Klüft Voted 2006 Waterford Crystal European AOY

Story written by EPelle

Carolina Klüft, our national athletics queen who has not lost a heptathlon competition in nearly five years, was voted the female Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year for 2006 - the second such accomplishment in her four-year professional career.

Klüft was voted number one by a tally of three different vote criteria which was open on the European Athletics Federation's homepage (click here for full press release) up to 31-December.

Klüft collected the fewest points (four) on the tally system, three fewer than runner-up Kim Gevaert of Belgium.

The Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year internet poll on the European Athletics website was open to Member Federations, the media and the public through three different voting forums.

All athletes' points were calculated by adding their position in each of the three voting categories.

Klüft, who was narrowly beaten for the award last year by pole vault world-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva - four points to seven - has not had a setback in the heptathlon or indoor pentathlon since finishing third (4535) to Russia's Yelena Prokhorova (4622) and Portugal's Naide Gomes (4595) at the 2002 European Indoor Championships in Vienna.

Klüft, according to our national federation's homepage (Friidrott) as well as the EAA, is planning on defending the pentathlon crown she won in Madrid in 2005 (4948) in Birmingham in March.

"For me the sport is all about performing at the major championships and I am really looking forward to the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham" she said.

"I won the World Indoor title there in 2003 and my great rival Kelly Sotherton (GBR) will have the home crowd willing her on this time, so it will certainly be a big challenge."

Sotherton (4733) finished second to Klüft in Madrid by 215 points, with Natalya Dobrynska (4667) of the Ukraine finishing third.

The three last met here in August at the European Championships, with Klüft (6740) winning the title over Holland's Karin Ruckstuhl (6423), with Germany's Lilli Schwarzkopf (6420) earning the bronze medal.

Sotherton finished a disappointing seventh with 6290 points.

Gevaert, who won the 100m/200m European sprint double here in Göteborg (11,06/22,68), and Isinbayeva - the 2005 Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year winner and 2006 European pole vault champion (4,80m - Championship Record), tied for second place just ahead of reigning Olympic long jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva (Russia) and high jumpers Kajsa Bergqvist (Sweden) and Tia Hellebaut (Belgium).

Lebedeva won the triple jump (15.15m) in exciting fashion over Greece's Hrisopiyi Devetzi (15.05m), jumping a championship record on her final attempt to secure her first outdoor European Championships title.

Bergqvist and Hellebaut were part of an exciting high jump final which saw no fewer than four women successfully manage the 2.00-metre barrier.

Hellebaut won the competition with a life-time best, national- and championship record jump of 2.03m, which was equalled by Bulgaria's Venelina Veneva, who finished with a silver medal on misses. Bergqvist, the indoor world record holder after a 2.08m jump in Arnstadt earlier in the year, jumped 2.01m in front of our home crowd, good enough for third. Blanka Vlasic, who had finished second to Bergqvist in the world-record meeting, finished fourth, also at 2.01m.

Klüft first won the prestigious trophy in 2003, following a spectacular break-out year where she improved from beating the best juniors in the world to winning two IAAF world titles (indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon).

Klüft is a finalist for the 2006 Gerringspriset, a very coveted prize which Radiosport here in Sweden awards for the year's best Swedish athletic performance. Susanna Kallur, who won the European Championships in the 100m hurdles (12,59) is also among the finalists.

One amazing feat which deserves notice is that Klüft has been atop the heptathlon world rankings for 223 weeks, and was awarded a spot among the world's top-10 best females by Track & Field News magasine (link) - the fourth-straight year she has appeared on the list. Klüfts appearances there are spectacular, because the magasine takes into consideration every athletic event when selecting its top-10 list. Klüft on average participates in three heptathlons per year.

Friidrott.se ran a great analysis (link) of Klüft through the years, netting the following great points:

• Three losses in her career, the latest in the 2001 European Cup; she's racked up 17-straight victories.
• Since she established herself as a senior in 2002, she has only twice (Euro Champs 2002 and World Champs 2005) not beaten her competition by at least 200 points, and her average score over 2nd-placers in those 15 competitions is 367 points.
• Her average hep the past 12 competitions (between 2003-2006) is 6,780 - a mark which only 12 other people in world history have surpassed in a single competition.
• 24 competitions without pulling out of one (she didn:t contest the 2000 Swedish Junior Nationals, because she was merely along to help a teammate chase the World Junior qualification mark).

Klüft was voted the fourth-best European female athlete by a panel of European sports journalists at the New Year. Klüft tallied 13 points in the voting. Isinbayeva (21) ranked third, and Gevaert (11) finished two points behind Klüft with a fifth-place spot.

Tennis player Justine Henin-Hardenne pulled in the most votes with 28 points.

2006 Waterford Crystal European AOY results:

1. Carolina Klüft, (SWE), 4; 2. Kim Gevaert, (BEL), 7; 2. Yelena Isinbayeva, (RUS), 7; 4. Tatyana Lebedeva, (RUS), 14; 5. Kajsa Bergqvist, (SWE), 15; 6. Tia Hellebaut, (BEL), 17; 7. Susanna Kallur, (SWE), 25; 8. Tatyana Lysenko, (RUS), 26; 9. Lornah Kiplagat, (NED), 32; 9. Vanya Stambolova, (BUL), 32

2005
Results:

1. Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS), 3 points; 2. Carolina Klüft (SWE), 7; 3. Tatyana Lebedeva (RUS), 11; 3. Paula Radcliffe (GBR), 11; 5. Kajsa Bergqvist (SWE), 12; 6. Christine Arron (FRA), 18; 7. Tatyana Kotova (RUS), 26; 8. Yuliya Nosova-Pechonkina (RUS), 28; 9. Christina Obergföll (GER), 31; 10. Eunice Barber (FRA), 32; 10. Olimpiada Ivanova (RUS), 32

Klüfts heptathlon/pentathlon portfolio (Source: IAAF):

Pentathlon

• 1st 28th European Indoor Athletics Championships 4948 Madrid 04 03 2005
• 1st 9th IAAF World Indoor Championships 4933 Birmingham 14 03 2003
• 3rd 27th European Indoor Championships 4535 Wien 01 03 2002

Heptathlon

• 1st 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics 6887 Helsinki 07 08 2005
• 1st 28th Olympic Games 6952 Athens 21 08 2004
• 1st 9th IAAF World Championships in Athletics 7001 Paris Saint-Denis 24 08 2003
• 1st 18th European Championships in Athletics 6542 München 10 08 2002
• 1st IAAF/Coca Cola World Junior Championships 6470 Kingston, JAM 20 07 2002
• 1st IAAF/Coca Cola World Junior Championships 6056 Santiago de Chile 21 10 2000

Carter Headed to Birmingham

Story written by EPelle

Xavier Carter will make his only 2007 European Indoor Circuit race a 400m dash around the six-lane 200m synthetic track at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham, England on 17-February.

Carter, who debuted as a professional athlete at the Norwich Union London Grand Prix in July, finishing second to his fellow American Tyson Gay over 200m, 19,84-19,98, will make his first return to England.

Yahoo Sport reports that Carter signaled his go-ahead for Norwich, because the meeting has garnered a reputation of being one of the best of the indoor circuit.

"The people in Britain seemed to take well to me when I was over here and to enjoy the fact that I'm putting a bit of fun back into the sport hopefully I can put on a show for them in Birmingham," he said, while also stating that he'd like to make the most of his single European visit this winter.

Carter, who ran a world-leading 45,28 in Fayetteville in 2006, will be running on a Mondo Sportflex Super X Classic surface, and may have an exciting finish in store for the fans. Though Carter may not quite yet be ready to challenge for Kerron Clement's two-year old world-record of 44,57 - set in Fayetteville, he may showcase his sprinting brilliance and dip under 45 seconds.

Robert Tobin won the 2006 400m dash in 46,18.

The Norwich Union Grand Prix has been no stranger to excellent marks, with Kenenisa Bekele setting the current 5.000m World Record of 12.49,60 - the only time ever recorded under 12.50 indoors - there in 2004.

Bekele nearly established a second world record in Birmingham last winter, running two miles in 8.05,12, a mark which was just 0,43-seconds outside of countryman Haile Gebrselassie's still-standing 8.04,69 set in 2003.

Wilson Kipketer set the current 1.000m WR - 2.14,96 - at the same meeting fours years earlier.

Yelena Isinbayeva, who set a world record in Birmingham in 2003 with a clearance of 4.88m, nearly missed setting a pole vault world record there in 2006 with three attempts made at 4.92m.

Fellow Russian Svetlana Feofanova was also successful at setting a world-record in Birmingham, vaulting 4.77m in 2003.

Carter is coming off one of the most successful sprint seasons ever recorded in athletics. He won four NCAA titles in Sacramento in June, becoming the first person since Jesse Owens won four titles for Ohio State University 70 years earlier, and followed up that campaign by recording the 2nd-fastest 200m ever recorded, 19,63, in Lausanne. Carter broke 20,00 three times, and also recorded three sub-45,00 400m clockings last year.

Carter is no stranger to record performances, having anchored LSU to a NCAA collegiate 4x400m record in 2005, running 44,00 to bring the Tigers home in 2.59,59. Their mark was the third sub-3.00 performance in collegiate history, and eclipsed the 2.59,91 set by UCLA 17 years earlier. Three of UCLA's four relay runners went on to become individual and/or relay world record-holders in the future.

Carter set three LSU indoor 200m records during his first season there, running 20,67-20,47 and 20,39.

What makes Carter such a remarkable talent is that all of the above was recorded off of American collegiate football training in the autumn of 2005. Carter did not do any track work until after LSU's football season ended with a 40-3 victory over Miami of Florida in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl (formerly known as the Peach Bowl) - one which LSU is 4-0 in its history.

Carter opened his 2006 track season with a 20,74 200m victory on 21-January, and promptly recorded a 45,89 400m on 10-February. He set the yearly indoor leader pace seven days later in Arkansas.

Carter was a hot ticket in high school as well, running a 20,69 indoors in 2004 to become the first USA high school athlete to run under 21,00 indoors. He competed in the 100m, 200m and 400m dashes for Palm Bay Senior High School in Florida, winning 10 regional, division and county titles, nine Florida state titles, and nine conference titles. Carter won the Florida state 100m/200m/400m in back-to-back years, becoming the only Florida athlete to ever achieve that remarkable triple crown twice.

Fans around the world are excited to see what the second-year professional can bring to the indoor campaign with an autumn focussed on track rather than the grid-iron. Folks believe that if Carter could accomplish so much in 2006 with so little preparation, he'll be primed for greater successes in 2007 with a singular focus on athletics.

Those who had an up-close and personal look at Carter in Louisiana saw him compile the following accolades in two seasons at Louisiana State University:

• Seven-time NCAA Champion
• 10-time All-American
• 2006 NCAA Men’s Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year
• 2006 NCAA Men’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year
• 2006 NCAA South Central Region Men’s Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year
• 2006 NCAA South Central Region Men’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year
• 2006 SEC Male Athlete of the Year
• 2006 SEC Men’s Outdoor Runner of the Year
• 2006 SEC Men’s Indoor Runner of the Year
• 2005 SEC Men’s Outdoor Freshman Runner of the Year
• 2005 SEC Men’s Indoor Freshman Runner of the Year

If Carter can add to his professional CV any semblance of the collegiate success he achieved, no world record - individual or relay - is safe from his reach.

First things, first, however.

We'll get a glimpse of just how dominant Xavier Carter - the "X-man" is indoors three days after Valentine's Day.

Until then, stay tuned here for much more of Xavier Carter and his exploits!