You know my passion for combined events. Thus I decided that there would be a special section in my olympic report devoted to the decathlon and the heptathlon. (And just to repeat what I am always saying, I still hope that I will see during my lifetime the perfect women-men parity, with women competing in a decathlon).
One Olympic champion (Thiam) and two world champions (Johnson-Thompson and Kaul) were present in Tokyo, and one should add the 2017 world champion K. Mayer and the top performer of the year (and multiple olympic and world medallist) D. Warner who barely missed the 9K barrier in Götzis, with 8995 points. The competition was going to be fierce. And it was.
K. Williams was first after the 100 m hurdles, with 12.97 s, but Thiam moved to first place after the high jump 1.92 m and stayed there after the shot put, 14.92 m. Her hurdles performance was not bad, 13.54 s, a 0.2 s off her PB. However her high jump performance was way below par and it was clear that she would not dominate the event as she did in the past. This was confirmed at the last event of the day, the 200 m. Thiam ran a so-so 24.90 s and finished 3rd overall. Meanwhile A. Vetter had a solid first day with 13.09, 1.80, 15.29 and 23.81 finishing almost 50 points ahead of Thiam. N. Vidts, Thiam's compatriot, had a series of 13.17, 1.83, 14.33 and 23.70, obtaining the second place, with 20 points more than Thiam. The three US athletes, all having scored more than 6600 points in the Trials, were not in their trials shape, finishing 4th, 6th and 9th after the first day. X. Krizsan who had made a great impression in Götzis with 6651 points, was trailing at the 19th place. I always keep an eye on I. Dadic who is a solid performer: she was 8th after the first day. And of course I was following also Ninali Zheng, aka Nina Schultz, who is now competing for China: she was 10th at that point. The two disappointments were N. Broersen, who could do no better than 17th at the end of the first day and called it quits and, of course, K. Johnson-Thompson. It was clear that KJT was not at her best this year, coming back form an Achilles tendon injury, but she was more than OK in the three first events. She was 5th after the shot put and could only improve her place with the 200 m. Well, things turned out quite differently: she never got to finish her 200 m due to a calf injury. The task of Thiam was somewhat easier after that.
On the second day Thiam won the long jump with 6.60 m moving to second place but Vetter was always first, Vidts slipping to 3rd. The event that was going to make a difference was the javelin throw. Thiam threw 54.68 m, a good throw (but far from her PB of 59.32 m) moving 64 points ahead of Vetter. At this point E. Oosterwegel, an excellent javelin thrower and an athlete I am keeping an eye on, threw 54.60 m improving her position to 4th. So prior to the 800 m the standings were: Thiam 5912, Vetter 5848, Williams 5642, Oosterwegel 5641, Vidts 5592 and Kunz 5540. When the 800 m started I expected Vetter to make a move, trying to distance Thiam in the hope of beating her for the first place. But it immediately appeared that she had no reserves, so she just followed Thiam up to the point where the latter accelerated and then she just hanged on securing the silver medal with 6689 points. Thiam won with 6791 points obtaining her second olympic victory. The interesting race was elsewhere. Vidts was better in the 800 m than both Williams and Oosterwegel and went all out trying to beat them and move to the third place. But Oosterwegel hanged on, massively improving her 800 PB, losing just 30 points to Vidts and finishing 3rd with 6590 points, obtaining the bronze medal.
Vidts was 4th with 6571 points and Williams 5th with 6508. Dadic and Zheng finished 8th and 10th and Krizsan, despite her excellent 800 m, at the 13th place. I must make a special mention here of O. Ahouanwanou who was 5th at the end of the first day, 6th after 5 events and 10th after 6 events with 5481 points. Although she is a solid shot put thrower, with a PB of 15.79 m, her javelin throw is not as good, her PB being 48.02 m. But in Tokyo she was 4 m off. Had she thrown close to her PB she would have kept her 6th place. But the real disaster is her 800 m. She ran in 2:29.05 and slipped to 15th (!) place. With a just decent 800 m she could have vied for a place among the 8 first.
Warner took control of the decathlon right from the first event where he equalled the decathlon world best performance with 10.12 s. He went on to jump 8.24 m which would have sufficed for a bronze medal in the individual long jump. He had a good throw at the shot put with 14.80 m but a slightly below-par high jump with just 2.02 m. He ended the day with 47.48 in the 400m and a total of 4722 points some 25 fewer than the ones he obtained in Götzis. Meanwhile Mayer started with 10.68 s and 7.50 m but it was in the shot put where it became clear that he was not in top shape. He threw 15.07 m, two metres off his PB. Talking to the press, he explained that he had some persistent back pain but he added that he will hang on and try to be on the podium. Things improved slightly when he jumped 2.08 m, just one cm shy of his PB and he completed the first day with 50.31 in the 400 m, finishing at the 5th place.
Meanwhile P. LePage had an excellent first day (as usual) finishing 3rd overall. But the real surprise came from 21-year old A. Moloney. His series 10.34-7.64-14.49-2.11-46.29 obtained 4641 points and brought him to the second place. S. Bastien was occupying the 4th place, but over the second day he would fade to 10th. The winner of the US Trials G. Scantling was 6th, paying the price of a so-so performance at the high jump. He would try to catch-up over the second day but in the end he would be some 40 points shy of the podium.
Warner started the second day with excellent performances 13.46 s in the hurdles and 48.67 m in the discus and followed with 4.90 in the pole vault (not his strong event). The order was always the same Warner-Moloney-LePage with Mayer occupying the 4th place. Moloney had a very good series of 14.08-44.36-5.00 comparable to LePage's 14.39-47.14-5.00. Mayer closed the gap with 13.90-48.08-5.20 and after 8 events he was 140 points behind Moloney and 46 behind LePage. At this point Mayer knew that he needed to throw at least 10 m more than those two in the javelin in order not to be threatened in the 1500 m. Warner threw 63.44 in the javelin. It was precisely the event which prevented him from reaching 9000 points in Götzis, having fouled an over 61 m throw and settling for a 59 m one. The 60 points javelin difference would allow him in the end of the day to join the 9K+ club. And Mayer, gave us another proof of his immense talent by throwing a personal best of 73.09 m, moving to the second place with margin to spare. Moloney and LePage could do not better than 57 m and, given that Scantling threw an almost PB of 69.10, were now 3rd and 5th, with Scantling occupying the 4th position. These positions would not change after the 1500 m. When the race started I was somewhat perplexed when I saw Warner running at a rather conservative pace. I knew that he needed something better than 4:34 in order to break the 9000 points barrier but he was too slow for this. Well, up to the last lap. There, he shifted gear and sprinted all the way to the finish, completing his run in 4:31.08 giving him a total of 9018 points. Had he jumped at his usual level at the high jump he would have flirted with the 9100 points. So the obvious question is, can he break the world record? Well, perhaps, but he has to make some real progress in the pole vault and, given his age, his margin of progression is getting thinner by the year.
So, after two days of gruelling competition Warner was first with 9018 points, Mayer second with 8726 and Moloney third with 8649 (and Oceania record). They were followed by Scantling 8611 and LePage 8604 (a personal best). Among the other decathletes, the one I always keep an eye on is L. Victor, who finished 7th with 8414 points (but to my opinion he has a 8600+ potential).
I was really disappointed by the performance of the estonian decathletes: they finished Erm 11th, Uibo 15th and Tilga 20th (the latter having no-heighted at the pole vault).
N. Kaul has been most unfortunate in these Olympics. He started the competition with an excellent series 11.22-7.36-14.55-2.11 with personal bests in the jumps. But it was in the high jump that he hurt his right foot. He took the start of the 400 m but he was unable to finish and was carried away weeping. Given that he was in a very good shape I estimate his final score in the 8600-8700 range: a place on the podium would have been possible. I guess that we have to wait for next year and the World's in order to see a battle at the highest level.
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