Euro Indoors: Men's Heptathlon

[Rineanna]

The Ukranian Kasyanov ran 6.83 in the 60m for an early lead. A massive 7.97m from Estonian Pahapill in the LJ gives him the advantage. Sebrle was nowhere in the 60m but has recovered somewhat in the LJ with 7.72.

[Jon]

Pahapill took over the lead in the HJ yesterday and is holding onto it today. He ran a PB in the hurdles and has so far cleared 4.90m in the vault. He has 5490 points already and is heading for gold with a potentially huge score in the region of 6200+, having set PBs in every event so far!

The vault proved to be Kasyanov's downfall and Sebrle is clawing back some points. Drozdov is still a threat, but he's not great at the 1000m.

Edited to add update: Pahapill clear first time at 5.00m. Sebrle gets 4.90m and stays in the competition. Niklaus and Drozdov fail on their first attempts at 5.00m. If Pahapill can vault in the region of 5.20m and then set a 1000m PB, surely he'd get close to Nool's Estonian record (6374) :shock:

[midnightsun]

Domestically speaking, Frullani is on his way to break his own NR, after iPBing in the LJ,SP,HJ and PV! The SP and PV were also his absolute best indoors&out (he does have better LJ and HJ marks outdoors). Now he needs 2:53.77 in the 1000 to crack 5950(NR) and 2:49.05 to score 6000. His iPB stands at 2:49.69.

[Jon]

Pahapill was the best in the PV, setting yet another PB of 5.10. He is on course for the highest score we've seen for four years. If he wants to break Nool's national record, then he needs to run 2:44.5 in the 1000m (his current PB is 2:53.81) - that's quite a big ask. But even if he betters his PB by a second or two, he'll break 6300 :shock:

Looks like Kasyanov will hold onto the silver - the only way he can lose it is if Sebrle beats him by three seconds in the 1000m, which I don't think will happen. So long as Sebrle stays ahead of Drozdov (which is pretty likely) in the last event, then he should be good for bronze. I can't really see anyone else being able of spoiling the party.

[Jon]

Pahapill smashes his PB by 400 points with yet another PB in the 1000m to score 6362, just missing out on Nool's NR by 12 points. He now goes to 9th on the all-time list, in between Clay and Pappas.

[AthleticsInBritain]

How's Papahill's javelin, discus and 400m? Does Clay have some competition coming his way in Berlin?

[Jon]

How's Papahill's javelin, discus and 400m? Does Clay have some competition coming his way in Berlin?

His discus is relatively weak (49.35m), but his jav is pretty good (67.07m). His 400m PB is 50.62, but given that he has improved his 60m and 1000m PBs quite significantly, I think he is set to run quicker over one lap.

[AthleticsInBritain]

Thanks for the info Jon. If we have a fit Maurice Smith in Berlin as well, we could have a really good comp in prospect.

[eldrick]

why is ole man sebrle still kicking about ?

it's getting embarassing to see him scuffing about fighting for bronzes in not even global competitions

someone better tell him this is not golf, where you can still earn $3 - 4m/year if you are no longer top man, but barely top-20

athletics isn't a sport for champs to grow ole gracefully in...

[LopenUupunut]

How's Papahill's javelin, discus and 400m? Does Clay have some competition coming his way in Berlin?

His discus is relatively weak (49.35m)

Good enough compared to other top level decathletes, I'd say.

Some random statistics from the twenty-nine 8750+ performances all-time:

Average discus mark - 47.44m
Median discus mark - 47.21m
#1 discus mark - 53.79m (Bryan Clay at Beijing '08, part of 8791)
#29 discus mark - 43.38m (Daley Thompson at Stuttgart '86, part of 8811)

Peak and average discus marks of all 8750+ performers in the series in question (more relevant than PBs which are more likely to have come in fluky conditions; Pahapill's has not - being instead from the super-empty Bird's Nest - so it's an acceptable comparison):

Bryan Clay - 53.79 - 52.21 (3)
Dan O'Brien - 48.87 - 48.27 (5)
Jürgen Hingsen - 49.36 - 48.08 (2)
Roman Šebrle - 48.72 - 47.09 (7)
Tomáš Dvorák - 48.33 - 46.72 (4)
Siegfried Wentz - 46.90 - 46.90 (1)
Uwe Freimuth - 46.58 - 46.58 (1)
Tom Pappas - 46.26 - 46.05 (2)
Daley Thompson - 46.56 - 45.14 (3)
Erki Nool - 43.40 - 43.40 (1)

So even supposing Pahapill won't improve his discus like apparently all other events, he's already on a par with or ahead of all 8750+ decathletes ever except Clay there.
If he's planning to get within the same distance of Nool's marks outdoors as well, it won't be the discus stopping him.

[LopenUupunut]

Since I got going I figured I might do the javelin as well .wink:

Average javelin mark - 67.24m
Median javelin mark - 67.26m
#1 javelin mark - 72.42m (Uwe Freimuth at Potsdam '84, part of 8792)
#29 javelin mark - 59.86m (Jürgen Hingsen at Mannheim '84, part of 8832)

Uwe Freimuth - 72.42 - 72.42 (1)
Tomáš Dvorák - 72.32 - 69.60 (4)
Bryan Clay - 70.97 - 70.41 (3)
Siegfried Wentz - 70.68 - 70.68 (1)
Roman Šebrle - 71.10 - 69.39 (7)
Erki Nool - 67.01 - 67.01 (1)
Dan O'Brien - 66.90 - 63.80 (5)
Daley Thompson - 65.24 - 63.86 (3)
Jürgen Hingsen - 67.26 - 63.56 (2)
Tom Pappas - 65.90 - 63.33 (2)

So Pahapill's javelin is actually more of a relative liability than his discus is, though still OK.