Posted: March 4, 2005

Athletics: Cool, Calm Kluft Collects Euro Indoor Title

By Bob Ramsak, Track Profile

(c) 2004 Track Profile all rights reserved TrackProfile.com

MADRID -- Carolina Kluft may have fallen short in her assault on the pentathlon world record, but the 22-year-old Swede didn't give up without a valiant fight en route to her first European indoor title and the first of the 28th European Indoor Championships.

The reigning world, world indoor, European outdoor and Olympic champion came with 43 points of Irina Belova's 13-year-old world record, but still totaled a personal best 4,948 points to solidify her number two spot on the all-time world list.

"It all felt very good," the popular Swede said after adding the European Indoor title to her massive collection of honors. "I was really satisfied with my competition. I knew I was in good shape and wasn't really surprised with the results."

Kluft began her busy day by equaling her personal best in the 60 metre hurdles in 8.19, before jumping an indoor best of 1.93 in the high jump. Her three efforts at 1.96 were tantalizingly close as well.

"Yeah, 1.96 felt very close. I had three really good attempts at that height. I felt like I could take it, but, you know, it's good to have something to look forward to in the future."

Record talk began spreading around the Madrid Sports Hall after her high jump effort, but Kluft's momentum took a dip in the shot put, where she couldn't manage better than a 13.29 toss, well shy from her 14.48 indoor best.

"Oh yeah," Kluft said breaking into laughter, "the shot put was bad. It was a bad event. But you can't be good in every event. You have to have some bad events too. I could do better but this time the technique I had didn't work. I was too fast in the circle and didn't have time to do the technique right."

After a 6.65 in the long jump left her needing a 2:10.40 in the 800, nearly five seconds faster than she had ever run before indoors, she decided to give it her best shot. She fell short, but still ran an indoor personal best 2:13.47.

"Yeah, I really went for it," she said, again smiling. "I didn't make it this time, but I know I can run better. The first two laps were too slow."

"The last 200 meters," which she covered in 33.25, "wasn't that bad. I'm not that tired right now. I wish I would be more tired. But I wasn't," she concluded, sharing a simple yet successful strategy she's often applied in the past: "So I'm going to run better next time."

Collecting the silver medal was Olympic bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton, who capped a phenomenal day with a 6.44 best in the long jump and a 2:13.58 effort in the 800, a pair of personal bests to go along with two from the first session, to total 4,733 points, adding a massive 341 points to Julie Hollman's previous British record, set in 2001.

Natalya Dobrynska took the bronze with a 4,667 point total to claim the first-ever medal in the event for Ukraine.

In the biggest surprise of the first day's action, 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.

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