Eunice Barber in the javelin (© Getty Images)
France’s Heptathlon and Long Jump star Eunice Barber will highlight the eighth edition of the Combined Events meeting in Arles to be held in France on 4 and 5 June.
The Arles meeting represents the comeback for Barber, who has become a French athletics heroine since she won the gold in the Long Jump and the silver in the Heptathlon in the IAAF World Championships in Paris.
Barber, whose career has been plagued by recurrent injuries, returns to competing in the Heptathlon for the first time since her memorable battle with the Swedish star Carolina Klüft which thrilled the Stade de France in Paris St-Denis during the 2003 IAAF World Championships.
Barber finished runner-up with 6755 points in a competition where she produced the following results: 13.05 in the 100 metres Hurdles; 1.91m in the High Jump, 12.97m in the Shot Put, 23.92 in the 200 metres, 6.61m in the Long Jump, 49.60m in the Javelin Throw and 2:13.68 in the 800 metres.
A few days later the Sierra Leone-born athlete produced a magnificent 6.99m to clinch the World gold medal in the Long Jump in her final attempt in front of an elated capacity crowd in the French capital.
First Heptathlon since Paris for Barber
For Barber it was the second World outdoor title of her career after she won the Heptathlon at the IAAF World Championships in Seville where she scored her lifetime best with 6861 points (12.89 in the 100m Hurdles, 1.93m in the High Jump, 12.37m in the Shot Put, 23.57 in the 200m; 6.86m in the Long Jump; 49.88 in the Javelin Throw; 2:15.65 in the 800m).
She capped her successful 2003 summer season with a win in the Long Jump at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco where she improved on her own French record with a final jump of 7.05m (also a 2003 World leading mark).
Barber returns to Arles where she won in 2003 with 6694 points. The athlete now coached by Bob Kersee (the husband of the heptathlon World record holder Jackie Joyner Kersee) was forced to miss the 2004 Olympic season due to injury problems.
She is now returning to her best form as shown by her recent competitive tests in the USA. She opened her season in April with 43.97m in the Javelin Throw at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Invitational in Los Angeles followed by a 1.88m clearance in the High Jump in the Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, by 13.23 in the 100 metres Hurdles in Montgeron, 6.42m in the Long Jump and 24.56 in the 200 metres.
In her comeback competition Barber will face a very tough test against the Ukrainian Natalya Dobrynska, the World indoor silver medallist in the Pentathlon in Budapest 2004 with a score of 4727 points and eighth in the Olympic Games in Athens in the Heptathlon with 6255 points.
World indoor silver medallist toughest challenge for Barber
Dobrynska, who has a PB of 6387 points scored last year when she finished third in Götzis, was runner-up in the 2004 Arles meeting with 6183 points (wind assisted). The Ukrainian is in her second heptathlon in just one week after finishing seventh in Götzis with 6299 points.
Other leading contenders in the women’s competition in Southern France are Janice Josephs of South Africa (PB 6127 points in 2004), who is in her second heptathlon in just one month after her second place in Salò with 5958 points, Tiia Hautala of Finland (fifth at the World Championships in Seville 1999 with PB 6369), third in the Italian Combined Events meeting on the Garda Lake with 5893 points, Tatyana Gordeyeva of Russia (PB 6336 points in 2000), Irina Naumenko of Kazakistan (PB 6140 in 2003), Larisa Netseporuk of Estonia (PB 6331 in 2000), seventh at both the World Championships in Paris 2003 and the World Indoor Championships in Budapest 2004, Anzhela Atroshenko of Turkey (PB 6339 set in 1993) and Belarus' Vera Yepimashko (PB 5829 in 2004), seventh at the European Indoor Championships in Madrid 2005 in the Pentathlon and a good Shot Put specialist with a lifetime best of 17.25 this winter.
Hernu Vs Zsivoczky in men’s Decathlon
French hopes for a victory are not only carried by Eunice Barber but also by Laurent Hernu in the men's Decathlon. Hernu (PB 8280 in 2001) finished fifth on home soil at the IAAF World Championships in Paris St-Denis with 8218 points and seventh at the Olympic Games in Athens with 8237 points.
Hernu will take on the Hungarian Attila Zsivoczky who finished fourth with 8371 points at the 2001 IAAF World Championships in Edmonton. Zsivoczky, who scored his personal best in 2000 with 8554 in Götzis, is the son of Gyula Zsivotzky who won the Olympic title in the Hammer Throw in Mexico City 1968.
The Hungarian specialist will compete for the second time in just one week after finishing runner-up in Götzis with 8480 points behind his training partner Roman Sebrle (8534 points).
In the history of the Arles meeting Hernu won twice in 2002 (8108 points) and in 2004 (8122 points wind assisted). American Stephen Moore (PB 8037 points), runner-up behind the Frenchman in Arles in 2004 with 8085 points (wind-assisted), Estonia’s Kristian Rahnu (PB 8203; third in Arles 2004 with 8062 points wind-assisted), Finland’s Jaako Ojnaniemi (fifth in the European Championships in Munich 2002 with his PB of 8192 points), Vitaliy Smirnov (PB 8021; runner-up in Salò 2005) and 2002 African champion Hamdi Dhouibi (PB 7965 points) are the other leading challengers.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
