UCI XC wrote:
Totally agree with the OP. The guy can highjump 6'11" and has no real weak event. His 800/1500 ability is unprecedented among decathletes who have his kind of quickness and strength; only Jenner comes anywhere close, and Beach would already put ~10 seconds on Jenner's Montreal decathlon-WR-finishing all-out 1500. He broke the HS decathlon record by 500 points, fer Chrissakes! This guy could conceivably threaten Sebrle's decathlon WR in a year or two. He's like a Dan O'Brien with stand-alone mid-d talent. Truly amazing and exciting.
His speed comes at the expense of his strength. He scores BIG TIME points in the running events, but his throws aren't so hot. Not that he can't win, but he has a looooooooong way to go before sniffing Sebrle's WR. And in a year or two? Come on...
Roman Curtis
100m- 10.64 11.05
LJ- 8.11m 7.19m
Shot- 15.33m 11.00m
HJ- 2.12m 2.04m
400m- 47.79 47.96
110mH-13.92 14.77
Disc- 47.92m 32.96m
PV- 4.80m 4.70m
Jav- 70.16m 42.13m
1500m-4:21.98 4:25.40
Now, comparing the WR to Curtis Beach is patently ridiculous, because beach was in HS at the time and Sebrle was in his prime as a professional. Also, Beach set these marks with international implements as well as HS implements, so he ran the 110 hh twice, and threw disc and shot twice, so this is by no means intended to be a fair comparison.
That being said, look at the gaps in the throwing events! 4+ meters in shot (~260 points), 15 meters in disc (~300 points), almost 30 meters in Jav(~420 points). So in the throws alone, Beach in behind by almost 1000 points. Thats a huge gap to cover. Even if he improves be leaps and bounds in all his other events (pun very intended), throws are a weakness relative to the rest of his performances. He has a -lot- of improving to do if he wants to challenge Dan O'brien's record, let along Sebrle.
And don't get me wrong, the kid has a blindingly bright future in the sport. He is clearly extremely talented and motivated, and I hope he proves me wrong. But he is a long ways off from challenging Sebrle's record in a couple of years. It would be awesome to see him drop a sub 3:55 at the end of a big Decath and score >1000 points in the last event. Not likely, but possible.