So thank you very much Francis for the passion that you put in our Combined Events world, and, sure… your photos are really cool!

Here you can find Francis’ photos of Decastar , and here his Decaboura Project Website.

These pics were taken from Talence Decastar Official Site

I immediately felt some pain, but not so much, because my foot was warm.. The problem revealed after the Shot Put event, when, warming up for the High jump, I could not even lean my heel on the floor.

I tried to resist, in order to finish the first day and waiting for the next morning, so I cleared 1.74, 1.77 and 1.80 at the first attempt (it never happens , mumble mumble…) and stopped that event. Later I run the 400 and hoped…

… not well enough! Yesterday morning my heel conditions were even worse (as I expected, I admit) and I could not run 110 hurdles, neither do Pole Vault. The good thing is that I set my PB in Discus: 45.15 and did a good Javelin: 57.74.

The crowd was terrific here in Talence, and that is the reason why I would have loved to finish 1500 meters, together with such strong guys. So I started and struggled for 1000 meters, using 1 leg and a half, before not being able to go on .

It was a pity not to be able to set a decathlon PB here in such an amazing challenge but I am very happy to have been here. Hey: this meeting is really fantastic, the atmosphere is magic and French People are so fired for combined events!

The Decathlon was won by Andrej Kravchenko with 8553 points and the Heptathlon by Lyudmila Blonska with 6437 points. More to come about results….

I really hope to have my second chance, in no more that one year, to tell ‘merci beaucoup’ to French People with a great rocky decathlon!

And, I have to say, not suitable for my back problems! It was too small for a standard tall man, and even worse for a 1.95m guy… with some problems at his back

Anyway, we arrived in the meeting Hotel, and met some of the athletes taking part of the competition, in particular: Rudy BOURGUIGNON, Pelle RIETVELD, David GERVASI, Andrej KRAUCHANKA, Roman SEBRLE and Maurice SMITH.

Tomorrow we will have a work out in tghe morning and the official presentation in the afternoon. Well, I hope that this presentation will not be so long as expected…. 3 hours from 5pm to 8pm, the day before the race!

I will be a fast competition, I suppose, because we will be 12 athletes. The best thing is that there are several world class guys, and I’ll try to be pushed by being on the same track!

No, I’m not doing any prediction, nor saying which kind of result I would like. We will see after each event what’s going on

Yesterday the Organization Team sent me the invitation email and finally I can schedule my training and my competitions before this appointment.

This long story began on the 26th of July, when, winning the Italian national Champioships, and getting better in my season shape, I was looking forward to have another meeting to do as good as I could, and to train for.

The first man I contacted was Gianni Lombardi, Desenzano Meeting Organizer, who wrote to the ADEM and asked for me. OK, it was maybe too early, 40 days before the World Champioships they could not know if there would be any place for me. I went on training hard, without knowing whether it was for a Decathlon competition or just for a more tiring summer

Second was my friend (french decathlete) Rudy Bourguignon who gave me the ADEM email address. So I sent my personal request and waited for a good answer..

When Osaka World Champioships were over, and the French team came back to Europe, it was time to call mr. Jean Yves Cochand, the French Combined Events Boss . He was absolutely nice! We spoke about the World Champioships and he kindly offered to ask the organizers.

After 2 days, here the answer! And it was a positive one. So thanks Gianni, Rudy and Jean Yves (hey JY, don’t forget the beer you promised me )

Now it up to me. Let’s hope to have a nice competition and maybe to set my PB!!