Decathlete Karel Tilga ninth in top Austrian competition
Estonian athlete Karel Tilga placed ninth in the decathlon at the weekend's prestigious combined events contest in Götzis, Austria, with 8,405 points. This made him the highest-placed Estonian, albeit with a score just short of World Championships standard (8,550), his initial aim.
Heptathlete Liisa-Maria Lusti finished a creditable 19th overall and improved on her PB score, to 5,896 points.
Decathlon
Two other Estonians were competing in the decathlon: Rasmus Roosleht and Risto Lillemets.
Roosleht performed best from Estonian competitors on day one of the decathlon, Saturday, setting two PBs and collecting 4,276 points – 82 points ahead of the pace of his overall two-day PB (8,026) and placing 12th overall on the Saturday. He improved to 11th with 8,241 points after the whole event, thanks in part to a strong javelin throw.
Lillemets stood at 24th with 4,006 points after day one, also improving to 18th with 7,930 points after day two.
Tilga, who finished 11th in the decathlon at the Paris Olympics last summer, on day one put in a disappointing high jump of 1.91 (he would usually clear two meters) when he placed 15th, but despite a poor pole vault effort recovered to rise six positions on day two, with a notably decent 69.59 in the javelin being among the highlights.
Norway's Sander Skotheim was overall winner with 8,909 points, a new national record and ahead of Paris Olympic champion Markus Rooth's 8,796 set last August.
Second place went to American Kyle Garland with 8,626 points, while third place was shared between Switzerland's Simon Ehammer and Germany's Niklas Kaul. Both scored 8,575 points, for Ehammer a new domestic record.
Heptathlon
Estonia's representative in the heptathlon in Götzis was Liisa-Maria Lusti, who entered with the lowest PB (5,836 points) among the starters. "I'd be satisfied if I can complete the heptathlon successfully," she said candidly, pre-event. "Without any issues. A personal best would be nice of course, but it all depends on how each event goes."
On the day, Lusti, 20, improved her PB by 60 points, and finished 19th overall (18th after day one).
U.S. competitor Anna Hall, who amassed an impressive 7,032 points and set the all-time best 800m result in heptathlon history in the final event, putting her in joint second place on the all-time world list together with Sweden's Carolina Klüft, won the event convincingly.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
