Analysis
The greatest decathlon battle of all time – take two
A month after Ashton Eaton broke the decathlon world record at the 2015 World Championships, I put together a blog post on the greatest (and completely imaginary) decathlon battle of all time. I didn’t anticipate having to update that post quite so soon, but Kevin Mayer only went and did the unthinkable, didn’t he?! His […]
Combined events and the 400m hurdles – the unlikely couple
Back in October, decathlon world record-holder Ashton Eaton announced that he’s going to give the 400m hurdles a try this summer. And so began the speculation about how fast he can run over the barriers around one lap of the track. This week he said that he is aiming for somewhere between 47 and 48 […]
The statistical value of a sub-four-minute mile
#2694509 / gettyimages.com Sixty years ago today, Roger Bannister became the first man to run faster than four minutes for the mile. Yes, it was great (as all world records are). But why is it still celebrated six decades later when there are countless other athletics performances that are far superior? I wish I […]
So just how bloody good is Paula Radcliffe’s marathon world record?
View image | gettyimages.com In short: very. But here, in the first of a three-part series of blog posts that looks back on Paula Radcliffe’s career, I’ve expanded on that with 13 superlatives and statistical observations to help illustrate just how phenomenal Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 is. 1. Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 made her the fastest British […]
Is 2015 the greatest ever year for sprinting?
According to the numbers, 2015 could possibly be the best year in history for the 100m. The table below lists the number of sub-10 and sub-11 performers in each of the past 20 years. It makes for fascinating reading. Already in 2015 there has been a flurry of fast times, leading to 10 men […]
The greatest decathlon battle of all time
Imagine if the world’s five greatest all-round athletes in history lined up against each other in top form and competed in a decathlon. It would never happen, of course, because four of those decathletes are now retired. But it’s interesting to take their PB scores – all of which were world records at the time […]