Montemayor: Decathletes best all-around

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Chances are if you’re reading this through one bloodshot eye at 8:30 this morning, the starting gun is about to signal the start of the men’s decathlon 110m hurdles.

If instead it’s 9:15, junior Jacob Breth and freshman Calob Kratovil probably finished stretching in advance of their discus challenge. If you’re savoring a Chick-fil-A sandwich and wondering why the only purveyors of fast food’s best chicken sandwich around Lawrence is in the Underground, odds are these two are about to begin the pole vault. If you played hooky for your 3 p.m. date with calculus, you could catch their javelin competition and, later, the 1500m.

Follow me?

Breth and Kratovil will spend today as they did yesterday, breathlessly moving from one event to the next in the second half of the decathlon at the 82nd Kansas Relays.

Comprised of ten events over two days, the decathlon is decided using a point system that grades each event. After Jim Thorpe won it at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, the king of Sweden told Thorpe: “You, sir, are the World’s Greatest Athlete.”

For this event’s winner, some variation of “The Area’s Greatest Multitasker” may suffice.

Before the mercury in local thermometers flirted with 70 degrees and sunshine, Wednesday’s slate began inside Memorial Stadium with brisk winds and a few more clouds than the afternoon would offer.

The 13 athletes competing in the event began the day with the 100m dash. Afterwards they threw on their warm-up uniforms, grabbed a piece of fruit, talked about their performances and moved along to warm up for the long jump. Once they went through their three attempts, they packed up their bags, grabbed a piece of fruit and talked about their performance on the way to the shot put, set to begin less than 30 minutes later. Once that was over…

“I have a lot of respect for those upper classmen to stick it out for this long to keep training and doing the workload,” Kratovil said.

As time passes we become known for a singular achievement whether amongst friends or outsiders. When the Great Scorekeeper completes our box score, the line will usually highlight one accomplishment. Sure, you may be a darn good cook but if you write the next epic novel your life summary likely won’t mention Beef Wellington.

Decathletes defy this convention. Whereas a fourth-quarter rally in football can be summed up in an eight-word ESPN ticker entry, how does one detail a decathlon? The easy answer is placing the perspective within the umbrella of its title. But does that ably summarize Kratovil’s first-place finish in the shot put? Does it do justice to Breth’s fifth-place showing in the same event, a half-hour after hurting his back in the long jump?

The sum of yesterday and today’s parts helps tell the story of these competitors’ place in the sporting spectrum.

“Best all-around athletes,” Breth said.

— — Edited by Realle Roth

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