2013 end-of-year reviews – combined events

Statisticians A Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava look back on the best combined events performances of the year with Julin covering the men’s events and Jalava the women’s.

Decathlon

Traditionally the decathlon very much lives by the Olympic rhythm with distinct statistical peaks at all levels every four years.

But 2013 didn’t fit into that mould. Olympic champion Ashton Eaton wasn’t quite on a par with his world record-breaking form of 2012, but even a slightly sub-par Eaton was capable of winning the IAAF World Championship by a handsome 139 points.

Germany’s injury prone Michael Schrader was finally fit for a major championships and had just as comfortable a margin (158 points) ahead of bronze medallist Damian Warner from Canada. But the really exciting element of the World Championships decathlon was the extraordinary strength in depth behind the podium trio.