Janice Josephs, South African national record holder in the heptathlon, occupied fourth place after the first day of the annual international combined events meeting in Arles, France, with a total of 3 612 points.
She trails leader Jessica Zelinka of Canada by 153 points after the first four events.
Joseph’s score was 45 points better than at the same stage in Melbourne when she went on to set a national record.
Should she break the South African record, however, it will not be ratified due to the strong wind factor. Gale-force winds from behind spoilt the first day of the meeting.
In the 200m, with an assisting wind measuring 8,3m per second, the South African athlete clocked a fast time of 23,41 seconds, while her time in the 100m hurdles was a creditable 13,36 seconds — but once again the wind from behind was well over the allowable limit.
In both these events Josephs scored more than 1 000 points but her drawback was in the shot put and high jump where she had to be satisfied with marks of 12m and 1,69m respectively. All over, she did very well to occupy fourth position on the eve of the final day’s three events (long jump, javelin and 800m).
In the men’s decathlon, Jannie Botha of South Africa was in 23rd place on a total of 3 580 points while South African champion Sors Joubert found himself in 28th and last spot with 2 962 points after failing to record any distance in the long jump.
Tunisian Hamdi Dhouibi was only 29 points behind world record-holder Roman Sebrle (4 292) of the Czech Republic after the first day’s five events. — Sapa