Combined Events

100m Hurdles Athletes have to overcome ten hurdles at a height of 84cm each and positioned at 8,50m intervals. The distance from start to first hurdle amounts to 13,00m. Athletes must not touch the hurdles with their hand or push them down intentionally. By hurdling quickly and flatly athletes try to resume active sprinting as early as possible after each hurdle. To accelerate effectively at the beginning of the race they use starting blocks. Most athletes make eight steps to reach the first hurdle (apart from e.g. Carolina Klüft with only seven steps) and three in between the obstacles. The starting signal will be "on your marks" - "get set" - shot. WR   12,21s Donkova (BUL) ÖR   13,09s Wölfling ÖR 7K   13,68s Schreibeis

Highjump In the heptathlon the bar is set at a height that will time after time be increased by 3cm. Every athlete has three attempts per height. Nowadays the most commonly used technique is the so called flop: the athlete will run a curved approach towards the bar building centripetal force that changes to centrifugal force. Through the takeoff the jumper exploits this forces to take her out of the curve and over the bar which is cleared with the back first. The takeoff has to be carried out one-legged. WR   2,09 Kostadinova (BUL) ÖR   1,97m Kirchmann ÖR 7K   1,90m Kirchmann

Shot put The shot for women weighs 4kg. The event is performed in a circle which measures 2,135m in diameter without touching the white toeboard at its upper edge. In the combined events every athlete has three attempts and the most commonly used technique is called the gliding or O’Brian technique as opposed to the spinning technique. Due to the higher scattering the latter is more risky and therefore seldomly used. It’s about accelerating the shot as much as possible by the use of the leg strengh in order to achieve separation between upper body and legs and therefore a strong momentum in your body. To qualify as a put the ellbow must not overtake the shot in any moment, otherwise it will be a throw. WR   22,63 Lisovskaya (BUL) ÖR   19,21 Fedjuschina ÖR 7K   14,82 Aigner

200m Ahtletes use starting blocks and run in lanes. It’s not allowed to commit more than one false start per athlete (exactly as in hurdling) – the second will lead to disqualification. After starting explosively athletes try to get quickly into high speed, and despite of that into relaxed sprinting in order to maintain the top velocity as long as possible into the straight and towards the finish. WR   21,34 Griffith-Joyner (USA) ÖR   22,70 Mayr ÖR 7K   24,09 Kirchmann

Longjump In order to maximize the longjump result you have to generate as much speed as possible in your approach run. After takeoff while airborne there are different techniques to prepare an effective landing in the sand. Athletes choose the length of their approach run individually but to prevent a foul takeoff has to be realised before reaching the red plasticine. The jump will be measured from this point (just in front of the plasticine) to the nearest impression left in the sand. Once again each athlete has three attempts. WR   7,52 Chistyakova (UdSSR) ÖR   7,09 Ninova ÖR 7K   6,23 Dürr

Javelin throw In this event athletes throw the javelin which weighs 600g onto the field. They must not however step over the white arc at the end of the run up track and the javelin has to come down head first but doesn’t have to get stuck to be measured. Again athletes have three attempts each. The difficulty in this event lies in the maximal acceleration of the relatively light and therefore sensitive device which results in a long lasting flight. WR   71,54 Menendez (CUB) ÖR   61,80 Janko ÖR 7K   51,90 Kirchmann

800m The toughest event for all heptathletes because they have to endure a high oxygen dept and as a consequence tolerate the accumulation of a lot of lactic acid. After six events already it’s even harder, however, some heptahletes still approach the 2 min barrier. The runner seeks to cover as much of the race as possible at high speed before fatigue catches up with her, therefore the first lap should be fast but still controlled, in the second you can only try to hold on as long as possible. WR   1:53,28 Kratochvilova (CSSR) ÖR   1:56,64 Graf ÖR 7K   2:14,88 Spitzbart