world youth champs

Latest post: Dimitry Yakoushkin, Aug 07, 2007
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Topic started by: Benjamin user	Posted: July 14, 2007 Hey there all. I was just looking at the results from the current world youth champs, and I must say some where impressive. Which made me think where are the athletes that competed at these world youth champs a few years ago. So I had a look back at the youth champs that were held in Hungary back in 2001, I could hardly recognise any of the names. So that begs the question, what happened to those athletes? It has been 6 years so you would think that those athletes would now be 22/23 years old. Does anyone know if any of those athletes have continued with the event? Yes octathlon is a different beast than decathlon but it is a great progression to our great event. Is this where we are loosing interest? Should there be more done to include these younger athletes into the bigger events? What about including a under 19/21 octathlon or decathlon with big meets such as Gotzis or Talence etc, this would keep these athletes in the sport and give them a chance to compete and be around the stars of the decathlon. What does everyone think? Ben
enn user	Posted: July 15, 2007 Ben! 2001 starters were +Lopez Matias Sebastian, ARG Poser Florian, GER +Adjetey Nelson Jamie, CAN Huysmans Tim, BEL Black Eric, USA +Shubenok Mikalai, BLR +Dudley Jason, AUS Barvik Michal, CZE Gaba Kamghe, GER +Dunford Edward, GBR Bán Szabolcs, HUN +Türk Tanel, EST Chalkias Thrasivoulos, GRE +Sobolev Dzmitry, BLR Garcia Manuel, PUR Rios Luis, MEX +Newdick Brent, NZL Dilys Mantas, LTU Ozimik Jure, SLO +Gindera Robert, POL Halawa Nader, PLE +Kilmartin Donovan, USA +Kuenz Johannes, AUT Tratnik Bostjan, SLO +Aksionovas Aivaras, LTU +Bician Andrej, SVK Paunovic Marko, YUG Tashmatov Rustam, UZB Mufarrah Essa, KSA +Kano Akira, JPN +Estruch Joan, ESP +Skrastins Janis, LAT Mohamad Bader, KUW Chelyuk Vitaliy, KAZ Szibilla László, HUN Oruman Rene, EST Wolfater Lee, CAN +Gonzalez Ismael, ESP +Kliner Jiri, CZE Makmakh Mohamad, KUW Schilling Pablo, CHI Votsikas Leonidas, GRE Those with "+" have been busy with decathlon last years and you could find them in lists on Decathlon2000. Enn
Tim_greneby user	Posted: July 16, 2007 I think the problem is the events of the world youth championship. Out of eight events, you have 100m, 400m, 1000m, 110m hurdles which are all running evets. So 50% of the events are running, and if you are a good runner, you are probably good at the long jump too. You don't you to be as all-round in the octahtlon as you have to be in the decathlon.
pauldeca user	Posted: July 19, 2007 I think there is litlle motivation in athletes in that age to continue in Decathlon.(At least in my country-Greece). Here is a question for you! How many 18 years old athletes can learn Pole Vault from scratch?(without getting discouraged?) It is easier to continue with one or two events where he's more able and it's easier to train... Plus, how many years until he reaches a decent mark?(about 4.30 to 4.50)
Petros Kyprianou user	Posted: Aug 04, 2007 I'd agree with pauldeca. (not because we used to be teammates,back in the day, but because he speaks the truth The disturbing trend that the good friend Dimitry clearly presented to us, is indeed a fact. Unfortunately, these youngsters chose the easy way out. Perhaps the lack of motive to strive for, the high demands of the real decathlon training, the coaches' easy way out with individual events as well as the lack of financial support after high school or college, possibly made those kids to follow a different pathway and focus on one event or a different sport. If you were a super talented athlete with great potential for scoring 8,000pts in 6-8 years but at the same time you have a smoking' fast arm that can pitch the crap out of the baseball or throw the football 70 yards (USA) and make millions, what would you choose? decathlon?don't think so! Of course, not all of those kids can be superstars in team sports. Interestingly, 86% of them COULD be superstars! Even just by sitting on the bench or being on the training squad. (based on a recent study being administered by myself and couple other crazy decathlon insiders here at my University). Notheless, those kids have shown more talent and athleticism than ever before (same study; based on specificity tests); though as I afore mentioned, those (then) hoctathletes and future decathletes obviously have chosen the path to success that goes through ''free way'' than through ''heavy traffic'' like the decathlon! Pole vault, javelin and hurdles are considered to be the most technical events in the decathlon and can bond with the rest of the events through their biomotor commonalities. Given that we have a 23 year old super talented prospective decathlete that can hit great marks in 6 months of training; such as 4.60mPV/15''HH/74mJT/7.70mLJ (I was blessed to have one of those-Keron Francis). How long do you think will take him to be developed into an 8,000 point decathlete? 5-6 years? to get enough experience to put together those performances in a decathlon. Well, for a not very wealthy young man that has no support from his family it is impossible to survive as a professional decathlete. Can he do it for fun? Certainly! not to a point of shooting for anything over 7500pts though. Where can 7500pts get you? NOWHERE (at least here in the USA). Anyway, just wanted to point out the difficulties that those kids might have faced-up and ended up ''facing-off'' with their potential of being a mediocre jumper/sprinter or if they where that talented, to play for a team and make millions. It is sad to see decathlon fade out like that. Just go back 10 years ago and see how many guys were over 8,200pts.How about now? not that many! Flashback: during mid-90s here in the USA the visa gold medal decathlon program had at the same time decathletes such as Dan, O'Brian, Dave Johnson, Kip Janvrin, Tom Pappas, Chris Huffins, Steve Fritz and many others that averaged over 8,600pts!! What a team! Question: where can we find another program like that? how do we get another visa corporation to sponsor and spend so much money on just decathletes? That is the only way to bring back the golden era of decathletes. Where can we see again battles like the ones between Thompson and Hingsen? When do you think will ever watch commercials with Dan and Dave again? Consequently, we all try to put a humble effort on the combined events research/coaching and talent scouting, but if no drastic action emerges, then we might be happy to see 2-3 people scoring close to 8,000pts in 10 years from now. Thank you, Petros Kyprianou Boise State Univeristy USA Combined events coach
Dimitry Yakoushkin user	Posted: Aug 07, 2007 We can start contacting potential sponsors. People close to the decathlon can sign a letter that we can draft and circulate. We need to get contacts with marketing people at potential sponsors - the higher up the better. Someone like a Nike or Reebok puts up a little cash, and the sport is alive again. These companies are savvy and have forward-thinking business sense - they should see a great opportunity to revive a very marketable sport, even if only for their own marketing purposes. Multi event athletes have a history of being recognized as the greatest athletes on earth, are typically very well built and attractive, and because of this downside in sponsors and funding, are "cheap". A company like Nike would pride itself on rebuilding the multis and promoting the gritty, hard-working underdog status of the sport.