On the Davenport constant and on the structure of extremal zero-sum free sequences

Let $G = C_{n_1 } oplus cdots oplus C_{n_r }$ with 1 < n ₁ | ?? | n _r be a finite abelian group, d*(G) = n ₁ +??+n _r ?r, and let d(G) denote the maximal length of a zerosum free sequence over G. Then d(G) ?? d*(G), and the standing conjecture is that equality holds for G = C _n ^r . We show that equality does not hold for C ₂ ?? C _2n ^r , where n ?? 3 is odd and r ?? 4. This gives new information on the structure of extremal zero-sum free sequences over C _2n ^r .