excerpt from USATF News (complete report)

Note: Hyleas Fountain trains at the Tri Valley Athletic Center in Stockton.


Hyaleas Fountain winning the Heptathlon 200m. photo by Bridget Michelsen

Fountain of bronze

Hyleas Fountain (Kettering, Ohio) became the only American woman other than Jackie Joyner-Kersee ever to win an Olympic medal in the heptathlon, coming away with a bronze-medal performance of 6,619 points. Nataliia Dobrynska of Ukraine won the gold with a personal-best 6,733 points, with fellow Ukranian Lyudmila Blonska second with 6,700. It was the second night in a row in which the U.S. women had won a medal in an event for the first time since 1992. Joyner-Kersee won heptathlon gold in 1992 and 1988 and silver in 1984, putting Fountain in very elite company.

After a mediocore performance in the long jump Saturday morning, Fountain got the night off with a javelin throw of 41.93m/137-6, well below her personal best of 48.15m/157-11 set at the Olympic Trials. It was good enough for 704 points and kept her in second place with 5,733 points, just 5 ahead of Blonska but well ahead of fourth-place Tatiana Chernova of Russia (5,575). The gap on fourth gave Fountain some margin of error heading into the 800, which is not historically a strong event for her, as she attempted to secure her first major championship medal.

In the 800, Fountain turned in a huge personal-best clocking 2:15.45 for 886 points, nabbing her the bronze by keeping her ahead of Chernova, who won the 800 in 2:06.54 for 1,016 points. Fountain's time shattered her previous personal best of 2:27.69. Chernova finished fourth overall with 6,591 points.

Jacquelyn Johnson (Tempe, Ariz.) suffered a left hamstring injury and did not start Saturday night's competition."

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