rojo wrote:
trialswatcher wrote:Really? I am surprised at this rhetoric from someone as experienced as you, Beach as an Olympic athlete FROM Duke is worth way more to Duke, than maybe, maybe getting a Decathlon NCAA title
I'm not denying that they want to have an Olympian and it's worth way more to a school than a successful track and field team is.
The world is focused on the Olympics. I'm just saying it kind of sucks.
I mean when my brother was running full time and people would ask him what he did, they didn't get it when he said "Running."
But when he said, "POh i"m training for the Olympic trials." They were like, "Oh that's amazing. You're going to make the Olympics."
There was a night and day difference.
Any multi experts out there? Does he really have any shot at the Olympics in the mutli unless one of the big 3 is hurt or no heights?
I think you're right in that I shouldn't have said he has a decent shot at making the NCAA 800 final, but if the races go out slow, I think that is to Beach's advantage. He's 18th on the NCAA list so at least getting to national wouldn't be a huge surprise.
I'm not a multis expert, but I follow the dec/hep fairly closely. If Clay finishes the dec without any no heights, DNFs or three fouls, Beach won't make the team. But if an unfortunate event befalls Clay, that opens the door for several other decathletes. It's true that Beach's score will certainly be hampered by his weak throwing events compared to his competition for 3rd. But he's capable of beating all of his main competition by at least 20-30 seconds in the 1500. A 30-second advantage would give Beach about 200 points more than another competitor. He should be ready to run at least 3:55 because I would bet that's what it will take for him to make the team if Clay falters.