GOETZIS, Austria, 29 May 2005 — Russia’s Aleksandr Pogorelov leads the men’s decathlon being held in Goetzis, Austria at the halfway stage yesterday while Sweden’s Olympic champion Carolina Kluft heads the women’s standings after four events of the heptathlon.

Pogorelov has 4,398 points from five events, just five points clear of Olympic champion and favorite Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic.

Sebrle, who is going for a fifth win in a row in Austria, won’t have to worry about the man who came second in the Olympics, Bryan Clay, as the American managed just 5.54m in the long jump to fall way behind.

Another possible challenger, three-time world champion and former world record holder Tomas Dvorak, suffered a groin strain in the high jump and was forced to retire.

Meanwhile in the women’s event, Kluft, who celebrated the biggest winning margin in heptathlon Olympic history when taking gold in Athens, has 4,054 points but has little chance of breaking the European record of 7,007 points after a poor showing in the shot putt. Britain’s Kelly Sotherton, third behind Kluft in Athens last August, lies second with 3,911 points.

In front of 4,000 spectators at the Moesle stadium, the 22-year-old Kluft began with a personal best of 13.15 seconds in the 110m hurdles but could only manage 1.44m in the shot as she appeared to be struggling with pain in her lower right arm. Larissa Nikitina’s European record has stood since 1989 and organizers have offered 20,000 euros to the athlete who breaks it.

Marion Jones, Bekele Headline Hengelo Meet

In Hengelo, the Netherlands, Ethiopia’s world and Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele and triple Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones are the headline draws in today’s IAAF Grand Prix meet.

Bekele is scheduled to make an attempt on his own world 10,000m record and said he was confident of lowering the 26:20.71 he set in Ostrava last year.

“Yes, I feel I am in record-breaking shape,” said Bekele. “I have been training for two months here in the USA and I am confident of lowering my own mark.”

Bekele, who is athlete of the year and heads the overall standings in the IAAF world rankings, set the world 5000m record last year on the Hengelo track which has famously in the past also played host to so many of Haile Gebrselassies’ long distance records.

“At the moment, I am focusing on running a world record at the 10,000m,” said Bekele, who has rebounded from the death of his fiancée, the World Youth 1500m champion Alem Techale, who collapsed while on a training run in the outskirts of Addis Ababa.

“I will decide upon my return to Addis Ababa (after Hengelo) if I am going to look for the 5000m or the 3000m records as well,” Bekele told www.iaaf.org, the official website of athletics world governing body. Organizers of the Hengelo meet are to defy Euro-Meetings Group decision to boycott Marion Jones and men’s 100m world record holder Tim Montgomery because of their alleged links to the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) scandal.

Jones, who is due to run in the 100 meters, is also expected to run in Milan next Wednesday.

“I should be invited to every meet,” Jones said in Hengelo. “It’ll come down to the meets. If they want to have the best in the world, and they don’t invite me, they’ll be letting themselves down.