1968 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Decathlon (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Decathlon
gender	Men
Attendees	33 athletes from 20 countries
Competition location	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Competition phase	18./19. October 1968
Medalist Bill Toomey ( USA )   Hans-Joachim Walde ( FRG )   Kurt Bendlin ( FRG )

The men's decathlon at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City was played on October 18 and 19, 1968 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario . 33 athletes took part.

The US American Bill Toomey was Olympic champion . He won ahead of Hans-Joachim Walde and Kurt Bendlin , both from the Federal Republic of Germany.

In addition to the medal winners Walde and Bendlin, Werner von Moltke started for the Federal Republic of Germany - officially Germany. He broke off the competition after the second discipline, the long jump. The GDR - officially East Germany - was represented by Joachim Kirst , Manfred Tiedtke and Herbert Wessel . Kirst finished fifth in the final, Tiedtke came in tenth. Wessel broke off the competition after the fifth discipline.
With Urs Trautmann, Hansruedi Kunz and Werner Duttweiler, three Swiss went into the competition. Only Trautmann could finish the decathlon , he finished seventeen. Duttweiler broke off the competition after the second, Kunz after the seventh discipline. Walter Dießl , Gert Abschied and Horst Mandl
started for Austria . Dießl finished the decathlon in twelfth place. Mandl got off after the third, down after the seventh discipline. The only starter for Liechtenstein was Franz Biedermann , who finished the competition in 19th place.

Existing records

World record	8319 points (8235)	Kurt Bendlin ( FR Germany )	Heidelberg , Federal Republic of Germany (now Germany )	May 14, 1967
Olympic record	8392 points (7901)	Rafer Johnson ( USA )	Decathlon of Rome , Italy	September 6, 1960

Annotation:

The scores result from the scoring tables valid at the time of the competition. For Bendlin's world record this was the table from 1964, for Johnson's Olympic record the table from 1952. In brackets, the points converted according to the table valid today are given for comparison. According to this rating system that is valid today, the Olympic champion of 1964 Willi Holdorf would hold the Olympic record with 7960 points.

Conducting the competition

The decathlon was carried out according to the same rules as today. The ten disciplines took place over two days. As in the previous games, the scoring was based on the points table from 1964, developed in 1962.

Competition schedule

On October 18th the following were completed:

10.00 a.m .: 100 m

10.40 a.m.: Long jump

3 p.m .: Shot put

4.20 p.m.: High jump

6.10 p.m .: 400 m

On October 19 the following were completed:

10.00 a.m .: 110 m hurdles

10.40 a.m .: Discus throw

12.30 p.m .: pole vault

4 p.m .: javelin throw

6.10 p.m .: 1500 m

Note: All times are Mexico City local time ( UTC −6)

Attendees

Olympic Champion Bill Toomey, USA

33 athletes from twenty countries took part in the Olympic competition:

Surname	nation
Charlemagne Anyamah	France
Purely aun	Soviet Union
Mykola Awilow	Soviet Union
Franz Biedermann	Liechtenstein
Kurt Bendlin	BR Germany
Roberto Carmona	Mexico
Chen Chuan show	Taiwan
Walter Dießl	Austria
Jurov spas	Bulgaria
Werner Duttweiler	Switzerland
Lennart Hedmark	Sweden
Device down	Austria
Joachim Kirst	GDR
Hansruedi Kunz	Switzerland
Jānis Lanka	Soviet Union
Roger Lespagnard	Belgium
Clive lunge	Great Britain
Horst Mandl	Austria
Werner von Moltke	BR Germany
Eduard de Noorlander	Netherlands
Ho Henh Phươc	South Vietnam
Dominique Rakotorahalahy	Madagascar
Rick Sloan	United States
Steen Smidt-Jensen	Denmark
Valbjörn Þorláksson	Iceland
Manfred Tiedtke	GDR
Bill Toomey	United States
Urs Trautmann	Switzerland
Donald Velez	Nicaragua
Tom Waddell	United States
Hans-Joachim Walde	BR Germany
Herbert Wessel	GDR
Wu Ah-min	Taiwan

Disciplines

100 meter run

The discipline was carried out in seven runs.

With 10.4 seconds, Bill Toomey set the fastest time in the 100-meter run in the Olympic decathlon.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Toomey 10.4 s 959 02 Down 10.5 s 932 Kirst 04th Bendlin 10.7 s 879 Dießl 06th Aun 10.8 s 853 Chen Wessel 09 Avilov 10.9 s 828 Carmona Jurov Lanka Lunge Smidt-Jensen Tiedtke Forest 17th Kunz 11.0 s 804 18th Hedmark 11.1 s 780 Lespagnard from Moltke de Noorlander Þorláksson 23 Anyamah 11.2 s 756 Duttweiler Mandl Sloan Trautmann 28 Waddell 11.3 s 733 Wu 30th Honest man 11.5 s 687 Rakotorahalahy Velez 33 Phươc 11.9 s 599

Long jump

With 7.87 m, Bill Toomey achieved the greatest distance in the long jump in the Olympic decathlon.

With his second win, Toomey increased his lead to 78 points over Joachim Kirst, who in turn was 63 points ahead of Kurt Bendlin.

Classification space Surname Expanse Points 01 Toomey 7.87 m 994 02 Avilov 7.64 m 949 Forest 04th Kirst 7.61 m 943 05 Bendlin 7.56 m 933 06th Waddell 7.47 m 915 07th Tiedtke 7.46 m 913 08th Dießl 7.42 m 905 09 Aun 7.40 m 901 Jurov Wu 12 Wessel 7.39 m 899 13 Hedmark 7.29 m 879 14th Smidt-Jensen 7.17 m 855 15th Lanka 7.15 m 850 16 Mandl 7.04 m 828 17th Trautmann 6.96 m 812 18th Lespagnard 6.94 m 808 19th Carmona 6.92 m 804 20th de Noorlander 6.90 m 800 21st Lunge 6.86 m 791 22nd Chen 6.78 m 773 23 Þorláksson 6.76 m 769 24 Down 6.75 m 767 25th Sloan 6.72 m 761 26th Velez 6.63 m 742 27 Rakotorahalahy 6.62 m 740 28 Kunz 6.54 m 723 29 Honest man 6.30 m 671 30th Phươc 6.16 m 640 31 from Moltke 6.14 m 635 32 Anyamah 6.03 m 611 33 Duttweiler 5.31 m 446

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Toomey 1953 02 Kirst 1875 03 Bendlin 1812 04th Dießl 1784 05 Avilov 1777 06th Forest 1777 07th Aun 1754 08th Wessel 1752 09 Tiedtke 1741 10 Jurov 1729 11 Down 1699 12 Smidt-Jensen 1683 13 Lanka 1678 14th Hedmark 1659 15th Waddell 1648 16 Wu 1634 17th Carmona 1632 18th Chen 1626 19th Lunge 1619 20th Lespagnard 1588 21st Mandl 1584 22nd de Noorlander 1580 23 Trautmann 1568 24 Þorláksson 1549 25th Kunz 1527 26th Sloan 1517 27 Velez 1429 28 Rakotorahalahy 1427 29 from Moltke 1415 30th Anyamah 1367 31 Honest man 1358 32 Phươc 1239 33 Duttweiler 1202

Shot put

With an Olympic best performance to the interim lead: Joachim Kirst, here at the long jump

Three athletes did not take part in the shot put : Werner Duttweiler from Switzerland, Werner von Moltke, FR Germany, and Dominique Rakotorahalahy, Madagascar With 16.43 m, Joachim Kirst achieved the largest distance in the shot put during the Olympic decathlon.

Kirst took the lead because Bill Toomey pushed almost three meters shorter and thus received 160 points less. 80 points behind Toomey, Kurt Bendlin was third, ahead of Manfred Tiedtke and Hans-Joachim Walde.

Classification space Surname Expanse Points 01 Kirst 16.43 m 872 02 Tiedtke 15.77 m 834 03 Lanka 15.31 m 807 04th Trautmann 15.16 m 798 05 Forest 15.13 m 796 06th Lunge 15.10 m 795 07th Aun 14.75 m 774 08th Bendlin 14.74 m 773 09 Waddell 14.45 m 756 10 Carmona 14.37 m 751 11 Dießl 14.32 m 747 12 Hedmark 14.08 m 733 13 Sloan 14.07 m 733 14th Anyamah 14.00 m 728 15th Jurov 13.99 m 727 16 Down 13.93 m 723 17th de Noorlander 13.89 m 721 18th Toomey 13.75 m 712 19th Wessel 13.70 m 709 20th Kunz 13.67 m 707 21st Avilov 13.41 m 691 22nd Mandl 13.34 m 686 23 Smidt-Jensen 13.03 m 667 24 Lespagnard 12.59 m 638 Þorláksson 26th Chen 12.38 m 624 27 Wu 12.08 m 604 28 Phươc 11.93 m 594 29 Honest man 10.94 m 528 30th Velez 10.60 m 504

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Kirst 2747 02 Toomey 2665 03 Bendlin 2585 04th Tiedtke 2575 05 Forest 2573 06th Dießl 2531 07th Aun 2528 08th Lanka 2485 09 Avilov 2468 10 Jurov 2456 11 Wessel 2435 12 Down 2422 13 Lunge 2414 14th Waddell 2404 15th Hedmark 2392 16 Carmona 2383 17th Trautmann 2366 18th Smidt-Jensen 2350 19th de Noorlander 2301 20th Mandl 2270 21st Chen 2250 Sloan 23 Wu 2238 24 Kunz 2234 25th Lespagnard 2226 26th Þorláksson 2187 27 Anyamah 2095 28 Velez 1933 29 Honest man 1886 30th Phươc 1833

high jump

The Austrian Horst Mandl did not take part in this fourth discipline.

With 2.10 m Rick Sloan achieved the highest height in the high jump in the Olympic decathlon.

Joachim Kirst extended his lead by 27 points to 109 points. Hans-Joachim Walde was able to push past Manfred Tiedtke and was now only 40 points behind Bill Toomey. Kurt Bendlin lost points due to a weak high jump and slipped to seventh place.

Classification space Surname height Points 01 Sloan 2.10 m 942 02 Avilov 2.07 m 917 03 Waddell 2.01 m 865 Forest 05 Kirst 1.98 m 840 06th Lespagnard 1.95 m 813 de Noorlander Smidt-Jensen Tiedtke Toomey Trautmann 12 Jurov 1.89 m 760 Hedmark 14th Wessel 1.86 m 734 15th Dießl 1.83 m 707 Down 17th Anyamah 1.80 m 680 Aun Bendlin Lanka Wu 17th Honest man 1.70 m 588 Carmona Chen Lunge Phươc Þorláksson 28 Kunz 1.65 m 540 Velez

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Kirst 3587 02 Toomey 3478 03 Forest 3438 04th Tiedtke 3388 05 Avilov 3385 06th Waddell 3269 07th Bendlin 3265 08th Dießl 3238 09 Jurov 3216 10 Aun 3208 11 Wessel 3195 12 Sloan 3192 13 Trautmann 3179 14th Lanka 3165 15th Smidt-Jensen 3163 16 Hedmark 3152 17th Down 3129 18th de Noorlander 3114 19th Lespagnard 3039 20th Lunge 3002 21st Carmona 2971 22nd Wu 2918 23 Chen 2838 24 Anyamah 2775 Þorláksson 26th Kunz 2774 27 Honest man 2474 28 Velez 2473 29 Phươc 2421

400 meter run

The discipline was carried out in six runs.

The South Vietnamese Ho Henh Phươc did not participate in this fifth discipline.

With 45.6 s, Bill Toomey achieved the fastest 400-meter time in the Olympic decathlon.

With this run, Bill Toomey took the lead ahead of Joachim Kirst and Hans-Joachim Walde. Toomey was 2.7 seconds faster than the second fastest runner, Kurt Bendlin. The US athlete had made up 224 points on Kirst and was now ahead with 115 points. Walde in third place had also improved on Kirst and was only 94 points behind the GDR athlete. The 1964 silver medalist , Rein Aun, had to abandon his race.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Toomey 45.6 s 1021 02 Bendlin 48.3 s 884 03 Forest 49.0 s 852 04th Kunz 49.1 s 847 05 Lunge 49.3 s 838 06th Down 49.7 s 819 07th Avilov 49.9 s 810 Lanka 09 Tiedtke 50.0 s 805 10 Jurov 50.2 s 797 Kirst Lespagnard Smidt-Jensen 14th Carmona 50.5 s 784 de Noorlander 16 Anyamah 50.9 s 766 Chen 18th Sloan 51.0 s 762 19th Waddell 51.2 s 753 20th Hedmark 51.3 s 749 21st Honest man 51.4 s 744 22nd Dießl 51.6 s 736 23 Wu 52.2 s 712 24 Velez 53.1 s 675 25th Þorláksson 53.2 s 671 26th Wessel 53.4 s 663 27 Trautmann 1: 03.9 min 318 - Aun DNF 0

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Toomey 4499 02 Kirst 4384 03 Forest 4290 04th Avilov 4195 05 Tiedtke 4193 06th Bendlin 4149 07th Waddell 4022 08th Jurov 4013 09 Lanka 3975 10 Dießl 3974 11 Smidt-Jensen 3960 12 Sloan 3954 13 Down 3948 14th Hedmark 3901 15th de Noorlander 3898 16 Wessel 3858 17th Lunge 3840 18th Lespagnard 3836 19th Carmona 3755 20th Wu 3630 21st Kunz 3621 22nd Chen 3604 23 Anyamah 3541 24 Trautmann 3497 25th Þorláksson 3446 26th Honest man 3218 27 Aun 3208 28 Velez 3148

110 meter hurdles

Mykola Awilow in a photo from 1972. The Soviet athlete was the fastest runner in the 110 meter hurdles .

... at the same time as Eduard de Noorlander from the Netherlands

The discipline was carried out in five runs.

Five athletes did not compete in this sixth discipline: Rein Aun, USSR, Roberto Carmona from Mexico, Chen Chuan-show, Taiwan, Valbjörn Þorláksson from Iceland and Herbert Wessel from the GDR.

In third place, Hans-Joachim Walde was only 11 points behind Joachim Kirst. Bill Toomey remained in the lead.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Avilov 14.5 s 903 de Noorlander 03 Dießl 14.7 s 881 Tiedtke 05 Lanka 14.8 s 870 Forest Wu 08th Hedmark 14.9 s 859 Smidt-Jensen Toomey Trautmann 12 Bendlin 15.0 s 848 Down 14th Jurov 15.1 s 837 15th Anyamah 15.3 s 817 Waddell 17th Honest man 15.5 s 797 Lunge Sloan 20th Kirst 15.6 s 787 21st Kunz 15.7 s 777 22nd Lespagnard 15.8 s 767 23 Velez 16.2 s 730

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Toomey 5358 02 Kirst 5171 03 Forest 5160 04th Avilov 5098 05 Tiedtke 5074 06th Bendlin 4997 07th Dießl 4855 08th Jurov 4850 09 Lanka 4845 10 Waddell 4839 11 Smidt-Jensen 4819 12 de Noorlander 4801 13 Down 4796 14th Hedmark 4760 15th Sloan 4751 16 Lunge 4637 17th Lespagnard 4603 18th Wu 4500 19th Kunz 4398 20th Anyamah 4358 21st Trautmann 4356 22nd Honest man 4015 23 Velez 3878

Discus throw

Joachim Kirst was able to make up 59 points on Bill Toomey, but still remained second, 128 points behind, ahead of Hans-Joachim Walde, who in turn was 73 points behind Kirst. Kurt Bendlin was able to improve to fifth and leave the GDR athlete Manfred Tiedtke, who had been fifth up to that point, behind. Bendlin had made up 122 points in the discus throw on Tiedtke and was only 99 points behind Mykola Awilow, who was only four points behind Walde in fourth.

Classification space Surname Expanse Points 01 Lanka 49.90 m 870 02 Lunge 47.60 m 829 03 Kirst 46.89 m 816 04th Bendlin 46.78 m 814 05 Avilov 46.64 m 812 06th Trautmann 46.20 m 804 07th Sloan 45.58 m 792 08th Waddell 43.73 m 758 09 Toomey 43.68 m 757 10 Forest 43.54 m 754 11 Hedmark 42.96 m 743 12 Dießl 42.23 m 729 13 de Noorlander 41.70 m 719 14th Smidt-Jensen 41.07 m 706 15th Jurov 40.90 m 703 16 Down 40.38 m 693 17th Tiedtke 40.31 m 692 18th Wu 40.25 m 690 19th Kunz 40.18 m 689 20th Anyamah 39.88 m 683 21st Lespagnard 37.74 m 640 22nd Velez 36.43 m 613 23 Honest man 30.67 m 489

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Toomey 6115 02 Kirst 5987 03 Forest 5914 04th Avilov 5910 05 Bendlin 5811 06th Tiedtke 5766 07th Lanka 5715 08th Waddell 5597 09 Dießl 5584 10 Jurov 5553 11 Sloan 5543 12 Smidt-Jensen 5525 13 de Noorlander 5520 14th Hedmark 5503 15th Down 5489 16 Lunge 5466 17th Lespagnard 5243 18th Wu 5190 19th Trautmann 5160 20th Kunz 5087 21st Anyamah 5041 22nd Honest man 4504 23 Velez 4491

Pole vault

Three athletes did not compete in this eighth discipline: the French Charlemagne Anyamah, Gert DOWN from Austria and Hansruedi Kunz from Switzerland.

With 4.85 m, Rick Sloan and Steen Smidt-Jensen achieved the greatest height in the pole vault as part of the Olympic decathlon.

The clear beneficiary of the pole vault was Kurt Bendlin, who was able to overtake Mykola Awilow in fourth and was only 30 points behind Walde. For his part, Walde had reduced his deficit to Kirst to 34 points.

Classification space Surname height Points 01 Smidt-Jensen 4.85 m 1017 Sloan 03 Bendlin 4.60 m 957 04th Waddell 4.50 m 932 05 Wu 4.35 m 896 06th Tiedtke 4.30 m 884 Forest 08th Dießl 4.25 m 871 09 Lespagnard 4.20 m 859 de Noorlander Toomey 12 Kirst 4.15 m 845 13 Avilov 4.10 m 832 Hedmark Trautmann 16 Lunge 4.00 m 807 17th Honest man 3.90 m 780 18th Lanka 3.80 m 754 19th Jurov 3.60 m 700 20th Velez 3.40 m 644

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Toomey 6974 02 Kirst 6832 03 Forest 6798 04th Bendlin 6768 05 Avilov 6742 06th Tiedtke 6650 07th Sloan 6560 08th Smidt-Jensen 6542 09 Waddell 6529 10 Lanka 6469 11 Dießl 6455 12 de Noorlander 6379 13 Hedmark 6335 14th Lunge 6273 15th Jurov 6253 16 Lespagnard 6102 17th Wu 6086 18th Trautmann 5992 19th Honest man 5284 20th Velez 5135

Javelin throw

Kurt Bendlin, FR Germany (here in 2018) , was the best javelin thrower . In the final statement he came in third and won the bronze medal

With 75.42 m, Kurt Bendlin achieved the greatest distance in the javelin throw in the Olympic decathlon.

Both Bendlin and Hans-Joachim Walde worked their way past Joachim Kirst for the medal positions. Bendlin was leading with 13 points ahead of Walde and was only 61 points behind Bill Toomey. The two German athletes had dominated the javelin throw. Bendlin had thrown 3.80 m further than Walde. The third best javelin thrower, the US athlete Tom Waddell, had a result that was almost eight meters shorter than Walde's result. Toomey, leading in the overall balance, was almost nine meters behind Walde, Joachim Kirst even 14.60 m.

Classification space Surname Expanse Points 01 Bendlin 75.42 m 940 02 Forest 71.62 m 897 03 Waddell 63.70 m 806 04th Hedmark 62.90 m 796 05 Toomey 62.80 m 795 06th Avilov 60.12 m 763 07th Wu 60.10 m 762 08th Lanka 59.76 m 758 09 Lunge 59.30 m 753 10 Kirst 57.02 m 724 11 Trautmann 56.32 m 715 12 Dießl 55.38 m 703 13 Tiedtke 51.84 m 657 14th de Noorlander 50.22 m 636 15th Sloan 49.90 m 632 16 Velez 48.94 m 618 17th Lespagnard 47.46 m 598 18th Jurov 47.04 m 592 19th Smidt-Jensen 46.80 m 589 20th Honest man 44.92 m 563

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Toomey 7769 02 Bendlin 7708 03 Forest 7695 04th Kirst 7556 05 Avilov 7505 06th Waddell 7335 07th Tiedtke 7307 08th Lanka 7227 09 Sloan 7192 10 Dießl 7158 11 Hedmark 7131 Smidt-Jensen 13 Lunge 7026 14th de Noorlander 7015 15th Wu 6848 16 Jurov 6845 17th Trautmann 6707 18th Lespagnard 6700 19th Honest man 5847 20th Velez 5753

1500 meter run

Due to the personal best of the athletes, it was clear that Bill Toomey could only be caught by a fall or a fit of weakness. This case did not occur, the American became Olympic champion and set a new Olympic record , because when converting the existing record to the current rating table, his score was significantly higher than that of the previous record holder Rafer Johnson .

To be able to catch Kurt Bendlin on the silver place, Hans-Joachim Walde had to be almost three seconds faster than his competitor. The division of the runs was determined according to the current score, so that the neighbors ran together. The leading athletes up to then met each other in the fourth race, u. a .: Walde, Bendlin, Bill Toomey, Mykola Awilow, Joachim Kirst and Manfred Tiedtke. At the finish, Walde was over eleven seconds faster than Bendlin and thus secured the silver medal. Bendlin was more than ten seconds ahead of Kirst and only nine seconds behind Awilow. That made him the bronze medalist.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 de Noorlander 4: 37.8 min 539 02 Smidt-Jensen 4: 41.3 min 517 03 Sloan 4: 44.0 min 500 04th Honest man 4: 47.9 min 476 05 Lespagnard 4: 57.0 min 425 06th Toomey 4: 57.1 min 424 07th Forest 4: 58.5 min 416 08th Avilov 5: 00.8 min 404 09 Waddell 5: 04.5 min 384 10 Wu 5: 08.9 min 361 11 Bendlin 5: 09.8 min 356 12 Hedmark 5: 11.0 min 350 13 Trautmann 5: 13.6 min 337 14th Jurov 5: 15.5 min 328 15th Lunge 5: 18.8 min 312 16 Dießl 5: 19.7 min 307 17th Kirst 5: 20.1 min 305 18th Tiedtke 5: 33.4 min 244 19th Velez 5: 46.1 min 190 - Lanka DNF 0

Bottom line

Date: 18./19. October 1968

The favorites for this competition were above all the US-American Bill Toomey, who had scored 8222 points in the US trials, and the German world record holder Kurt Bendlin, who, however, had a training deficit due to an injury and was unable to fully use his limb that had not yet fully recovered. Another candidate for a medal was the GDR decathlete Joachim Kirst.

In the 100-meter run , the first discipline, Toomey set a clear example with 10.4 seconds and left no doubts about his form. The American was clearly ahead. Kirst was only a tenth of a second behind, however, while Bendlin was three tenths of a second, which was 80 points. In discipline two, the long jump , almost all athletes were able to benefit from Mexico's high altitude. Bill Toomey got the most points here, too, so that his lead increased further. Kirst and Bendlin were in second and third. In the third exercise, the shot put , the picture changed. Toomey, who had a weak point in this discipline, lost so much after a result that was almost three meters behind Kirst's width that the GDR athlete overtook him. Toomey, however, remained second ahead of Bendlin. Manfred Tiedtke from the GDR and the West German Hans-Joachim Walde, bronze medalist from 1964 , worked their way up to ranks four and five.

The high jump as the fourth discipline was actually Kirst's great strength, with 2.16 m he even held the German record. So he was not at all satisfied with his 1.98 m. Four decathletes jumped higher than him, including Walde. Toomey was only two inches back. Bendlin lost a lot of ground here with only 1.80 m and was only seventh. The 400-meter run became a show of strength for Toomey. With 45.6 s he was almost three seconds faster than Bendlin, who was second here, and so the US athlete took the lead again at the end of the first day, more than 100 points ahead of Kirst. Almost another 100 points behind was Walde in third place. They were followed by a group of three with Mykola Awilow, USSR, Tiedtke and Bendlin in sixth place.

Over the 110 meter hurdles at the beginning of the second day, the distances between the athletes were not quite as great as in some other disciplines. Awilow made up a lot of points, Tiedtke and Walde were also strong. Toomey followed just a tenth of a second, followed by Bendlin another tenth of a second. So not too much changed in the overall stand. Exercise seven, the discus throw was rather a weakness as a throwing discipline for Toomey. But here too the distances remained within manageable limits. Toomey was still far ahead in the overall standings, followed by Kirst, Walde, Awilow, Bendlin and Tiedtke - moving closer together.

Twice there were dangerous situations in the pole vault for the top athletes. Toomey initially had two failed attempts at his starting height of 3.60 m, but made it on the third attempt and in the end jumped 4.20 m, which was in the normal range for him. This was Bendlin's entry height. And he also needed three attempts before he was successful and was finally able to book a good 4.60 m. In the overall bill, everything was pushed together behind Toomey. There were only 90 points between Kirst in second and Awilow in fifth. The penultimate discipline, the javelin throw, was a very special strength of Bendlin. With his distance he was clearly ahead of all others in this competition, but was somewhat handicapped by his limb that was not fully operational. That didn't change the fact that the order now looked significantly different due to the respective results of the other decathletes. Toomey, who had thrown more than twelve meters shorter than Bendlin, was ahead with only 61 points, followed by Bendlin just ahead of Walde, who had shown the second best throw of the competition. Kirst and Awilow, whose widths had been below those of Toomeys, were now well more than 100 points behind Walde.

Due to the previous best results for the final 1500 meter run , it was clear that Toomey would hardly be overtaken. Bendlin was the number one contender for silver because he had a better time than his rival Walde. However, this only had to catch up about three seconds to be in the final account before Bendlin, and the altitude of the venue brought some imponderables with it. So all decathletes tormented themselves over this last challenge. Toomey came in sixth overall from all four races, a good second ahead of Walde. Bendlin lost more than ten seconds on Walde, but was not too far behind Awilow and clearly ahead of Kirst, so that the medal distribution was clear. Bill Toomey became Olympic champion and set a new Olympic record - his number of points when converting the existing record to the currently valid rating table was significantly higher than that of the previous record holder Rafer Johnson . The two German decathletes Hans-Joachim Walde and Kurt Bendlin won silver and bronze. Mykola Avilov from the Soviet Union, who still had his greatest success, the 1972 Olympic gold medal , was fourth . Joachim Kirst from the GDR came in fifth.

For a better classification of the performance, in addition to the official points according to the rating table from 1964, the number of points converted according to the current rating system from 1985 is also given. According to this table, which is valid today, there would have been only a few deviations: Places nine / ten would have been swapped and ranks 14, 15 and 16 would have shifted from one another. Otherwise the order would be unchanged. But these comparisons are only indicative, because the different standards of the time must apply as a basis.

space	Surname	nation	Points - official rating	Points - 1985 rating
1	Bill Toomey	United States	8193 OR	8064
2	Hans-Joachim Walde	BR Germany	8111	8032
3	Kurt Bendlin	BR Germany	8064	7984
4th	Mykola Awilow	Soviet Union	7909	7841
5	Joachim Kirst	GDR	7861	7702
6th	Tom Waddell	United States	7719	7620
7th	Rick Sloan	United States	7692	7553
8th	Steen Smidt-Jensen	Denmark	7648	7507
9	Eduard de Noorlander	Netherlands	7554	7380
10	Manfred Tiedtke	GDR	7551	7387
11	Lennart Hedmark	Sweden	7481	7339
12	Walter Dießl	Austria	7465	7302
13	Clive lunge	Great Britain	7338	7175
14th	Jānis Lanka	Soviet Union	7227	6938
15th	Wu Ah-min	Taiwan	7209	7082
16	Jurov spas	Bulgaria	7173	6992
17th	Roger Lespagnard	Belgium	7125	6932
18th	Urs Trautmann	Switzerland	7044	6850
19th	Franz Biedermann	Liechtenstein	6323	6161
20th	Donald Velez	Nicaragua	5943	5757

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 372–375

Video

• Olympics - 1968 Mexico City - Men's Decathlon - USA Bill Toomey imasportsphile.com , published February 14, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed November 9, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference Decathlon , accessed November 9, 2017
• Official report - summary p. 120f, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 9, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1968 p. 531, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 9, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 560 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 10f, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 9, 2017 
3. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (100 m) , accessed on November 9, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (long jump) , accessed on November 9, 2017
5. ↑ SportsReference Decathlon (shot put) , accessed November 9, 2017
6. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (high jump) , accessed on November 9, 2017
7. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (400 m) , accessed on November 9, 2017
8. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (pole vault) , accessed on November 9, 2017
9. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (javelin throw) , accessed on November 9, 2017
10. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 531, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 9, 2017