Jessica Zelinka 7th in Olympic heptathlon

Jessica Zelinka's second Olympics was a series of highs and lows, as she overcame a disastrous high jump to finish seventh in the heptathlon.

Mihira Lakshman August 4, 2012

Jessica Zelinka’s second Olympics was a series of highs and lows, as she overcame a disastrous high jump to finish sixth in the heptathlon, Saturday at London’s Olympic Stadium.

The 30-year-old from Calgary finished fifth at the 2008 Beijing Games and was in third after Day 1 — riding the strength of PBs in the 100m hurdles and 200m. If it weren’t for a high jump of 1.68m, 11cm under her best, Zelinka likely would have made the podium.

Great Britain’s Jessica Ennis ran away with the gold medal, finishing first with 6,955 points.

She was steady on the final day of competition, capped with a 2:09.15 800m for a total of 6,480.

Brianne Theisen of Humboldt, Sask., competing in her first Olympics, finished 11th. Theisen, an NCAA champion with the Oregon Ducks, is engaged to decathlon world record holder Ashton Eaton of the United States.

Meanwhile, Jenna Martin of Bridgewater, N.S., finished seventh in her 400m semifinal, failing to advance to the final in her first Olympics.

Earlier in the day, Justyn Warner of Toronto advanced to the next round of the men’s 100m with a 10.09-second clocking. All of the favourites, including Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake also moved on to Sunday’s semis. American Ryan Bailey posted the fastest time of the day in 9.88.

(An earlier version of this story reported that Zelinka had finished sixth and Theisen 10th, but Lili Schwarzkopf of Germany was re-instated to the silver medal position, pushing the others down.)

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