Discus world champion Harting continues fine form at Decanation

Discus world champion Robert Harting produced the best individual performance at the SEAT Decanation in Paris on Wednesday evening with a throw of 66.91m, even if it wasn't enough to stop Team USA winning the event ahead of the Germans.
Germany's Harting beat Spaniard Mario Pestano's 64.94m throw to carry on his fine form after claiming IAAF World Championship gold in front of a home crowd in Berlin just three weeks ago.

Harting has also won silver at the Osaka 2007 worlds.

Compatriot Christian Reif, meanwhile, claimed Long Jump victory with a final effort of 8.18m (+1.4), missing out on matching his personal best by 1cm.

France's Salim Sdiri was pushed back into second place with 8.05m.

Team USA won the fifth edition of the SEAT Decanation - the 10 events that form the Decathlon contested by a male and a female team for each country - with 136 points thanks to a well-balanced squad producing a steady stream of results. Germany finished second with 105 points with France a distant third (91).

Russia (83) came fourth ahead of Italy (59), Spain (54) and Finland (51).

Russia won the event in 2005 and France in 2007, with USA also winning in 2006 and 2008.

USA's Derek Miles sprung something of a surprise in the Pole Vault with a clearance of 5.70m to beat France's Romain Mesnil and Renaud Lavillenie, who claimed silver and bronze respectively at the recent worlds. Mesnil claimed second place Wednesday with 5.60m.

Other notable results included France's Martial Mbanjock's 10.16sec in the 100m putting him in second place behind USA's Mike Rodgers (10.10).

France's Mélina Robert-Michon, meanwhile, threw 63.04m in the Discus to beat Olympic Champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton's 61.55m.

Another French win was Sophie Duarte's 9:43.51 in the steeplechase.

The German women had two wins, with Verena Sailer the fastest at 100m (11.22, +0.6) and Nadine Kleinert coming out best in the Shot Put (18.92).

Russia's women scored a Pole Vault win through Tatyana Polnova (4.55m). World medalist Chelsea Johnson also cleared 4.55m and had a better series attempts than the Russian, but was competing out of competition.