Maurice Smith

KLADNO, Czech Republic (CMC):

Jamaican Maurice Smith collected a confidence booster for the Beijing Olympics when he amassed 8,434 points to win the decathlon title at the second TNT-Fortuna Combined Events meeting on Thursday.

Smith, a silver medallist at last year's World Championship in Japan and one of the Caribbean's strongest gold medal hopes in Beijing, won ahead of the Olympic champion Roman Sebrle, of the Czech Republic.

Sebrle, also the world record holder, gathered 8,076 points.

Good race

After entering the second day ahead of the field, Smith reeled off a solid 110-metre hurdles race in 13.91 seconds against the wind and an excellent discus win at 52.81 metres.

His javelin effort was a moderate 50.83 metres and his pole vault was 4.75 metres as he put together the third-best decathlon total for the year so far, bettered only by Kazakhstan's Dmitry Karpov (8,504) and Russian Alexey Sysoev (8,497).

More work needed

"I must be satisfied, but it is clear I need lot of work for my javelin throw," the 28-year-old Smith said after his win.

Sebrle, who was defending champion here, fulfilled his goal of an Olympic qualifier with 8,076 points for the runner-up spot. Austrian Roland Schwarzl was third with 7,787.

Smith had logged 4,410 points after the first day of the event, highlighted by his shot put effort, twice improving his best with 17.60 and 17.78 metres. He clocked 10.81 in the 100 metres, 7.31 metres in long jump and produced a good 1.98 metres in the high jump and 48.76 seconds for 400 metres.