double decathalon

[26mi235]

Re: double decathalon

Why "double decathlon"? Sounds analogous to calling decathlon double pentathlon. All logic says it should be called "icosathlon".

Icosathlon would be over four days (pent 1, deca 2, ... iso 4). Here, the even is doubled each day.

I did comment on this somewhere. His decathlon subset is actually a pretty decent score of about 7700, I think. This guy was a walk-on at Wisconsin and did not do his first multis until probably his junior year -- then was fourth indoors NCAA (setting a Hept record in the 1000 at 2:29--since broken by Beach, I think) and second outdoors where he past a number of guys with a 4:04, which he says he ran conservatively going out 'slow' (upper-60s for the first third or more?) because he wanted to beat some guys to get second and thinks he might have gone under 4:00.

[Powell]

Re: double decathalon

Why "double decathlon"? Sounds analogous to calling decathlon double pentathlon. All logic says it should be called "icosathlon".

Icosathlon would be over four days (pent 1, deca 2, ... iso 4). Here, the even is doubled each day.

Not at all. The name icosathlon only says it consists of 20 events, not over what time they are held. You could do the 10 events in 1 day, or in ten, and it would still be called decathlon.

[Powell]

Re: double decathalon

why are the 200 hurdles included?

There are only 18 individual events on the Olympic program (if you exclude those held outside the stadium), so to get to 20, they had to include two extras - 3000 and 200H

[Halfmiler2]

Re: double decathalon

The 200H is not longer a record event, but the 1K, 2K, 3K, Mile, and 56 lb. wt. are outdoor record events, so pick two of them. (I think the 56 lb. wt. is a USATF record event but no longer an IAAF outdoor record event. The others are recognized by both.)

[AS]

Re: double decathalon

Detmer also set a world record for the highest decathlon score ever posted as part of a double decathlon competition. He racked up an incredible 7,741 points in the 10 traditional decathlon disciplines on Friday and Saturday.

That 7741 is pretty impressive when you look at Detmer's SRs over past few years:

2010 8090 Marburg 08/08/2010
2009 7892 Marburg 09/08/2009
2008 7861 Manhattan, KS 03/08/2008
2007 7616 FILDERSTADT 19/08/2007
2006 7536 Sacramento, CA 08/06/2006

http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/biographie ... index.html

Nice comparison of past three records by events here:
http://www.decathlon2000.ee/eng/2805/