Curtis Beach 1:47.9 split!

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.

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. .

Beach is destined to be a niche decathlete who's not good enough in the must events to do anything.

Bill Toomey ran 10.3, 45.6 and 4:12, plus a 26' long jump. Don't act like we've never seen running talent in the decathlon like Beach before. We already have seen it, from an Olympic Champion.

You should have stopped at "comparing the WR to Curtis Beach is patently ridiculous". No point in writing those next two paragraphs, you can't compare a kid to a man in the decathlon. I realize you were only responding to the idiot who thought Beach could challenge the WR in 1-2 years, but still.

He are the ages of the last 5 world record holders when they set the world record. Of course this is a small sample size, but maybe it will give us an idea of when decathletes peak:

WR Hingsen - age 25

WR Thompson - age 26

WR O'Brien - age 26

WR Dvorak - age 27

WR Sebrle - age 27

Just like it takes years of aerobic development to maximize your potential as a distance runner, it will take years of strength training and technique work before Beach reaches his potential in the throws, whatever level that may be.

Toomey's running events were amazing, but I recall reading a while back that he later admitted to using steroids, which at the time were not tested for and maybe not even technically illegal. Anyone confirm this?

from my watch on the online video (http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?do=view&video_id=20111) it's 1:47.7

Random Loser wrote:

It was really 1:48.2 according to trackside obs.ervers

Those jumping up and down about Beach's potential ability as a decathlete 1500m guy are probably focusing on the wrong event. His ability as a decathlete will be determined by all of the other events which require a different set of body type, muscle mass, etc than is required for the 1500m.

IOW....this 800m leg might be a bad thing in terms of the decathlete.

you guys are failing to realize that wheating was a top-ranked soccer player too.....

so yes...he is definitely an "athlete"

breaking decathlon records?? come on!!! most decathletes dont even take their own event seriously so the bar isnt even set that high.

top-rated? wheating was a varsity contributor in vermont. he wouldn't have seen the light of day from the end of dartmouth's bench.

tracker2010 wrote:

you guys are failing to realize that wheating was a top-ranked soccer player too.....

so yes...he is definitely an "athlete"

breaking decathlon records?? come on!!! most decathletes dont even take their own event seriously so the bar isnt even set that high.

Beach is very good in a subset of the decathlon events. If he does not improve his weight events significantly, he will not be as 'successful' as his teammate.

Beach is good!

Yeah Beach is legit but Coach Wilbourn knows its not his 800m that will determine if he is a good decathlete but his 100m. That way in a few years when Beach is winning World championships, etc and ONLY running a 4:20 1500m but running a 10.60 100m and scoring 8800pts all the lame distance runners on here who don't have a clue about the "decathalon" can rip him for running so slow.

Anchors Duke to a come-from-behind win in the 4x8 at the Armory.

Has to be the most talented athlete we've seen in the NCAA in a long, long time.[/quote]

Lashawn Merrit wasn't bad.

Why not forget the decathlon and run the 800?

didnt he run sub 4:10 for the 1500 in a dec last year??

didnt he? wrote:

didnt he run sub 4:10 for the 1500 in a dec last year??

Yes, he finished one of his record setting decathlons with a 4:08 1500m. He might not set a world record in a couple years, but he's going to at least get close.

Between Shawn Wilbourn's coaching and Buzz Moorman's decathlon exprtise, Beach will ultimately be an elite decathlete while at Duke.

Because a 1:47 wont win you the Olympic trials much less an Olympic Gold

Curtis Beach will NEVER beat Ashton Eaton. Eaton is the amazing athlete we should all be raving about. There isn't one decathlon event that is new to Curtis Beach. He has been training for the decathlon LONGER that Eaton. Beach was training like a post-collegiate for 3 years prior to college. Eaton on the other hand, had never done the following events prior to college:

shot put

high jump

high hurdles

discus

pole vault

javelin

1500m

And before you crown Beach as the greatest running decathlete in history, you might want to check out Eaton's WR for that category.

For perspective, here are Eaton's collegiate marks:

http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=675996

If you want to have a good laugh, check out Beach's collegiate marks from this indoor season. Not exactly the stuff of legends.

http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=1781610