5317 points to Freimuth&rsquo;s 5307. Jeremy Taiwo followed in third place in a close competition with 5303, just 14 points covering the top three at this stage.Freimuth, the son of two-time Gotzis champion Uwe Freimuth, then threw a solid 48.07m in the discus to take the overall lead. Taiwo produced a personal best of 43.16m to take over in second place with a gap of 31 points over Kazmirek who had a best throw of 40.96m. <h3>Javelin the key for Kazmirek</h3>Kazmirek cleared 5.10m in the pole vault and improved to second place, just 44 points behind Freimuth who vaulted 4.80m, but then regained the overall lead with 7747 after throwing 64.45m in the javelin to lead Freimuth by just nine points.Schrader was third going into the last event with 7623 after clearing 5.00m in the pole vault and throwing 61.44m in the javelin.&nbsp;&nbsp; Coertzen, eighth after the first day, won the javelin with 68.48m, which enabled him to move up to fourth going into the 1500m. Kazmirek clocked 4:34.61, a result which was enough to win with 8462, just nine points shy of the PB he set when finishing second to two-time world champion Trey Hardee in Gotzis last year.Schrader finished third in the 1500m with 4:22.87 to take second place with 8415. Taiwo won the final event with 4:19.54 but it was not enough to make the podium as Coertzen finished a close second with Schrader third in 4:22.87.&ldquo;I did not expect to win," said Kazmirek. "I am particularly pleased with the javelin and the pole vault. I had an injury problem during my preparation for Gotzis. My goal is to finish in the top five at the World Championships in Bejing."There was a super atmosphere here," he added. "Every time I come here, I want to return the next time."<h3>National record for Theisen Eaton</h3>Theisen-Eaton, watched by her husband and Olympic champion Ashton Eaton who pulled out of the decathlon late on Friday, won in Gotzis for the second time in her career, setting a national record of 6808. The Canadian beat the former world junior champion Caroline Schaefer, who was second with a PB of 6547. World indoor champion Nadine Broersen from the Netherlands was third with 6531.Theisen Eaton consolidated her leading position overnight after improving her personal best in the long jump to 6.72m. Only Germany&rsquo;s Claudia Rath, fourth at the 2013 IAAF World Championships, jumped farther with 6.73m. Dafne Schippers stayed in second place with a solid effort of 6.48m. Ukraine&rsquo;s Anastasya Mokhnyuk produced the major change in the standings by overtaking Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and moving up to third thanks to her 6.54m jump. With two events to go, Theisen-Eaton had built a gap of 130 points over Schippers.Anouk Vetter from the Netherlands threw the javelin to 50.09m to move up from seventh to third. Theisen- Eaton increased her advantage slightly to 144 points over Schippers after her throw of 42.96m, while Vetter was now just 40 points behind Schippers in third place with only the 800m remaining.Broersen improved her ranking from 12th to sixth thanks to having the best javelin throw with a distance of 53.65m while Schaefer reached 49.08m to move up from sixth to fifth.Schippers sadly pulled out of the competition before the 800m due to a minor knee problem, understandably not wanting to take any risks ahead of a long season. Ennis-Hill set the pace on the first lap of the 800m but Theisen-Eaton followed hard on her heels and tried to edge the Briton in the sprint for the line. But Ennis-Hill responded and held off her rival to win in 2:09.21 to Theisen Eaton&rsquo;s 2:09.37, although the later secured the overall victory. &ldquo;I knew I was ready and fit but I was not sure I would be able to score such a high score," said Theisen-Eaton. "I'm particularly pleased with the high jump and the long jump and the 200m. My coach thought that I had the capability to set this score. Compared to my win two years ago, today the weather was much better this weekend than it was in 2013."Ennis-Hill, in her first heptathlon since winning her Olympic title in front of a home crowd, scored 6520 for fourth place.&ldquo;If someone had said '65' (6500 points) beforehand, I would have grabbed that with two hands," she said. "I'm really happy to score that, yeah, I am made up."Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

Germany’s Kai Kazmirek and Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton hung on to their overnight leads with strong second days to emerge triumphant at the 41st Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, the third leg of the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on Sunday (31).

Kazmirek and Theisen-Eaton triumph in Gotzis

Damian Warner and Hanna Melnychenko emerged as the winners of the 37th Decastar meeting in the French town of Talence on Sunday (15), and for the latter there was double joy as she also took first place in the 2013 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.Warner won the Decathlon with 8161, just coming out on top against South Africa’s first day leader Willem Coertzen, who was second with 8118 after a tight battle in all five events on the second day.The first three men went over 8000 points and The Netherlands’ Eelco Sintnicolaas was third with 8018. Ukraine’s World champion Melnychenko finished her seven events with 6308 points, 20 more than Poland’s Karolina Tyminska, while Canada’s Moscow silver medallist Brianne Theisen Eaton was third with 6252.In the men’s IAAF Combined Events Challenge, Andrei Krauchanka held pole position in the Challenge standings before the start of the Decastar meeting and despite not being at the final event in Talence, the Belarusian combined-events exponent hung on to first place and the first prize of USD$30,000, with 25,084 points from his three scoring events. The Moscow bronze medallist Warner, who has twice scored higher than 8300 points this year, couldn’t quite reach those height this time and had to settle for second place with 24,980 points.By contrast, Melnychenko was already leading the Challenge standings ahead of Talence, her fifth heptathlon of the year, but her win increased her overall tally by 48 points and she ended the series with 19,310 points. Theisen Eaton was second with 19,158 points.Strong second day brings Warner victory Coertzen, the overnight leader in the Decathlon, started his day well when he won the second heat of the 110m Hurdles in 14.38, but Warner was a clear winner in the third and last race in 13.91, his second-best time of the year, and he closed the gap on his rival to nine points.Russia’s Vasiliy Kharlamov was the best in the Discus with 49.19m, but in the struggle for the Decathlon victory, Warner again gained valuable points against Coertzen throwing 44.92m against 43.05m and this moved him into first place after seven events, 29 points ahead of the South African.Meanwhile, the crowd in the stadium had grown to 10,000 people and with the Pole Vault pit in front of the main stand and the crowd sitting on the track, a special atmosphere was created, primarily because of the presence of Renaud Lavillenie. World and Olympic champion Ashton Eaton, who was in the stadium supporting his wife, said: “I have never experienced such a great atmosphere at a Decathlon or Heptathlon competition."Lavillenie came into the competition at 5.27m and there were two other men still vaulting and all three cleared.France’s London 2012 Olympic Games champion went over at his first attempt but it was clear that the seven events he had done earlier had taken its toll. After clearing 5.47m, he could not get over 5.67m. Coertzen cleared only 4.27m so, after eight events, Sintnicolaas went into second place with 6567 points after vaulting 5.27m and Warner had extended his lead to 152 points with 6719.However, Coertzen took the third individual victory of the weekend with a Javelin throw of 66.04m. It moved him back into second position after nine events while Warner reached 61.07m to retain the lead with a 101-points advantage over Coertzen after nine events. The gap between Sintnicolaas and Behrenbruch, in third and fourth place, was only 18 points.In the 1500m, France’s Jeremy Lelievre took the victory in 4:27.97 and Coertzen followed him home in 4:29.85 but Warner crossed the line in 4:38.85 to the confirm his win. “The atmosphere was great, but I can say just one word: I am tired,” said Warner after his debut in Talence.Melnychenko makes it lucky six By contrast, Melnychenko was making her sixth appearance in Talence and she had never previously placed better than fourth, but the overnight leader and 2013 World champion showed in the very first event on the second day that she was determined to do much better this time. Melnychenko started with a foul in the Long Jump, while Theisen Eaton produced a leap of 6.20m, but with her second attempt Melnychenko responded with 6.43m while Theisen Eaton had two fouls with her remaining jumps. As a result, the Ukrainian extended her lead to 98 points. Germany’s Claudia Rath, fourth at the World Championships last month, produced the best jump of the day with 6.50m.The first athlete to throw the Javelin was Norway’s Ida Marcussen, who sent her implement to 50.16m and nobody else came close to this.Melnychenko started this event with a modest 32.36m, followed by a foul but she improved to 39.78m with her last attempt. Theisen Eaton could only claw back 47 points despite a throw of 42.24m. In the last event of the weekend, Melnychenko tracked Theisen Eaton for most of the two laps of the track and in the last few metres she overtook her Canadian rival to finish in 2:13.94. At the front of the race, Tyminska won in 2:08.61 and that was enough to propel her into second place, ahead of Theisen Eaton and she finished only 20 points adrift of Melnychenko.No less than seven women scored more than 6000 points.Hans van Kuijen for the IAAF

Canada's Warner and Ukraine's Melnychenko win in Talence - IAAF Combined Events Challenge

Warner and Melnychenko win in Talence – IAAF Combined Events Challenge

The 37th edition of the famous Decastar meeting in the French town of Talence, the final meeting of the 2013 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, sees South Africa’s Willem Coertzen and Ukraine’s 2013 World champion Hanna Melnychenko in the lead overnight on Saturday (14).<o:p></o:p>In the men’s Decathlon, the big name going into his blocks for the 100m was the USA’s London 2012 Olympic Games and 2013 IAAF World Championships gold medallist Ashton Eaton.The World record holder had got married on 13 July to the Canadian heptathlete and 2013 World Championships silver medallist Brianne Theisen but they had put their honeymoon on hold until the end of the season.However, the couple then decided to interrupt their holidays for the competition in Talence to maintain their chances of finishing high in the 2013 IAAF Combined Events Challenge standings.“I had my spikes with me and I will see what this weekend will bring me,” said Eaton beforehand, although he had already shipped his poles home. “I have talked already with Renaud Lavillenie, (the 2012 Olympic champion in the Pole Vault), to borrow one of his poles for that event,” he joked.Eaton duly won the 100m, held in cloudy conditions although the rain stayed away, in 10.60 with Canada’s Damian Warner, the Moscow bronze medallist, only 0.01 in arrears.In the first round of Long Jump, Eaton and Coertzen both started with a foul but then Coertzen produced a leap of 7.51m and Eaton immediately responded with 7.50m, both men’s best of the three rounds.No other athlete could come close to these distances with the South American record holder, Brazil’s Carlos Chinin, third with 7.20m.Germany’s 2012 European champion Pascal Behrenbruch is usually one of the best shot putters among the world’s leading Decathletes and he proved this again with a distance of 15.95m, followed by Russia’s Vasiliy Kharlamov with 15.53m.Eaton produced a put of 13.94m, which was enough to keep him on top of the leader board after three events, with a total of 2612 points, 114 ahead of Warner.Eaton aches and exitsIn the High Jump, Eaton started at 1.81m but on his first attempt he felt a pain in his back and decided to take any further risks and sadly withdrew from the competition.This gave Coertzen the opportunity to take his second victory of the day when he cleared 2.08m., a personal best for the South African, and with Warner unable to go any higher &nbsp;than 1.96m, Coertzen went into the the overall lead after four events, 70 points ahead of his Canadian rival.Just before the start of the last heat in the 400m it started to rain in Talence but it was not enough to halt the battle between Coertzen and Warner. The latter won in 48.96 with Coertzen only 0.03 behind.After five events, Coertzen has 4197 points and Warner 4128, with The Netherlands’ Eelco Sintnicolass third on 3997 points.France’s Pole Vault star Renaud Lavillenie was also making his debut in a Decathlon in Talence.The Frenchman had declared that he had set himself two goals this weekend. Firstly, to improve the best performance in a Decathlon Pole Vault; which is currently held by Germany’s Tim Lobinger with 5.76m, and also to score more than 7000 points so that such a performance will be recognized in the record books.After day one, Lavillenie totaled 3412 points, and is bringing up the rear of the 16 men still in the competition, which means he needs to produce a strong second day performance to make his mission successful.World champion Melnychenko leads the HeptathlonAfter day one, Melnychenko leads with 3752 points while Theisen-Eaton is second with 3727 points but, in Moscow last Month, the Canadian woman had a better second day then Melnychenko which sets up a thrilling finale not only to the Decastar meeting but also the overall IAAF Combined Events Challenge, in which they are the leading protagonists.Poland’s Karolina Tyminksa is third overnight with 3,660 points, just one point ahead of Czech Republic’s Eliska Klucinova.In the first event of the Heptathlon, the 100m Hurdles, Theisen-Eaton took the victory in 13.26, followed home by Melnychenko in 13.29, so only conceded five points to her opponent.In the second event, the High Jump, both women cleared 1.80m with Klucinova winning with a personal best height of 1.89m.USA’s Sharon Day, formerly a specialist high jumper who was also in contention for a good position in the 2013 Challenge, missed her opening height and effectively ended her chances of being in the money.It was a case of history repeating itself for Day, as she also had three failures at her opening height in the Hypo meeting in Götzis back in May.<o:p></o:p>However, Day decided to continue the competition and she showed her mettle by winning the third event of the day.In the Shot Put, Day produced an effort of 14.75m. Melnychenko was better than Theisen-Eaton by 42cm - 13.08m to 12.66m - and so moved into the lead after three events by 23 points.In the last event of the first day, the 200m, Theisen-Eaton had the outside lane while Melnychenko started in lane three and so could chase her rival.Again, both women finished very close to each other. Melnychenko won the event in 24.22, 0.02 ahead of Theisen-Eaton.Hans van Kuijen for the IAAF&nbsp;

Coertzen and Melnychenko lead overnight in Talence - IAAF Combined Events Challenge