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Thiam and Mayer plot a golden three days at Euro Indoors

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It has been a superb winter for Nafissatou Thiam and the intention in Belgrade this week will be to make it even better.

And flowing through the veins of Belgium’s multi-event superstar is one of the most precious commodities to achieve that: belief.

It was there for the sport to see in 2013 when Thiam won heptathlon gold at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Rieti.

It was there for the sport to see in 2014 when Thiam won heptathlon bronze at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich.

It was there for the sport to see in 2015 when Thiam won pentathlon silver at the European Indoor Championships in Prague and high jump silver at the European U23 Championships in Tallinn.

And then it was there for the world to see last summer in Rio when, at the age of 21, Thiam won the Olympic heptathlon title with a national record score of 6810 points, a world lead, a victory over the defending champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and a performance where she had the top marks in three of the seven events.

Now Belgrade beckons, for a woman who is fast gaining a medal collection which could make her one of the greatest multi-eventers of all time.

Day one of these European Athletics Indoor Championships could become Thiam’s time again, with the pentathlon thrillingly staged all on Friday.

And in the aftermath of her Olympic success, there was an insight into how that may just be the start.

“Winning the Olympics is an absolute dream...I want to improve and stay focused on myself in future years,” said Thiam.

Now is the chance for the next step in a high-class field of eight including the Netherlands’ Anouk Vetter, who won the European heptathlon title in Amsterdam last summer, Czech pair Katerina Cachova and Eliska Klucinova and the Ukraine’s Alina Shukh, who has broken the world under-20 pentathlon record this winter.

The scrutiny will be on Thiam, and history shows she thrives on such occasions.

It is that maturity which has been a telling factor for an athlete who first began competing when she was seven and won her first national title when she was 15.

And how fitting that her favourite athlete as a youngster was Caroline Kluft because the Swedish star was also only 21 when she won the Olympic heptathlon crown, in Athens in 2004.

That success came during her amazing run of winning nine successive gold medals, from the European Athletics Championships in Munich in 2002 to a third world title in Osaka in 2007.

Kluft’s place in athletics history is assured, and now Thiam chases her second gold after an indoor season where she broken personal bests in the 60m hurdles, with 8.37 in Ghent, and 15.35m in the shot put in Paris.

As she looks set to be the star of Friday, the multi-event man of the weekend might be France’s Kevin Mayer.

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Like Thiam, he too had an Olympics to remember, pushing American Ashton Eaton all the way in the decathlon before taking silver behind him by just 59 points as he broke the national record with 8834.

Now as the heptathlon awaits in Belgrade, Mayer will be there with even fresher impetus because the domination on the world scene of Eaton is over after his retirement, and here on the European stage, the Frenchman has a chance to send out a message to all his rivals.

Mayer, 25, was the silver medallist in Gothenburg in 2013, the event where he set a personal best score of 6297.

It is a mark which still stands but one which might be improved upon as he faces Spain’s Jorge Urena, who leads the world rankings with 6249.

Like Thiam, Mayer would have gleaned so much from the Olympics; and equally like the Belgian, he has been making podiums on a consistent level since his winning the Octathlon at the World Youth Championships in Brixen in 2009.

But from eight events then, to 10 outdoors, to seven now, Mayer has always been there, in with a say, and this weekend he will hope to be the one shouting the loudest.




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