AOY - really tough now!

[mump boy]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

For those who for some reason assume Bolt is a slam-dunk, as of now he'll probably get no higher than No. 4 on my ballot.

Hmmmm....so 1/2 Rudisha/Farah......3.....Eaton..??

that would be telling, but..... no!

Harting is in there isn't he ? (as he should be).

Farah has had far to thin a season outside of London for me, he'll need to run and win a good few Diamond Leagues, in fast times, to get above 4th on my book

[Flumpy]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

Plus, the Lightning bolt stance is way cooler than the Mo Bot.

This is SO true and an absolutely valid criteria on which to vote :mrgreen:

[Flumpy]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

Farah has had far to thin a season outside of London for me, he'll need to run and win a good few Diamond Leagues, in fast times, to get above 4th on my book

4th for me as well at the moment and a tenuous 4th at that.

[dbirds]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

The WR Eaton broke was older and much tougher than the 800m WR. It hasn't been challenged since it was set in 2001!

[mump boy]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

The WR Eaton broke was older and much tougher than the 800m WR. It hasn't been challenged since it was set in 2001!

Subjective and irrelevant, there are far fewer chances to break a multi events WR so of course they stay for longer.

[Dave]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

The WR Eaton broke was older and much tougher than the 800m WR. It hasn't been challenged since it was set in 2001!

Subjective and irrelevant, there are far fewer chances to break a multi events WR so of course they stay for longer.

Exactly, look at the indoor Heptathlon......

[Tuariki]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

I think that if Eaton wanted to he and the other top decathletes could arrange for as many competitions as they want.

I think the real issue is that just like the marathon the body is just not capable of doing more then 2 or 3 top performances a year.

[gh]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

...
I think the real issue is that just like the marathon the body is just not capable of doing more then 2 or 3 top performances a year.

I'm not sure I remotely believe that. As Daley Thompson was so fond of pointing out, his "grueling"
event added up to about 14 minutes of competition over two days. Obviously the mental strain of not wanting to make errors can be immense, but I'm sure the average world-class athlete puts in dozen and dozens of days per year (per month?) that are harder physically than actually doing a decathlon.

Of course your definition of "year" here may involve only, say, May through August, which is a slightly tougher regimen. Note that when Bill Toomey won the '68 gold it was his sixth 10-eventer of the year and when he got hungry for the WR at the end of his wrap-up year in '69 he started 9 and finished 8 between April 26 and December 10, 7 of them over 8000 points. (the WR, of course, came in the last one)

Or how about Jeff Bennett, all 5-8/172 of him, who in '70 won Kansas at 7712 on April 17-18 and Drake at 8072 On April 22-23? (all these vintage scores on earlier tables, but not appreciably different for the purposes of this conversation)

[Marlow]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

...
I think the real issue is that just like the marathon the body is just not capable of doing more then 2 or 3 top performances a year.

I'm not sure I remotely believe that.

Gonna hafta agree. I did a couple and though I could scarcely move the next day, I was 100% fine a week later and could have done it all over again. As I've posted before, the only hard part of the decathlon is the repetitive warm-ups for the next event. You have a thorough warm-up for the 100 and you'd think you'd be ready for the LJ, but that requires run-throughs to adjust the steps, and then the SP requires a completely new set of muscles. Even when the 400 is over, you're not done, because you have to pre-prepare for the next day.

The actual competition is not hard at all (yeah, the 1500 hurts, big deal).

[odelltrclan]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

I'm not sure I remotely believe that. As Daley Thompson was so fond of pointing out, his "grueling" event added up to about 14 minutes of competition over two days. Obviously the mental strain of not wanting to make errors can be immense, but I'm sure the average world-class athlete puts in dozen and dozens of days per year (per month?) that are harder physically than actually doing a decathlon.

Of course your definition of "year" here may involve only, say, May through August, which is a slightly tougher regimen. Note that when Bill Toomey won the '68 gold it was his sixth 10-eventer of the year and when he got hungry for the WR at the end of his wrap-up year in '69 he started 9 and finished 8 between April 26 and December 10, 7 of them over 8000 points. (the WR, of course, came in the last one)

Or how about Jeff Bennett, all 5-8/172 of him, who in '70 won Kansas at 7712 on April 17-18 and Drake at 8072 On April 22-23? (all these vintage scores on earlier tables, but not appreciably different for the purposes of this conversation)

To me the issue is not about how "grueling" the 2 days are on the body, but rather, how hard is all the training that gets you ready for those two events at the level to compete at your best.

Certainly it is the training for the 10 events is going to be difficult. That training might cause the various ligaments, joints, etc. to be stressed in a manner different than other athletes (what is the effect on knees, hips, ankles with a LJ, HJ, SP, hurdles, etc training that other athletes training specifically for those events, do not have to deal with?) and thus subject multi-eventers to more potentially more fatigue and injury. By the time the competition comes around it is probably a breeze for them.

[Tuariki]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

...
I think the real issue is that just like the marathon the body is just not capable of doing more then 2 or 3 top performances a year.

I'm not sure I remotely believe that. As Daley Thompson was so fond of pointing out, his "grueling"
event added up to about 14 minutes of competition over two days.

Probably more like 8 minutes 30 seconds ??

11 - 1 x 11
24 - 3 x 8
9 - 3 x 3
48 - 8 x 6
50 - 1 x 50
14 - 1 x 14
9 - 3 x 3
60 - 6 x 10
15 - 3 x 5
4:30 - 1 x 4:30

What are you saying GH? Are you picking on me? Are you suggesting 2 hours 4 minutes of gut wrenching torture (well OK, when I tried it it was about 4 hours of excruciating pain) is harder than 8 minutes and 30 seconds of intense mental strain? I mean, didn't you you see the incredible tension on Ashton Eaton's face as he "struggled" with his emotions to survive a pressure filled 1500 at London.

[aaronk]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

If Eaton had run 4 seconds faster in the 1500, and gotten the OR along with his Gold, then AOY would be a slam dunk for Ashton!!

Why?

Because then, in his two competitions, Eaton would have:

Trials: Broken the WR, and beaten his own PR by 310 points, and moved from 13th on the All-Time list to 1st!!

Olympics: Broken the OR, had the 2nd best performance of his career.

As against Rudisha breaking his own and the WR by 0.10 in winning Gold.
His next best mark of 2012, 1:41.54, was 0.53 behind the WR and his PR at the time.

I think the reason so many are picking Rudisha is because of the other 7 runners in the final in London, as well as what Rudisha himself did.
It was so exciting seeing the flow of PR's and National Records that followed him, that I think some people elevated Rudisha beyond where he would have been if the field hadn't been as deep.

[26mi235]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

[quote="gh"As Daley Thompson was so fond of pointing out, his "grueling"
event added up to about 14 minutes of competition over two days.[/quote]

Well running 84 rounds of the 100 in two days would be rather taxing...

[26mi235]

Re: AOY - really tough now!

[quote=mump boy]

For those who for some reason assume Bolt is a slam-dunk, as of now he'll probably get no higher than No. 4 on my ballot.

Hmmmm....so 1/2 Rudisha/Farah......3.....Eaton..??

that would be telling, but..... no!

Harting is in there isn't he ? (as he should be).

Farah has had far to thin a season outside of London for me, he'll need to run and win a good few Diamond Leagues, in fast times, to get above 4th on my book[/quote:34vkfget]

Like there are a vast number of 10,000m races on the circuit for Farah to run. And, even aside from his primary distance he has won races (and 1500s are rather far from 10,000). While there are more 5000s, they have to fit his training/racing schedule which has to have a lot of training to do the double.