2021 multi-event

[Atticus]

Gittens 22-10 with 2.0 wind!!!!!!
1159 points!

Sits at 5079.

With an average (for her) 38 JT (41 PR) and 2:30 800 (2:28 PR) she can get to 6400, tantalizingly close to the 6420 Oly-Q!
Current PR is a 6274w.

[ZazaShoya]

Last throw 40.18 (first 29, dang), now on her way to the big Q for Tokyo ! 2'31"8 needed, easy job for most of the elite heptathlete, not so much for her but she can make it.

[donley2]

Last throw 40.18 (first 29, dang), now on her way to the big Q for Tokyo ! 2'31"8 needed, easy job for most of the elite heptathlete, not so much for her but she can make it.

Are the win readings ok for qualifying purposes?

[aaronk]

Last throw 40.18 (first 29, dang), now on her way to the big Q for Tokyo ! 2'31"8 needed, easy job for most of the elite heptathlete, not so much for her but she can make it.

Why limit her?
Why just the Q mark?
Why not the Collegiate Record of DGG??

She needs to score 778 points to beat the CR by one point!
That's an 800 in 2:23.43.

Who's to say adrenaline and a major goal not far outside her comfort zone won't propel her around the track in the needed time?
Let's cheer her on, not try to limit her!!

[donley2]

Wow Gittens 6418. Two points short.

[aaronk]

Wow Gittens 6418. Two points short.

But 28 points higher than Jackie Joyner Kersee scored while a Collegiate!!
Think about that for a minute!

[jupo]

0.11 s...

[ZazaShoya]

But 28 points higher than Jackie Joyner Kersee scored while a Collegiate!!
Think about that for a minute!

But 124 points lower than Carolina Klüft scored while a teenager.
What should we conclude ?

[aaronk]

But 124 points lower than Carolina Klüft scored while a teenager.
What should we conclude ?

That Kluft had enormous potential that was never fully realized??

[donley2]

Gittens straight over to the open Long Jump 5.96.

[ZazaShoya]

Very problematic 800. Younger athletes tend to have this kind of performances but they usually progress quite fast as U20 and so on. Gittens doesn't show any sign of improvement in this discipline, not even with the "adrenaline" and the perspective of an Olympic qualification, though she will be 23 in June. And we're not talking of going from 2.20 to 2.13, her record is currently at 2.28 ! Sure it's not over yet, more so since she can only progress from where she is, but it's crippling ... with a decent 800 (2.18) she would have scored around 6600, which is an altitude where you can glimpse international podiums.
2016-2021 => none of the 30 best heptathletes recorded a time over 2.21 en route to their PB (actually only 7 over 2.15 including 2 over 2.20).

[aaronk]

Very problematic 800. Younger athletes tend to have this kind of performances but they usually progress quite fast as U20 and so on. Gittens doesn't show any sign of improvement in this discipline, not even with the "adrenaline" and the perspective of an Olympic qualification, though she will be 23 in June. And we're not talking of going from 2.20 to 2.13, her record is currently at 2.28 ! Sure it's not over yet, more so since she can only progress from where she is, but it's crippling ... with a decent 800 (2.18) she would have scored around 6600, which is an altitude where you can glimpse international podiums.
2016-2021 => none of the 30 best heptathletes recorded a time over 2.21 en route to their PB (actually only 7 over 2.15 including 2 over 2.20).

Not used as an excuse, but maybe she didn't push herself in the 800 because the open LJ was starting then, and she needed to get over there.
In fact, her first measured LJ (in the open) was just 5.96.
She saved herself by going 6.46 in round 3.
I think she missed the 1st attempt because she was just finishing the 800!

[gh]

Wow Gittens 6418. Two points short.

but with only 9 at the auto-Q, have to think her making it in via the rankings route must be pretty decent

[olorin]

but with only 9 at the auto-Q, have to think her making it in via the rankings route must be pretty decent

She is got a very good chance but NOT because of her score tonight.
In order to qualify through ranking quota an heptathlete will need ~1185 points. These points are a sum of the performance (mark) and placing.
The problem is that the ranking gives way too much weight to the placing points rather than performance.

To illustrate, lets assume that Gittens win the NCAA with a high 63xx.
For tonight she will get 1157 result-points and 10 placing points for winning SEC.
For the NCAA she will get 1150 result-points plus 45 for winning (NCAA is more important competition than SEC).
This will give her an average score of 1281 which is likely not be enough!!!

Let's compare her to Martha Koala from (BUR), which has two competitions with ~6,235. While she is losing ~35 points on average because of the lower marks, she is gaining 75 & 55 points for finishing third and fifth in Multistars (21) and decastar (19) which gives her an overall average of 1186.

Luckily for Gittens she also has the iNCAA competition which gives her 1190 points, so a win in the NCAA would probably be enough.
The same does not hold for most American / Collegiate athletes that will finish in the third place in the trials but without the auto-Q. Heptathletes like Brooks, Hall, Atherley and others can have the performance of their life, finished third and score 6419 and still likely to find themselves watching the Olympics in their TV sets.

[olorin]

That Kluft had enormous potential that was never fully realized??

Nice, but wrong answer.
The correct answer is that the performances of decathletes/heptathletes in a young age is only weakly corelated with their performances at their peak, probably less than any other event in Track and field.
Eaton is ranked only fifth in the all time collegiate list (behind Victor and Tilga among others), O'Brien is not in the top-ten list. BTE has a better collegiate score than JJK and Diane Guthrie-Gresham is still the only collegiate heptathlete above 6,500 points.

To Clarify - I think that Gittens have a huge potential and if the heavy duty that she is doing for her collage will not results in injuries (i.e. Akela Jones) she is likely to compete in the highest level. But there is nothing to suggest that she is the next JJK, Because JJK amazing form came after college.