- Decathlon
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- "Decathlete" redirects here. For the video game, see DecAthlete (video game). For other uses, see Decathlon (disambiguation)
College decathlete competitors pose at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin (from δέκα deka [ten] and αθλος athlos [contest]). Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not by the position achieved.[1] The decathlon is contested mainly by male athletes, while female athletes typically compete in the heptathlon.
Traditionally, the title of "World's Greatest Athlete" has been given to the man who wins the decathlon. This began when King Gustav V of Sweden told Jim Thorpe, "You, sir, are the world's greatest athlete" after Thorpe won the decathlon at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912.[2] The current holder of the title is American Bryan Clay, the gold medal winner of the event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, who took the title from Athens Olympics Czech champion Roman Šebrle.[3]
The event developed from the ancient pentathlon. Pentathlon competitions were held at the ancient Greek Olympics. Pentathlons involved five disciplines – long jump, discus throw, javelin throw, sprint and a wrestling match.[4] Introduced in Olympia during 708 BC, the competition was extremely popular for many centuries. By the 6th century BC, pentathlons had become part of religious games. The Amateur Athletic Union held "all around events" from the 1880s and a decathlon first appeared on the Olympic athletics program at the 1904 Games.[5]
Contents
Format
Men's decathlon
The vast majority of international and top level men's decathlons are divided in to a two-day competition, with the track and field events held in the order below. Traditionally, all decathletes who finished the event do a round of honour together after the competition, rather than just the winner or medalling athletes.
- Day 1
- Day 2
- 110 metres hurdles
- Discus throw
- Pole vault
- Javelin throw
- 1500 metres
Women's decathlon
At major championships, the women's equivalent of the decathlon is the seven-event heptathlon; prior to 1981 it was the five-event pentathlon.[6] However, in 2001 the IAAF approved scoring tables for women's decathlon; the current world record holder is Austra Skujytė of Lithuania.[7] Women's disciplines differ from men's in the same way as for standalone events: the shot, discus and javelin weigh less, and the sprint hurdles uses lower hurdles over 100 m rather than 110 m. The points tables used are the same as for the heptathlon in the shared events. The schedule of events differs from the men's decathlon, with the field events switched between day one and day two; this is to avoid scheduling conflicts when men's and women's decathlon competitions take place simultaneously.[8]
- Day 1
- Day 2
One hour
One hour decathlon is a special type of decathlon, in which the athletes have to start the last of ten events (1500 m) within sixty minutes after the start of the first event. The world record holder is a Czech decathlete Robert Změlík, who achieved 7897 points at a meeting in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, in 1992.[9]
Points system
Event A B C 100 m 25.4347 18 1.81 Long jump 0.14354 220 1.4 Shot put 51.39 1.5 1.05 High jump 0.8465 75 1.42 400 m 1.53775 82 1.81 110 m hurdles 5.74352 28.5 1.92 Discus throw 12.91 4 1.1 Pole vault 0.2797 100 1.35 Javelin throw 10.14 7 1.08 1500 m 0.03768 480 1.85 Main article: Decathlon scoring tablesThe 2001 IAAF points tables use the following formulae:[10]
- Points = INT(A*(B-P)C) for track events
- Points = INT(A*(P-B)C) for jumping and throwing events
A, B and C are parameters that vary by discipline, as shown in the table below, while P is the performance by the athlete, measured in seconds (running), metres (throwing), or centimetres (jumping).[10]
The decathlon tables should not be confused with the scoring tables compiled by Bojidar Spiriev, to allow comparison of the relative quality of performances by athletes in different events. On those tables, for example, a decathlon score of 9006 points equates to 1265 "comparison points", the same number as a triple jump of 18.00 m.[11]
Benchmarks
Split evenly between the events, the following table shows the benchmark levels needed to earn 1000, 900, 800 and 700 points in each sport.
Event 1000 pts 900 pts 800 pts 700 pts Units 100m 10.395 10.827 11.278 11.756 Seconds Long jump 7.76 7.36 6.941 6.51 Metres Shot put 18.4 16.79 15.16 13.53 Metres High jump 2.20 2.10 1.99 1.88 Metres 400m 46.17 48.19 50.32 52.58 Seconds 110m hurdles 13.8 14.59 15.419 16.29 Seconds Discus throw 56.17 51.4 46.59 41.72 Metres Pole vault 5.28 4.96 4.63 4.29 Metres Javelin throw 77.19 70.67 64.09 57.45 Metres 1500m 233.79 247.42 261.77 276.96 Seconds Records
Further information: Decathlon world record progressionThe current world record holder for the decathlon is Roman Šebrle of the Czech Republic, with his score of 9026 points set in 2001.[12]
Record Score Athlete Year World 9026 Roman Šebrle (CZE)
2001 World junior 8397 Torsten Voss (GDR)
1982 Continental records Africa 8302 Larbi Bouraada (ALG)
2011 Asia 8725 Dmitriy Karpov (KAZ)
2004 Europe 9026 Roman Šebrle (CZE)
2001 North, Central America
and Caribbean8891 Dan O'Brien (USA)
1992 Oceania 8490 Jagan Hames (AUS)
1998 South America 8291 Tito Steiner (ARG)
1983 - Updated 7 May 2011.
Decathlon bests
The total decathlon score for all world records in the respective events would be 12,544. The total decathlon score for all the best performances achieved during decathlons is 10,485.
World records (WR) compared to decathlon bests (DB) Event WR–World record/
DB–Decathlon bestAthlete Record Score Difference 100m WR Usain Bolt 9.58 s 1202 DB Chris Huffins 10.22 s 1042 −161 Long jump WR Mike Powell 8.95 m 1312 DB Erki Nool 8.22 m 1117 −195 Shot put WR Randy Barnes 23.12 m 1295 DB Edy Hubacher 19.17 m 1048 −247 High jump WR Javier Sotomayor 2.45 m 1244 DB Rolf Beilschmidt &
Christian Schenk2.27 m 1061 −183 400m WR Michael Johnson 43.18 s 1156 DB Bill Toomey 45.68 s 1025 −131 110m hurdles WR Dayron Robles 12.87 s 1126 DB Frank Busemann 13.47 s 1044 −82 Discus throw WR Jürgen Schult 74.08 m 1383 DB Bryan Clay 55.87 m 993 −390 Pole vault WR Sergey Bubka 6.14 m 1277 DB Tim Lobinger 5.76 m 1152 −125 Javelin throw WR Jan Železný 98.48 m 1331 DB Peter Blank 79.80 m 1040 −291 1500m WR Hicham El Guerrouj 3 m 26.00 s 1218 DB Robert Baker 3 m 58.70 s 963 −255 Total World record 12544 Decathlon 10485 National records
- As of September 19, 2011.
Points Nation Athlete Date Place 9026 CZE
Roman Šebrle 2001-04-27 Götzis 8891 USA
Dan O'Brien 1992-09-05 Talence 8847 GBR
Daley Thompson 1984-08-09 Los Angeles 8832 GER
Jürgen Hingsen 1984-06-09 Mannheim 8815 EST
Erki Nool 2001-08-07 Edmonton 8735 BLR
Eduard Hämäläinen 1994-05-29 Götzis 8730 FIN
Eduard Hämäläinen 1997-08-06 Athens 8725 KAZ
Dmitriy Karpov 2004-08-24 Athens 8709 UKR
Aleksandr Apaychev 1984-06-03 Neubrandenburg 8698 RUS
Grigoriy Degtyaryev 1984-06-22 Kiev 8654 CUB
Leonel Suárez 2009-07-04 Havana 8644 JAM
Maurice Smith 2007-09-01 Osaka 8626 CAN
Mike Smith 1996-05-26 Götzis 8574 FRA
Christian Plaziat 1990-08-29 Split 8573 ISL
Jón Arnar Magnússon 1998-05-31 Götzis 8566 POL
Sebastian Chmara 1998-05-17 Murcia 8554 HUN
Attila Zsivóczky 2000-06-04 Götzis 8526 ESP
Francisco Javier Benet 1998-05-17 Murcia 8490 AUS
Jagan Hames 1998-09-18 Kuala Lumpur 8447 NED
Robert de Wit 1988-05-22 Eindhoven 8445 UZB
Ramil Ganiyev 1997-08-06 Athens 8437 LTU
Rišardas Malachovskis 1988-07-02 Staiki 8406 SWE
Nicklas Wiberg 2009-08-20 Berlin 8359 NZL
Simon Poelman 1987-03-22 Christchurch 8334 SUI
Stephan Niklaus 1983-07-03 Lausanne 8320 AUT
Gernot Kellermayr 1993-05-30 Götzis 8302 ALG
Larbi Bouraada 2011-07-17 Ratingen 8291 ARG
Tito Steiner 1983-06-23 Provo 8290 CHN
Qi Haifeng 2005-05-29 Götzis 8288 MDA
Valeri Kachanov 1980-06-21 Moscow 8271 LAT
Janis Karlivans 2007-05-27 Götzis 8266 BRA
Pedro da Silva 1987-04-23 Walnut 8256 SRB
Mihail Dudaš 2011-08-28 Daegu 8213 POR
Mário Aníbal 2001-07-01 Kaunas 8206 ROC
Yang Chuan-Kwang 1963-04-28 Walnut 8200 BEL
Hans Van Alphen 2011-09-18 Talence 8199 BUL
Atanas Andonov 1981-06-21 Sofia 8169 ITA
Beniamino Poserina 1996-10-06 Formia 8160 NOR
Benjamin Jensen 1999-08-01 Greve 8146 RSA
Willem Coertzen 2009-08-20 Berlin 8073 JPN
Keisuke Ushiro 2011-06-05 Kawasaki 8069 GRE
Prodromos Korkizoglou 2000-07-02 Ibach 8023 TUN
Hamdi Dhouibi 2005-08-10 Helsinki 7994 DEN
Lars Warming 1988-06-19 Götzis 7882 IRL
Carlos O'Connell 1988-06-05 Emmitsburg 7860 KOR
Kim Kun-Woo 28 August 2011 Gongju 7846 TJK
Igor Sobolevskiy 1982-07-16 Leningrad 7843 ROM
Vasile Bogdan 1975-06-07 Paris 7802 CYP
Yeorgios Andreou 2000-08-12 Volos 7799 SVK
Peter Soldos 2001-06-10 Arles 7777 BAR
Victor Houston 1997-08-06 Athens 7757 TUR
Alper Kasapoğlu 1996-04-19 Azusa 7756 GEO
Juri Dyachkov 1968-06-16 Tbilisi 7755 VIE
Vu Van Huyen 2010-11-25 Guangzhou 7734 VEN
Douglas Fernández 1983-08-27 Caracas 7730 QAT
Ahmad Hassan Moussa 2004-06-27 Ratingen 7711 IRI
Hadi Sepehrzad 2008-07-21 Tehran 7704 PUR
Luiggy Llanos 2003-08-06 Santo Domingo 7698 SLO
Damjan Sitar 2006-05-28 Maribor 7659 CRO
Joško Vlašić 1983-06-25 Izmir 7632 LCA
Dominic Johnson 1998-03-27 Tucson 7614 MEX
Alejandro Cárdenas 1996-05-11 Medellín 7096 ISR
Erez Meltzer 1994-07-31 Markt Schwaben Season's bests
See also
Other multiple event contests
- Biathlon
- Duathlon
- Triathlon
- Quadrathlon
- Modern pentathlon
- Heptathlon
- Octathlon
- Icosathlon or double decathlon
- Aquathlon
- Chess-boxing
- Nordic combined
References
- "IAAF Scoring Tables for Combined Events". IAAF. April 2004. http://www.iaaf.org/mm/Document/Competitions/TechnicalArea/ScoringTables_CE_744.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
- ^ "Decathlon". Encarta. 2008. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574361/decathlon.html. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
- ^ World's Greatest Athlete
- ^ Athletics at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games: Men's Decathlon. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2011-05-07.
- ^ Waldo E. Sweet, Erich Segal (1987). Sport and recreation in ancient Greece. Oxford University Press. (p37). Retrieved on 2011-05-07.
- ^ IAAF Scoring Tables for Combined Events, p. 7.
- ^ IAAF Scoring Tables for Combined Events, p. 9.
- ^ "Decathlon Records". IAAF. http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/records/inout=o/discType=5/disc=DEC/detail.html. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
- ^ IAAF Scoring Tables for Combined Events, p. 10.
- ^ Decathlon Records. DECA - The Decathlon Association. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ a b IAAF Scoring Tables for Combined Events, p. 24.
- ^ IAAF Scoring Tables of Athletics - Outdoor - 2008 Edition p. 154.
- ^ Decathlon records. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-05-07.
External links
- Decathlon points calculator for Iphone
- Team Decathlon website
- A downloadable Excel spreadsheet of multi-event scoring and age grading is available from the creator, Stefan Waltermann
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