Götzis 2014 - a great experience again! (1)
Although Trey Hardee stood 117 points behind Kai Kazmirek, he started the day two convinced to win the 2014 version of the hypo-meeting. On a big screen he did a bold statement namely to start the day breaking the world record in the hurdles from Frank Busemann. It was something they filmed earlier in the week and after all I think he didn’t meant to do it this weekend but later in the year. Yes we do understand each other! Hardee ran 13.69, his second best ever in decathlon closing more the gap. Kazmirek ran a decathlon best 14.15 for the 110H.
Up to the discus and Trey took over from the first throw and made a gap himself with second (Kai) of 56 points and made that opening between them bigger (87p) after the pole vault. (But if you ask me Kai breaks this year his personal record for the pole vault, showing this ability when he flew much higher over the crossbar in one of his lower jumps.) The expectation was that both would throw further in the javelin but the wind was playing its part and they catapulted the spear under the 60. Hardee 58.20 and Kazmirek 56.31. Before the 1500 (one of the exiting moments in a multi-event) the points looked like this:
1) 7867 Trey Hardee
2) 7751 Kai Kazmirek
3) 7671 Rico Freimuth
4) 7573 Yordani Garcia
5) 7472 Thomas van der Plaetsen
6) 7471 Pelle Rietveld
7) 7439 Dominik Distelberger
8) 7421 Ashley Bryant
9) 7322 Adam Sebastian Helcelet
10) 7283 John Lane
At the end Hardee runs a very good time to his standards: 4 44.75 and is now world leading decathlete with 8518. Kai 8471 (pb), Rico 8317, Garcia 8299, Pelle Rietveld 8204 (pb), Thomas vdP 8184, Dominik D 8168 (pb jump from almost 300 points), Ashley Bryant 8141 (pb) Adam H (being injured at the foot for two days – imagine!) still 8001 or 9 persons over 8000.
Someone who gave a spectacle certainly is Dominik Distelberger being the local guy he was breaking personal records and often performing close to his bests. This man made it this year, becoming a 8000+ athlete. He made a jump forward of 296 points but he deserves it so much. There have been many occasions that I thought, now these guy will get his 8000+, but circumstances were often against him. And there is another one coming. A Austrian Dominik I mean. He has the easy name Sielaczek! The crowd loved them both as you can imagine.
The women competition (19 over 6000!) was a thriller with so much new talent. Katarina Johnson-Thompson was the young winner with 6682 – pb and world lead. Brianne Theisen-Eaton second and a Canadian national record with 6641. (Both deserved to win.) Third Shippers again with a national record of 6545 points for the Netherlands followed very closely by her compatriot Broersen with 6536 p. Fifth remarkably, 19 year old and doing a national record for Belgium, world class Nafissatou Thiam (Nafi for friends) 6508 and all while she was studying in between moments for school.
The multi events season started in a nice way, very nice weather in Götzis and the hypomeeting was a great experience again!