Those who follow my blog know that I am always fascinated by the combined events (and their scoring). Articles about the decathlon appear regularly in these pages and as you have certainly noticed I am a fervent supporter of the decathlon for women.
This post had two distinct motivations. The first stemmed from a crazy idea of mine (and we'll come to the second later in this post). As you may have noticed I am not particulary fond of the eicosathlon: it is too much skewed towards running. In my post on decathlon variants I did propose a shorter version thereof, with just 15 events.
But then I got thinking. How about an alternate decathlon, which would keep the ratio of track to field events to the initial 2/3 one and would include events not present in the standard decathlon? It turns out that since the only field events not present in the decathlon are triple jump and hammer throw one needs to keep four of the six decathlon field events. Also I was reluctant to consider now-extinct events like standing jumps or left-right hand throws. Also, if hammer is to be present, the 25 kg weight throw should not be considered. Thus the triple jump and hammer throw would be accompanied by the two vertical jumps and the two pentathlon throws.
Following this logic one needs four track events in order to complete the alternate decathlon. Choosing the flat runs is easy: 200 m and 800 m are the obvious candidates. And for the hurdle race the 400 m is the natural choice. As a matter of fact I hesitated a bit thinking about a possible inclusion of the 200 m hurdles. Although it is not run in a major competition since the 1904 Olympics it is an interesting race in particular because of the (very) low hurdles. But then I decided, in view of what comes next, that its inclusion would lead to too many obstacle races. For the final track event I opted for a steeplechase race. Obliging the athletes to run over 3000 m one at the end of the decathlon would be inconsiderate, so I opted for the shorter version of the 2000 m. In fact if a 1000 m steeplechase existed I would not hesitate to include that in the alternate decathlon.
The organisation would follow the current two-day one with the "new" events concentrated on the first day while the second day would be identical to the current one as far as the field events are concerned. Here is the result
1st day
200 m, triple jump, hammer throw, high jump, 800 m
2nd day
400 m HD, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, 2000 m ST
And of course an alternate heptathlon can be proposed along the same lines
1st day
100 m, triple jump, hammer throw, 400 m HD
2nd day
pole vault, discus throw, 1500 m
In my post on athletic triathlons, which are on the path of becoming a regular event of major meetings, I wrote about the possibility of tetrathlons consisting of 200 m, long jump, shot put and 1000 m. The advantage of such events is that they are suitable for both indoors and outdoors and are the same for men and women. Moreover they could be contested in just one hour.
This brings me to the second motivation for this post. A few weeks ago D. Distelberger, a 8000+ decathlete, announced his intention to attempt a 10 minute decathlon. Yes, that's not a misprint, 10 minutes. Of course, as in the 30 min and 1 hr decathlon, 10 minutes means that the 1500 m should start not later than 10 minutes after the start of the 100 m. Distelberger was aiming at a 5800 and perhaps 6000 points performance. Unfortunately while preparing for the event he injured himself and had to postpone the attempt.
A 10 min decathlon asks for a special setup of the field, ferrying the athlete around from one point to the next one by car (I have golf carts in mind) while he changes shoes. While I look forward to the "fastest decathlon of all time" I am aware of the danger involved. Suppose one decides to set up a record of the fastest decathlon (even with the time for the 1500 m included). If we believe that Distelberger can reach the start of the 1500 m in 10 minutes then a decathlon could be completed in roughly 15 minutes. But what would prevent somebody to try to beat the 15 min barrier by jogging through the 100 and 400 m (the high hurdles would definitely require some effort, though), making token jumps in particular in the vertical ones, reaching the 1500 m without having exerted himself and then go all out so as to run a very fast 1500 m. That would be a farcical "fast decathlon" one that no serious decathlete would ever attempt. So, a super-fast decathlon should always come with a minimum point requirement.
Distelberger was planning for 5800 to 6000 points, slightly over 70 % of his 8175 personal best. Now we know that Zmelik's one-hour record stands at 90 % of his PB and Beach's 30 minute record is slightly above 80 % of his best. Recenly I. Dadic competed a one hour heptathlon (more comfortable than the usual 45 minutes one) and with 6325 she came within 96 % of her PB of 6552 points. Given these performances Distelberger's aim at a total of 70 % of his best does not look irrealistic. In fact I would settle even for a 5000 10 min decathlon. (And one would expect the same, or slightly higher, number of points for a 10 min women's heptathlon).
I keep my fingers crossed and hope that Distelberger (or somebody else) manages to make the attempt of a super-fast decathlon.
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