Posted: March 4, 2005

Athletics: Ceplak Fails To Advance In 800 At European Indoor Championships

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Bob Ramsak

MADRID -- In the biggest surprise of the first day's action in the middle and long distance events, Olympic bronze medallist and defending champion Jolanda Ceplak failed to advance to tomorrow's semi-finals of the 800 meters at the European Indoor Championships.

“Yesterday, everything was fine. But today, my legs just felt very, very heavy,” the 28-year-old Slovenian said after her disappointing 2:05.27 third place showing in the third of four heats. “I know that I should have made into the final. What can I say? I’m not sure why this happened.” At these same championships three years ago in Vienna, Ceplak shattered the world record with her 1:55.82 run.

Ceplak’s early departure from the picture paved the way for Spanish record holder Mayte Martinez, who won heat four in 2:03.06, the fastest performance of the day.

Elsewhere, world and Olympic champion Carolina Kluft of Sweden is on world record pace in the pentathlon. After four events, Kluft has tallied 4,034 points, four points ahead of Russian Irina Belova’s World record of 4,991 points. Kluft needs to run 2:10.40 or better to break the record set 13 years ago in Berlin. The Swede has a personal best of 2:14.95 in the event indoors, and 2:11.51 outdoors.

Look for a complete wrap-up of Day one action from Madrid later today.