Anatoliy Fatyeyev

Evolution of Decathlon

Anatoliy Fatyeyev

Associate Professor of the Sports Disciplines Department

Institute of Physical Education and Sport

Lugansk National Pedagogical University,

Honoured Coach of Ukraine

 I’ve got thirty-years experience in combined events coaching. The most considerable achievements of my athletes are: Vitaly Kolpakov (European Champion in Decathlon among Juniors 1991, participant of the Olympic Games 1996), personal best: 8297 points; Lev Lobodin (Bronze Medal on European Championships 1994, participant of the Olympic Games 1996), personal best: 8315 points, since 1997 represented the National Team of the Russian Federation; Fedir Lauhin,  (participant of the Olympic Games 2000), personal best: 8072 points; Elena Bolkun (heptathlon), personal best: 6151 points.

In 2000 - 2001 I worked as a National Coach in Sultanate of Oman, in 2001 - 2002 – National Coach in India, in 2004 – 2005 – National Coach in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Five my foreign athletes were participants of the Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens.

The majority of athletes, track-and-field amateurs, specialists of combined events know very well that athletic combined events have been changed in number of events, their order, temporal characteristics many times. All these changes were aimed at making the competitions interesting for athletes and entertaining for fans. The order of decathlon events and the regulations of the competitions were officially approved only in 1914 by the IAAF Congress. But the social situation, psychology of spectators, athletes, approaches to the sports training are changing, and what is more, other events are becoming more dynamic.

Modern decathlon is one of the most prestige events of athletics, but at the same time it is a very specific event with its characteristic features. One of the most difficult problems of decathlon is that the dynamics of the competitions is clear mainly to the specialists; their long duration (2 days) requires much attention and can’t be compared with other events, which have opposite temporal and dynamic characteristics. It’s obvious that the necessity of finding new ways of the athletic combined events development has reached the acme for today.

For already many years the specialists of decathlon have been discussing the question of the temporal parameters of the decathlon competitions. It came to the proposition of some sports journalists to exclude the combined events from the Olympic Games program as the interest of spectators to this event flagged. In their opinion the competitions in combined events which take 2 days are not entertaining for athletics’ fans and attractive for the mass media. There is an idea of reduction of the Olympic Games program and it causes alarm that this reduce can touch decathlon. Without doubts it must be an alarm signal for the IAAF. In this connection I would like to bring for panel discussion the idea of shortening of time in the decathlon competitions in future.

I’ve prepared an article for publication. If you consider my idea to be interesting, I’d ask you to send me your comments. The main idea of my proposition is set forth below.

Holding the competitions during two days the athlete spends 8-9 minutes for direct performing of the competitive exercise while the program of the competitions for decathletes is usually protracted for two days of 6 – 8, sometimes 10 hours each. For this reason the mass media, television in particular, is not interested in the full review of the combined events competitions. That is why the bulk of information is insufficient and televised fragmentarily - only some events on the most important meetings.

In this connection the question about stimulating of the combined events’ development, arousing interest of the sport fans, spectators, mass media, advertisers, sponsors, who can directly or indirectly favor the progress of this event, reveals. It seems that the dynamic XXI century requires new approaches.

The analysis of this problem let us declare the necessity of taking some definite changes in the rules of the Track-and-Field Combined Events competitions in future by the IAAF. The essence of these changes is to be concentrated on the considerable shortening of the competitions time, that to me mind will positively affect the dynamics of the competitions, take less financial means for conducting of competitions, make the work of the referees easier and arouse the interest of the mass media, television in particular.

It should be noted that the enthusiasts and fans have been conducting different kinds of the combined events competitions with the shortened time for many years. My athletes took part in some of such competitions:

1. 30 Minutes Pentathlon (Paris, France).
2. 45 Minutes Pentathlon (Prague, Czech).
3. 1 Hour Decathlon (Ostrava, Czech).
4. 1 Hour Decathlon (Zalzburg, Austria).
5. 1 Hour Decathlon (Vienna, Austia).
6. 2 Hours Decathlon (Prague, Czech).
7. 1 Hour Women’s Decathlon / experiment (Linz, Austria)

It’s necessary to note that all these competitions are held according regulations approved by the organizational committee. The best world result of 7897 points was set up by the Olympic Champion Robert Zmelik (“1 Hour Decathlon” 27 September, 1992) and registered officially.

Taking into account the fact that the IAAF Executive Committee by its decision approved a new discipline – women’s decathlon (in 2001 on the IAAF Congress in the city of Edmonton (Canada) was made a decision to include women’s decathlon in the programs of the official competitions and to recommend women’s decathlon for the Olympic Games 2008. By now several countries have already held their championships in women’s decathlon), our further statement will be about the competitions in both men’s and women’s decathlon.

In the case of women’s decathlon it should be mentioned that several athletes have already tried themselves in the competitions with considerable shortening of time. The best world result among women was held by the German athlete Mona Steigauf (7351 points) on the competitions “1 Hour Decathlon” in 1997.

Based upon the fact that in classical decathlon the majority of time is spent on two jumping events – high jump and pole vault, the fundamental shortening of time is offered exactly in these two events.

Taking into account my wide experience, I have analyzed the facts and modeled two variants of the decathlon competitions with the considerable shortening of time.

1.       1 Day Decathlon

Every athlete is offered to make maximum 2 attempts in such events as long jump, shot put, discus throwing, javelin throwing; and only 1 attempt at every next height in high jump and pole vault (or as a variant – 3 attempts in general – by analogy with weight lifting competitions). All running events are performed within the bounds of the classical decathlon.

According to my calculation, time for holding of competitions in decathlon with 15 – 20 participants (1 group) will take 10 hours including 3-hours break (after 5 events) for dinner and rest.

2.       1 Hour Decathlon (Extreme Decathlon).

Time of the competitions begins with the starter’s report for the distance of 100 meters and ends with the starter’s report for the distance of 1500 meters (the time for 1500 meters performing is not taken into account). If the athlete doesn’t manage in 1 hour time, he leaves the competitions and his points aren’t counted up. The warming-up can be done only once and should be finished 20 minutes before the competitions begin.

Every athlete should have an assistant of referees who will help him to carry the equipment and transport the athlete from the place of performing one event to another on a special cart while the athlete is changing his shoes and preparing for the next event.

The competitions are conducted according to the rules of the classical decathlon and just the athlete decides how many successful attempts he will make to manage in given time.

Taking into consideration the difficulties in refereeing, it is advisably to begin such competitions with the groups of 3-5 athletes with the handicap of 5 – 10 minutes and, if possible, to have two and more sectors for high jump and pole vault on the stadium.

Both variants should be scored up according to the IAAF rules currently in force.

It’s obvious, that both variants have definite difficulties for referees and organizers, but without doubts the competitions’ dynamics, their entertaining level are increasing, and shortening of number of the attempts will bring excitement and keen competition between athletes.

The main goal of this article is to invite all the specialists and amateurs of the combined events to discussion. It will help collect, study and systemize the ideas of the interested parties concerning the foregoing. Any opinions and propositions will be very much appreciated and should be sent to my e-mail addresses: 10thlon@excite.com, holly@dsip.net.

Anatoliy Fatyeyev

Associate Professor of the Sports Disciplines Department

Institute of Physical Education and Sport

Lugansk National Pedagogical University,

Honoured Coach of Ukraine

P.S. I’ve got thirty-years experience in combined events coaching. The most considerable achievements of my athletes are: Vitaly Kolpakov (European Champion in Decathlon among Juniors 1991, participant of the Olympic Games 1996), personal best: 8297 points; Lev Lobodin (Bronze Medal on European Championships 1994, participant of the Olympic Games 1996), personal best: 8315 points, since 1997 represented the National Team of the Russian Federation; Fedir Lauhin,  (participant of the Olympic Games 2000), personal best: 8072 points; Elena Bolkun (heptathlon), personal best: 6151 points.

In 2000 - 2001 I worked as a National Coach in Sultanate of Oman, in 2001 - 2002 – National Coach in India, in 2004 – 2005 – National Coach in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Five my foreign athletes were participants of the Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens. Now I work as an Associate Professor in the Institute of Physical Education and Sport of Lugansk National Pedagogical University.