The men's Decathlon competition has started quite as expected. Tomas DVORAK (CZE), who has won the last three World Championships, has not been in shape all season, and will not be winning here unless he can produce better performances in the next events.

Olympic champion Erki NOOL (EST) is also out of the race for the top placings. Nool jumped only 6.78m in the long jump.
 
After three events, it's Bryan CLAY (USA), who always has a strong start in decathlon, who leads the competition with 2753 points. Clay was the fastest in the 100m with 10.50s and also long jumped well, 7.70m.

Dmitriy KARPOV (KAZ), who has raised himself to the world's top level this season, is lying only 11 points behind Clay at the moment. Karpov was the best of the field in the long jump with 7.75m.
 
Tom PAPPAS (USA) and Roman SEBRLE (CZE), who have to be considered the favourites now, are lying in third and fourth place respectively.

Pappas ended the morning session well, winning the shot put with 16.11m. However, both Pappas and Sebrle were a little short of their normal level in the 100m and the long jump. Pappas has 1871 points and Sebrle comes 40 points behind him.
 
Reigning world champion Dvorak is in fifth place with a total of 2583 points.

The men's Decathlon competition has started quite as expected. Tomas DVORAK (CZE), who has won the last three World Championships, has not been in shape all season, and will not be winning here unless he can produce better performances in the next events.

Olympic champion Erki NOOL (EST) is also out of the race for the top placings. Nool jumped only 6.78m in the long jump.
 
After three events, it's Bryan CLAY (USA), who always has a strong start in decathlon, who leads the competition with 2753 points. Clay was the fastest in the 100m with 10.50s and also long jumped well, 7.70m.

Dmitriy KARPOV (KAZ), who has raised himself to the world's top level this season, is lying only 11 points behind Clay at the moment. Karpov was the best of the field in the long jump with 7.75m.
 
Tom PAPPAS (USA) and Roman SEBRLE (CZE), who have to be considered the favourites now, are lying in third and fourth place respectively.

Pappas ended the morning session well, winning the shot put with 16.11m. However, both Pappas and Sebrle were a little short of their normal level in the 100m and the long jump. Pappas has 1871 points and Sebrle comes 40 points behind him.
 
Reigning world champion Dvorak is in fifth place with a total of 2583 points.

Tom PAPPAS (USA) has moved to the front in the competition as anticipated. Pappas jumped 5.10m in the pole vault, only 10cm less than his personal best from earlier this season.

Another athlete reaching for the gold medal, Roman SEBRLE (CZE), the world record holder, was left with a disappointing result of 4.80m in the pole vault, but the Czech came back in the javelin throw with a second round effort of 69.79m.
 
However, it was the third round throw by Sebrle, which had people roaring all over the stadium. The javelin landed somewhere near 75 metres, but the red flag was raised because Sebrle's approaching speed was a little too high and he could not not hold himself behind the line.
 
Had that throw been valid, Sebrle would hsve been sble to cruise during the 1500m for the gold. Now, however, he has a difficult task before him. Pappas also threw well in the javelin with 65.90m and is now leading with 8097 points.

Sebrle is in second place with 7918 points, 179 points behind the American. Pappas is not as good 1500m runner as Sebrle, he ran a 4:48 1500m in his personal best series in the national championships this season. The world record holder, usually a sub 4:30 man, will have to beat Pappas by approximately 28 seconds to grab the gold medal.
 
Dmitriy KARPOV (KAZ), who was still leading the competition before the pole vault, did not do well in pole vault or the javelin throw. Karpov, usually behind the two top names Pappas and Sebrle at his normal level, only managed to clear 4.40m in the pole vault. His javelin throw was even worse, as he did not get over 40m with his first two throws. Fortunately, he was able to get himself together for his third throw and got a decent mark of 47.53m.
 
Karpov's bronze medal seems very well secured as he has 7679 points, almost 200 more than Lev LOBODIN (RUS) who is lying in fourth place with 7484.

Reigning world champion Tomas DVORAK (CZE) is fifth only two points behind Lobodin (7482) and Frenchman Laurent HERNU is looking to catch these two in the 1500m, having scored a total of 7463 points after nine events.

Tom PAPPAS (USA) made sure of his gold medal by running a personal best in the last event of decathlon, the 1500 metres. The American, number two in the world list this season, performed very close to his best throughout the competition and completed his day with a personal best in the 1500m, 4:44.31.

Pappas scored a total of 8750 points, only 34 less than his career best decathlon at the US national championships earlier this season.
 
In the end the 1500m race was very clear. World record holder Roman SEBRLE (CZE) needed a 28 second win over Pappas, but was never going to get one with the American shadowing him throughout.

Sebrle ran 4:34.45, easily enough to keep him in the silver medal position. Sebrle's final points, 8634, were almost 300 points more than he needed to keep his position.
 
The biggest surprise of the competition was Dmitriy KARPOV's (KAZ) bronze medal. Karpov led the competition until the discus throw. He had some fine performances, including a very big personal best of 47.33s in the 400m yesterday.

Karpov's final score of 8374 broke his own national record of 8253, set earlier this season, with a big margin of 121 points.
 
Tomas DVORAK (CZE), with three successive wins from the World Championships, was still able to raise himself to fourth place despite bad form in some events. Dvorak recorded a personal best in the 1500m with 4:27.63 to total 8242 points.
 
Laurent HERNU (FRA) fought hard in the final sprint of the last event and was able to overtake Lev LOBODIN (RUS) in the rankings. Hernu was fifth with 8218, and Lobodin, fifth in 1999 and 2001, dropped down to sixth this time, scoring 8198 points.
 
The youngest competitor in the event, 20-year-old Qi Haifeng (CHN), set a national record of 8126 points for seventh place, beating his own previous NR from last year's Asian Games by 85 points.