FAIR DECATHLON MODEL

PART VI - DAY TWO

Technical Gates, Throwing Delegations, and the Event That Refuses to Behave

110 m hurdles  |  Discus  |  Pole vault  |  Javelin  |  1500 m

Principal finding

Rafał Snoch

for Decathlon2000.com - August 2026

Then the hurdles arrive

Day One introduced visitors, ceilings, residents and occupancy. It also ended with a warning: an unusual athlete and an unusual population are not the same thing. Day Two begins by making that distinction harder to ignore.

The method remains unchanged. Every Day Two mark in the unified master of 27,741 complete competition records is scored with the frozen FDM-40N function, truncated to an integer and assigned to one of eleven 100-point floors from 1000+ down to 0-99. The full recalculated official total of the same record is then summarized inside that floor.

Min OFF introduces the visitor. Max OFF tests how weak one event can become inside a stronger decathlon. Median OFF describes the typical resident. N shows whether a floor is crowded, sparse or empty. The counting unit is a competition record rather than a unique athlete, so repeated appearances can reveal a durable sporting identity.

Readers are strongly encouraged to keep the Part VI annex open while reading this article. The article and the annex were designed to be used together: the article explains the patterns and introduces the athletes behind them, while the annex provides the full 100-point cohort tables needed to see the complete context. Reading the article without consulting the annex will give only a partial picture.

The lower-level coverage of the unified master is broad rather than geographically uniform. It contains complete, verifiable senior-specification decathlons found in the examined sources, not every athlete who attempted a decathlon. Athletes whose competitions ended without ten valid performances are absent. This selection matters most in events such as the hurdles, where the technical barrier can turn an otherwise slow performance into DNF.

6. 110 metres hurdles

The Vokovice Students and the Stubborn Veteran

The first Day Two floor is not quiet. Marc Dominik Klaschka runs 23.55 seconds, receives only 49 FDM-40N points and still completes a 6,632-point decathlon. No other record on the 0-99 floor has a higher complete total. One disastrous hurdles race can therefore survive inside an otherwise developed profile.

Clement Girard enters the same floor from the opposite direction. His 22.75 seconds are worth 74 FDM points inside a 4,183-point decathlon. Jan Lodr reaches 29.41 at 2,446 OFF, while Vladimir Nesvadba records 29.20 at 3,028. These are not missing marks or substituted zeroes. They are valid hurdle results inside complete decathlons.

The basement is not a curiosity. The 0-99 floor contains 438 records, and 100-199 contains another 888. More than 1,300 completed decathlons therefore occupy the two lowest hurdle floors. This is the opposite of the empty shot-put basement encountered on Day One.

The Vokovice records require a precise interpretation. Many participants are students completing all ten events as part of an assignment. Their incentive may be to preserve a valid result rather than chase every possible point. That does not make the performances useless. It makes them unusually valuable for revealing a lower tail that normal competition lists often lose behind DNF.

Jiri Volny supplies a different witness. In 2007 he completed six audited decathlons with hurdle times from 23.05 to 24.95 seconds. In 2019, at age 63, he returned with 25.17 and a complete total of 1,418 OFF. Later failed attempts no longer enter a master restricted to ten valid results. The database loses the athlete precisely when the technical gate finally closes.

The typical population descends steadily through the same floors. Median OFF falls from 6,502 in 500-599 to 5,665, 5,043, 4,466, 3,871 and 3,335 at the bottom. The line is severe, but it is not mysterious: the basement is populated by athletes whose hurdle technique often lies far below the rest of the sport.

7. Discus throw

The throwing delegation meets two trapdoors

Vaclav Hojka does not enter the discus story once. He returns in three consecutive seasons: 41.34 metres inside 3,961 OFF, 44.20 inside 4,412 and 43.41 inside 4,088. His best mark receives 811 FDM points, while the median complete total on the 800-899 floor is 7,719. The profile is not one accidental peak. It is a stable throwing identity carried through complete decathlons.

The delegation becomes international. Christophe Gomez throws 41.67 metres, scores 764 and completes only 3,315 OFF. Haike Franssen reaches 36.66 metres and 669 points inside a 3,171-point total. Their discus belongs to floors normally occupied by decathletes scoring nearly 4,000 OFF points more overall.

The medians descend in an understandable sequence through 100-199: 6,393 in 500-599, then 5,058, 4,112, 3,589 and 3,035. Occupancy falls at the same time: 1,155 records in 300-399, 236 in 200-299 and only ten in 100-199. Then the final floor reverses the story.

Only two records reach 0-99. Jalen Cadet throws 6.09 metres, receives 52 FDM points and still completes 6,035 OFF. Andrey Bashtanov records 8.18 metres, 99 points and 6,730 OFF. His preceding seasons contain discus marks from 37.10 to 43.65 metres. The 8.18 is therefore not his normal throwing level; it is a catastrophic competition result carried to the end of a complete decathlon.

Because those are the only two residents, the median on the lowest floor jumps upward to 6,383 OFF after reaching 3,035 one floor above. The basement is not occupied by the weakest ordinary discus throwers. It is occupied by two strong-enough decathletes carrying extraordinary disasters.

8. Pole vault

France and the United States dispute the airspace

The 1000+ floor remains a guest list for pole-vault specialists who decided to complete a decathlon. Tim Lobinger clears 5.76 metres, Jean Galfione appears at 5.75 and 5.65, Thierry Vigneron reaches 5.63 and Philippe Collet 5.61. The median complete total on this highest floor is only 7,346 OFF.

The United States answers lower down. Starrett Vesper clears 4.80 metres inside 5,518 OFF, while Forest Flynn reaches 4.55 at 4,548. The expanded database, however, gives France more than isolated visitors. It gives France a staircase.

Nicolas Guigon clears 5.20 metres, receives 912 FDM points and completes 6,122 OFF. Stephane Clienti reaches 4.90, 840 points and 5,095 OFF. Max Lachiche clears 4.68, scores 787 and finishes with 3,942. Thomas Plain reaches 4.00 metres, 628 points and only 3,244 OFF. Four French athletes therefore establish the minimum complete total on four consecutive floors from 900-999 down to 600-699.

Clienti makes the sequence more convincing by returning. Across four complete decathlons he clears from 4.60 to 5.00 metres while his totals range from 5,095 to 6,017 OFF. The exact floor changes; the pole-vault identity remains.

The middle is broad and functional. Median OFF moves from 8,053 in 900-999 to 7,703, 7,249, 6,936 and 6,421 through 500-599. A vault of 3.45-3.87 metres can still be an ordinary weakness inside a developed decathlon. Even the 400-499 floor retains a median of 5,506 and a ceiling of 7,770 OFF.

The lower floors are thinner but not empty: 944 records in 200-299, 293 in 100-199 and 14 in 0-99. Compared with the crowded hurdles basement, the pole-vault tail is sparse. Compared with the discus trapdoor, it remains a continuous staircase.

9. Javelin throw

The throwing delegation changes passports

Gabriel Heen begins the descent with 59.94 metres, 814 FDM points and 5,958 OFF. The median complete total on the 800-899 floor is 7,606. His javelin is clearly stronger than the decathlon around it, but the next visitors travel much farther.

Roy Vriezekolk throws 52.16 metres, receives 717 points and completes 3,878 OFF. Mouzda Anrifina reaches 44.62 metres and 620 points inside 3,137 OFF. Jan Nemecek throws 40.24 metres, scores 561 and finishes with only 2,481 OFF. The four athletes occupy four consecutive floors and carry four different nationalities.

The residents descend with them. Median OFF falls from 6,044 in 500-599 to 4,695, 3,935 and 3,562. The next floor, 100-199, contains only 18 records and a median of 3,618. The lowest floor contains two marks - 8.33 and 9.78 metres - with totals of 3,139 and 3,137 OFF.

The lower javelin scale therefore does not end in a broad population of ordinary weakness. It narrows to a handful and then to two records. Unlike the discus basement, those final residents come from low complete totals rather than strong decathlons carrying isolated disasters. The occupancy looks similar; the athletes behind it do not.

10. 1500 metres

The event that refuses to behave

Clement Girard returns. Earlier in the day, 22.75 seconds placed him on the lowest hurdles floor. Now 4:00.30 gives him 1,011 FDM points and places the same 4,183-point decathlon on the highest 1500-metre floor. One athlete has reached opposite ends of two Day Two distributions without changing competitions.

The ladder continues. Vojtech Hajek runs 4:11.95, scores 943 and completes 3,965 OFF. Paul Denizeaux runs 4:34.64 for 815 points inside a total of only 2,488. Marc Legentil reaches 4:43.92, receives 764 and finishes with 2,832 OFF. Denizeaux stands 4,747 points below the median complete total on his 800-899 floor.

The French delegation is too large to treat as one amusing coincidence, but it must still be described carefully. Among the 128 records below 5,000 OFF that score at least 800 FDM points on the 1500 metres, 69 are French. The observed sample contains 33 French records from 29 athletes who run 4:30 or faster below 5,000 OFF. This is a database pattern, not a claim about every French decathlete or a universal national system.

The corridor does not belong entirely to France. Mariusz Kondrat runs 4:09.52, receives 957 FDM points and completes 4,716 OFF. Vojtech Kozeluh supplies repetition: across six complete decathlons he runs from 4:16.77 to 4:24.11 while his totals remain between 3,995 and 4,493 OFF. Endurance repeatedly lives several floors above the rest of the profile.

World-class decathletes travel the other way. Dan O'Brien runs 5:08.77 and still completes 8,755 OFF. Bryan Clay runs 5:03.77 at 8,732. Chris Huffins records 5:27.42 inside an 8,546-point decathlon. These marks do not prove that the athletes lacked running ability. Huffins supplied his own counterexample in Sydney, where the medal race produced 4:38.71.

The event score can therefore conceal several different stories: natural endurance, accumulated fatigue, tactical restraint, injury, or the simple need to finish. The cohort table cannot reconstruct the motive behind every raw time. It can show that complete decathlon level and 1500-metre level are unusually weakly coupled.

Every floor is occupied. The 900-999 floor spans 5,080 OFF points, 800-899 spans 6,638, 700-799 spans 6,129 and 500-599 spans 6,719. The visitor is not an exception to the architecture. Wide two-way traffic is the architecture.

A practical limit remains. Median OFF falls from 6,730 in 600-699 to 5,722 in 500-599 and 4,658 in 400-499. The elite may jog, manage or survive the final race. It still needs a minimum level of running ability.

Part V showed the 110H and 1500-metre residuals moving in opposite directions at lower decathlon levels. The cohort averages could not show whether two different groups were responsible.

This sample does. Among 49 complete decathlons below 4,800 OFF with a 1500-metre time faster than 4:30, the same records repeatedly combine weak hurdles with unusually strong 1500 metres. No hurdle criterion was used to select them.

Across all 49 records, the mean personal FDM-40N residual is -254 points in the 110H and +509 points in the 1500 metres. The divergence seen in Part V is therefore not simply the result of two different athlete populations. The same athletes can combine unusually weak hurdles with unusually strong 1500-metre performances, pulling the two residuals in opposite directions.

The Day Two report

Five events, five lower populations

Day Two completes the central lesson of Part VI: similar residuals may be created by very different population mechanisms.

• The 110 metres hurdles contains a crowded basement, a real technical threshold and a selection effect through DNF. Vokovice and Volny reveal different parts of the same boundary.
• The discus combines durable throwing visitors with two catastrophic records that reverse the median on the lowest floor.
• The pole vault preserves a broad functional middle and a continuous, increasingly sparse descent. Its French staircase is spectacular without making the whole event discontinuous.
• The javelin also approaches an empty basement, but its final residents come from weak complete totals rather than strong decathlons carrying isolated disasters.
• The 1500 metres permits traffic in both directions. Girard climbs from the hurdles basement to the 1500 roof, while world-class decathletes can descend for tactical or competitive reasons.

The scoring function and parameter B remain part of the explanation. Part VI does not absolve them, and it does not attempt to settle their correct lower boundaries. It shows why the population must stand beside the equation. Empty floors, crowded floors and reversed medians are empirical facts before they become calibration decisions.

Studying the lower levels changed the way I understood the decathlon as a whole. At the top, the sport can look almost perfectly ordered: highly trained athletes, technically developed across ten events, producing polished and balanced profiles. Lower down, another part of its identity becomes visible.

There are athletes who know that several events will expose their weaknesses and still choose to face all ten. Some must cross the hurdles simply to keep the decathlon alive. Some return years later and try again. Some throw far beyond the rest of their profile. Some run the final 1500 metres as if it were their best event; others, after nine world-class performances, need only to reach the finish.

These performances are not noise at the edge of the sport. They are part of what the decathlon is. The elite shows how completely the event can be mastered. The lower population shows why completing it can still matter when mastery is impossible.

As the overall level falls, individual decathletes become increasingly inconsistent across the ten events. But do the ten event distributions become equally inconsistent? Part VII will begin with that question.

References and data

[1] Snoch, R. Fair Decathlon Model, Part V: How Far Down Does FDM Continue to Balance the Ten Events? August 2026.

[2] FDM unified master: 27,741 complete decathlon competition records.

[3] Part VI Annex: 100-Point FDM-40N Event Cohorts, unified master 27,741.

[4] Individual athlete records cited in the article are drawn from the same unified master and retain the source-standardized names used there.

Reproducibility note. FDM-40N event points are truncated to integers before cohort assignment. Complete totals are recalculated OFF totals. Means and medians are rounded to whole points for communication. The 1000+ floor is open-ended; the remaining floors are consecutive 100-point bands. N counts competition records, not unique athletes.

APPENDIX TO FAIR DECATHLON MODEL - PART 6. DAY TWO.
Article 6 Annex - Day Two: 100-Point FDM-40N Event Cohorts

Rafał Snoch for Decathlon 2000