Chris Huffins

Chris Huffins (born April 25, 1970 in New York ) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in 33 decathlons , of which he finished 28. He won bronze at the 1999 World Championships and the 2000 Olympic Games .

Career

Early years

Huffins was born in Brooklyn . He played basketball and had been active as a sprinter and long jumper when he turned to decathlon while studying at the University of California . Thanks to his talent for movement, he managed to catch up with the world class as a late starter, but his strengths and weaknesses were much more pronounced than those of track and field athletes who already did all-around training in their youth. He played his first decathlon in March 1992 in Tempe , he immediately reached 7531 points and won the competition. Immediately before his 22nd birthday, he improved to 7854 points in Azusa . In his third decathlon on June 26 and 27, 1992 in New Orleans , he tried to put himself in the limelight at the Olympic eliminations. After a pole vault of just 3.70 m, 40 centimeters less than in Azusa, he reached 7662 points and 15th place.

In March 1993, Huffins increased his personal best in Tucson to 7920 points. In May he won the US student championships in New Orleans and exceeded the 8000 point mark for the first time with 8007 points, increasing to 4: 51.20 min in the 1500 meter run, this time he should only once again undercut, in his last decathlon in 2000. He played three more decathlons in the 1993 season, but could not qualify for the World Championships in Stuttgart by finishing ninth in the US championships . Nevertheless, he played his first decathlon outside of the United States on German soil. In the traditional international match between the US decathletes and the German decathletes, Huffins was tenth in Aachen in August with 7536 points. In the 1994 season, Huffins did not finish a decathlon.

In 1995 Huffins was second in the US championships in Sacramento with 8351 points and thus qualified for the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg . On his first appearance in front of a large audience, he had a break in the discus, where he got seven and a half meters less than in Sacramento. The course of the competition followed a pattern that Huffins' decathlon followed for the next few years. As an outstanding sprinter and long jumper among the decathletes, he was in the lead at the beginning of the competition, was then overtaken towards the end of the first day and slowly but steadily fell behind on the second day. In Gothenburg he was 40 points behind leading Dan O'Brien after the first day . At the end of the second day he had 8193 points in eighth place, 500 points behind the world champion O'Brien.

Late years

In June 1996, Huffins increased his best performance in Atlanta to 8546 points, which he was third in the US championships. In this competition he ran the 100 meters in 10.22 s, which he replaced Daley Thompson as the fastest decathlete of all time. Six weeks later at the Olympic Games at the same site, he reached 8,300 points and was tenth. At the beginning of the 1997 season, Huffins completed his only heptathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Paris-Bercy and was fourth with 6128 points. In the outdoor season he qualified with 8458 points as championship runner-up for the 1997 World Championships in Athens . There he broke off the competition in the penultimate discipline, the javelin throw, because an arm injury caused him too much pain. In 1998 he won the US championships with 8694 points, the highest score of his career. At the Goodwill Games in Hempstead he was second behind Dan O'Brien with 8576 points.

In 1999, Huffins won his second championship title with 8350 points. Exactly one month later he won the Pan American Games in Winnipeg with 8170 points . Another month later, the 1999 World Championships took place in Seville . Huffins took the lead once more, but after the first day he was only in third place behind the Czech Tomáš Dvořák and the Briton Dean Macey , just behind Huffins was the Estonian Erki Nool . In contrast to his earlier decathlons, Huffins only fell behind Tomáš Dvořák on the second day, while he collected more points than Macey in the first four disciplines on the second day. In the pole vault, Nool did a Salto Nullo , Dvořák and Macey crossed 4.60 meters and Huffins reached 4.80 m. Before the final 1500-meter run, Huffins was second over 140 points ahead of Macey, on the other hand, Huffin's weakness in the 1500-meter run was known. Although Huffins ran the third fastest time of his career with 4: 53.83 min, Macey caught him by nine points. With 8547 points, however, Huffins won the bronze medal just ahead of the French Sébastien Levicq .

At the US Olympic eliminations in 2000, Huffins qualified second with 8285 points. At the Olympic Games in Sydney , Huffins took the lead once again from the start. At the end of the first day of competition, Huffins was leading with 4554 points, eight points ahead of Dean Macey, followed by Erki Nool, the American Tom Pappas and the Czech Roman Šebrle . As a good hurdler and, above all, as the best discus thrower in the competition, Huffins extended his lead. In the pole vault, Huffins was the weakest of the medal contenders with 4.70 m, and he was also well behind his competitors in the javelin throw. The decision was made in the 1500-meter run, in which Huffins surpassed himself and undercut his previous best performance by almost thirteen seconds. He could only beat Pappas of the medal contenders, but Huffins won the bronze medal with 8595 points. He was 46 points behind Nool and 11 points behind Šebrle, but 28 points ahead of Dean Macey.

After this competition, Huffins ended his career with a height of 1.85 m in the competition, who weighed 86 kg. Huffins has been a trainer since the end of his sporting career.

Top performances

discipline	Best performance	Year and place
100 m	10.22 s	1996 in Atlanta (state championship)
Long jump	8.01 m	1993 in Tucson
Shot put	16.44 m	1996 in Atlanta (state championship)
high jump	2.18 m	1998 in New Orleans
400 m	48.05 s	1996 in Atlanta (state championship)
110 m hurdles	13.82 s	1997 in Indianapolis
Discus throw	54.14 m	1997 in Gatorade
Pole vault	4.90 m	1997 in Indianapolis
Javelin throw	64.35 m	1999 in Seville
1500 m	4: 38.71 min	2000 in Sydney
Decathlon	8694 points	1998 in New Orleans

literature

• Hans van Kuijen: 2000 Annual Combined Events. Helmond 2001

Web links

• Chris Huffins in the database of World Athletics (English)

Footnotes

1. ↑ In 1996 he jumped 8.07 m in Azusa, but with an impermissible tail wind of 4.2 m / s