Czech Republic’s decathlon world record holder Roman Å ebrle, who also holds the European indoor heptathlon record of 6438, won his national title in Prague with a European-leading score of 6117 points on Sunday.
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| Czech multi-events legend Roman Sebrle. |
The tally will secure his invitation to the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships next month and he issued a warning that, despite being 36, he was going to be in the hunt for his sixth medal at the Championships, after having won in 2002, 2005 and 2007.
The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships will be held in the French capital Paris at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy from 4-6 March
If he gets on the podium in Paris, Å ebrle will beat his own standard of being the oldest ever heptathlon medallist at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, set two years ago when he got the bronze medal in Torino, and he will also confirm his status as one of the legends of the event.
Only two men will have won more medals at an individual event at the Championships: German 1500m runner Thomas Wessinghage won nine medals while another German, Dietmar Mögenburg, has got eight high jump medals to his name.
Å ebrle ran 60m in 7:16 – his best time for three years – long jumped 7.67m, sent the shot out to 15.69m and finished his first day by going over 2.08m in the high jump on Saturday.
He then clocked 8.16 for the 60m hurdles, cleared 4.90m in the pole vault and ended his seven events with a 1000m run in 2:48.42.
“I showed the youngsters that they can’t count me out. Paris will be very interesting, there is no super favorite. I hope to be able to add some points to this score, the main thing is to remain healthy,” said Å ebrle.
Adam Helcelet finished second in 5848 points while Frantisek Stanek was third with 5790 points, both men setting personal bests behind the 2004 Olympic Games decathlon champion, who also won gold medals at the 2002 and 2006 European Athletics Championships.