Hardee wins IAAF Combined Events Challenge

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Contact:
Tom Surber
USA Track & Field
Media Information Manager
317-713-4690; Tom.Surber@usatf.org


News & Notes, Volume 9, Number 60

Hardee wins IAAF Combined Events Challenge

World decathlon champion Trey Hardee has been declared the men's winner of the 2009 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, the IAAF announced on Wednesday.

The Challenge offers a total of $202,000 in Prize Money paid by the IAAF, which is distributed to both the top-8 men and women as follows: 1st $30,000, 2nd $20,000, 3rd $15,000, 4th $10,000, 5th $8,000, 6th $7,000, 7th $6,000, 8th $5,000.

Athletes had to complete three competitions from the list of 14 meetings this year to be eligible to contend for the overall prize, and in 2009 twenty male athletes and twenty-two women made the grade. In total, 335 athletes participated in one or more meetings.

A 2008 Olympian, Hardee became won the decathlon at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany, with a world-leading, personal best score of 8,790 points, making him the all-time #3 American in the event.

During the competition in Berlin, Hardee set three individual personal bests en route to his win in the javelin (68.00m/223-1), long jump (7.83m/25-8.25) and shot put (15.33m/50-3.5). Season bests for Hardee came in the 100m (10.45), 400m (48.13), 110m hurdles (13.86), discus (48.08m/157-9) and pole vault (5.20m/17-0.75).

Hardee won his first U.S. title last June in Eugene, Ore., with his total of 8,261 points and finished second in Gotzis with 8,516 points. Hardee's overall total of 25,567 points gave him the men's IAAF Combined Events title.

Nataliya Dobrynska from Ukraine won the women's Combined Events Challenge with her overall total of 19,487 points.

For more information on the 2009 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, visit: www.iaaf.org.




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