1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Decathlon (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Decathlon
gender	Men
Attendees	39 athletes from 24 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	28-29 September 1988
Medalist Christian Schenk ( GDR )   Torsten Voss ( GDR )   Dave Steen ( CAN )

The men's decathlon at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was played on September 28 and 29, 1988 in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 39 athletes took part.

The GDR celebrated a double victory. Christian Schenk won ahead of Torsten Voss . Bronze went to the Canadian Dave Steen .

In addition to the first two, Uwe Freimuth started for the GDR . He finished eighteen. Jürgen Hingsen took part
for the Federal Republic of Germany , who was disqualified in the first discipline, the 100-meter run , because of three false starts and then gave up the competition. Switzerland was represented by Beat Gähwiler (twelfth place), Christian Gugler (22nd place) and Severin Moser (27th place). The Austrian Georg Werthner , who finished the competition in 21st place , was present at the Olympic Games for the fourth time . Athletes from Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	Daley Thompson ( Great Britain )	8798 points - 1977 rating after 1985 rating: 8846 p	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987	Torsten Voss ( GDR )	8680 points	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Daley Thompson ( Great Britain )	8811 points	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American champion 1987	Mike Gonzales ( USA )	7649 points	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Miguel Valle ( Cuba )	7586 points	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Paulo Lima ( Brazil )	7491 points	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Gong Guohua ( People's Republic of China )	7848 points	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	Mahmoud Aït Ouhamou ( Algeria )	7160 points	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	8798 points (8832)	Jürgen Hingsen ( Federal Republic of Germany )	Mannheim , Federal Republic of Germany (now Germany )	8/9 June 1984
	8798 points (8846)	Daley Thompson ( Great Britain )	Los Angeles , USA	8/9 August 1984
Olympic record	8798 points (8846)	Daley Thompson ( Great Britain )	Los Angeles Decathlon , USA	8/9 August 1984

Note:
The points mentioned result from the rating system from 1977, which is no longer valid today. The number of points is given in brackets that would have been obtained if the rating table from 1985 valid today was used. After that, Daley Thompson would be the sole world record holder.

Conducting the competition

The decathlon was carried out according to the same rules as today. The ten disciplines took place over two days. The rating was based on the 1985 point table, which is still valid today.

Attendees

39 athletes from 24 countries took part in the Olympic competition:

Surname	nation
Oleksandr Apajchev	Soviet Union
Alain Blondel	France
Tim Bright	United States
Uwe Freimuth	GDR
Beat Gähwiler	Switzerland
Christian Gugler	Switzerland
Gong Guohua	People's Republic of China
Jürgen Hingsen	BR Germany
Roman Hrabaň	Czechoslovakia
Dave Johnson	United States
Petri Keskitalo	Finland
Gary children	United States
Walter Kjulwet	Soviet Union
Alexander Kruger	Great Britain
Dambar Kuwar	Kingdom of Nepal
Fu-An Lee	Chinese Taipei
Lee Kwang-ik	South Korea
Santiago Mellado	El Salvador
Albert Miller	Fiji
Severin Moser	Switzerland
Carlos O'Connell	Ireland
Mikael Olander	Sweden
Antonio Peñalver	Spain
Christian Plaziat	France
Simon Poelman	New Zealand
Gregory Richards	Great Britain
Christian Schenk	GDR
Simon Shirley	Australia
Mike Smith	Canada
Fidel Solórzano	Ecuador
Dave Steen	Canada
Dezső Szabó	Hungary
Pavlo Tarnovetsky	Soviet Union
Daley Thompson	Great Britain
Věroslav Valenta	Czechoslovakia
Torsten Voss	GDR
Lars Warming	Denmark
Georg Werthner	Austria
Robert de Wit	Netherlands

Disciplines

Note: In the shot put , discus and javelin throw as well as in the long jump , the best distances are printed in bold. In the high jump and pole vault , the last valid and therefore best attempts are printed in bold.

100 meter run

The German decathlete Jürgen Hingsen was disqualified after three false starts over 100 meters and then gave up the competition

The discipline was carried out in five runs.

Jürgen Hingsen from the Federal Republic of Germany caused three false starts and was disqualified. Since he no longer had a chance of a good result, he ended the competition.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Thompson 10.62 s 947 02 Placiat 10.83 s 899 03 Voss 10.87 s 890 04th Hrabaň 10.89 s 885 05 Keskitalo 10.94 s 874 06th Smith 10.99 s 863 07th F. Lee 11.00 s 861 08th Solórzano 11.01 s 858 09 Blondel 11.02 s 856 Szabó 11 Shirley 11.03 s 854 12 de Wit 11.05 s 850 13 Warming 11.07 s 845 14th Poelman 11.09 s 841 15th Moser 11.10 s 838 16 Johnson 11.15 s 827 17th Bright 11.18 s 821 Gähwiler Steen 20th Tarnovetsky 11.23 s 810 21st Gift 11.25 s 806 22nd O'Connell 11.26 s 804 23 Kruger 11.30 s 795 24 children 11.31 s 793 Kjulvet 26th Mellado 11.33 s 789 27 Peñalver 11.38 s 778 28 Guohua 11.43 s 767 29 Olander 11.46 s 761 30th Miller 11.47 s 759 31 Gugler 11.49 s 755 32 Richards 11.50 s 753 33 Valenta 11.51 s 750 34 Werthner 11.52 s 748 35 Sincerity 11.57 s 738 K. Lee 37 Kuwar 12.12 s 628 DNF Apaychev 0 DSQ Hung

Long jump

The competition was conducted in two groups.

Jürgen Hingsen and Oleksandr Apajtschew no longer competed.

Classification space Surname 1st attempt Second attempt 3. Attempt Points 01 Placiat 7.62 m 7.37 m 7.15 m 965 02 Keskitalo x 7.56 m 7.49 m 950 03 Shirley 7.14 m 7.45 m x 922 Voss 7.36 m x 7.45 m 05 Steen 7.44 m 7.33 m 7.38 m 920 06th Blondel 7.37 m 7.43 m 7.43 m 918 Gift x 7.43 m x 08th Thompson 7.20 m 7.38 m 7.24 m 905 09 Smith 7.01 m 6.86 m 7.37 m 903 10 Werthner x 7.36 m 7.21 m 900 11 Gähwiler 7.34 m 7.29 m 7.31 m 896 12 Szabó 7.09 m 7.29 m 6.89 m 883 13 Tarnovetsky 6.95 m x 7.28 m 881 14th F. Lee 7.17 m 7.12 m 7.23 m 869 15th K. Lee x x 7.19 m 859 16 Kjulvet 6.97 m 6.87 m 7.14 m 847 17th Johnson x 7.12 m x 842 18th Richards 7.09 m x 6.87 m 835 19th Peñalver 7.08 m x x 833 Poelman 6.84 m 6.97 m 7.08 m 21st Hrabaň 6.84 m 4.94 m 7.07 m 830 22nd Bright 6.72 m 7.04 m 7.05 m 826 23 Warming 6.87 m x 7.04 m 823 24 Gugler 7.02 m 6.98 m x 818 25th Valenta 6.97 m 6.99 m 7.01 m 816 26th Sincerity 6.75 m 7.00 m 6.92 m 814 children 6.75 m 7.00 m x 28 Moser 6.98 m x x 809 29 Kruger x 6.97 m x 807 30th de Wit 6.84 m 6.95 m 6.90 m 802 31 O'Connell 6.90 m x x 790 32 Mellado 6.36 m 6.52 m 6.83 m 774 33 Solórzano 6.79 m 6.63 m 6.63 m 764 34 Olander 6.47 m 6.51 m 6.75 m 755 35 Miller 6.37 m x 6.43 m 682 36 Guohua x x 6.22 m 635 37 Kuwar 5.11 m 5.60 m 5.83 m 550

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Placiat 1864 02 Thompson 1852 03 Keskitalo 1824 04th Voss 1812 05 Shirley 1776 06th Blondel 1774 07th Smith 1766 08th Steen 1741 09 Szabó 1739 10 F. Lee 1730 11 Gift 1724 12 Gähwiler 1717 13 Hrabaň 1715 14th Tarnovetsky 1691 15th Poelman 1674 16 Johnson 1669 17th Warming 1668 18th de Wit 1652 19th Werthner 1648 20th Bright 1647 Moser 22nd Kjulvet 1640 23 Solórzano 1622 24 Peñalver 1611 25th children 1607 26th Kruger 1602 27 G. Lee 1597 28 O'Connell 1594 29 Richards 1588 30th Gugler 1573 31 Valenta 1566 32 Mellado 1563 33 Sincerity 1552 34 Olander 1516 35 Miller 1441 36 Guohua 1402 37 Kuwar 1178

Shot put

The discipline was conducted in two groups.

Classification space Surname 1st attempt Second attempt 3. Attempt Points 01 Olander 15.31 m 15.65 m 16.07 m 856 02 Hrabaň 15.56 m 15.84 m x 841 03 Sincerity 15.60 m x 15.13 m 827 04th Gift 15.48 m 15.11 m 15.22 m 819 05 Keskitalo 14.51 m 15.34 m x 811 de Wit 15.34 m 13.45 m 14.67 m 07th Kjulvet 14.90 m 15.29 m x 808 08th Tarnovetsky 15.25 m 15.23 m 15.25 m 805 09 Thompson 15.02 m x x 791 10 Voss 14.38 m 14.97 m x 788 11 children x x 14.89 m 783 12 Johnson 14.35 m 13.87 m 14.52 m 760 13 Poelman 14.51 m 14.26 m x 760 14th Gähwiler 14.48 m 14.06 m 14.15 m 758 15th Peñalver 13.99 m 13.38 m 14.31 m 747 16 Shirley 12.71 m 14.20 m x 741 Steen 13.90 m 14.20 m 14.05 m 18th Valenta 13.57 m 14.17 m 13.64 m 739 19th Bright 13.56 m 13.63 m 14.12 m 736 20th Guohua 13.98 m 13.21 m 13.71 m 727 21st Werthner 13.93 m x 13.57 m 724 22nd Gugler 13.80 m 12.89 m 13.32 m 716 23 Smith 12.97 m 13.33 m 13.61 m 704 24 Placiat 13.19 m 13.53 m 13.58 m 703 25th Warming 12.65 m 13.41 m 13.10 m 692 26th Kruger 13.23 m 12.71 m 13.18 m 681 27 F. Lee 13.15 m x 12.88 m 676 28 Richards 12.94 m x 12.93 m 664 29 Blondel 12.92 m 12.91 m x 662 Szabó 10.58 m 12.07 m 12.92 m 31 Moser 12.33 m 12.69 m 12.16 m 648 32 O'Connell 12.41 m 12.23 m 11.95 m 631 33 Miller 12.33 m 12.17 m 12.17 m 626 34 Solórzano x 11.59 m 11.76 m 592 35 Mellado x 10.45 m 11.63 m 584 36 G. Lee 9.75 m 10.23 m 10.27 m 502 37 Kuwar 9.38 m 9.42 m 9.71 m 468

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Thompson 2643 02 Keskitalo 2635 03 Voss 2600 04th Placiat 2567 05 Hrabaň 2556 06th Gift 2543 07th Shirley 2517 08th Tarnovetsky 2496 09 Steen 2482 10 Gähwiler 2475 11 Smith 2479 12 de Wit 2463 13 Kjulvet 2448 14th Blondel 2436 15th Poelman 2434 16 Johnson 2429 17th F. Lee 2406 18th Szabó 2401 19th children 2390 20th Bright 2383 21st Sincerity 2379 22nd Olander 2372 Werthner 24 Warming 2360 25th Peñalver 2358 26th Valenta 2305 27 Moser 2295 28 Gugler 2289 29 Kruger 2283 30th Richards 2252 31 O'Connell 2225 32 Solórzano 2214 33 Mellado 2147 34 Guohua 2129 35 G. Lee 2099 36 Miller 2067 37 Kuwar 1646

high jump

The discipline was conducted in two groups.

At 2.27 m, Christian Schenk achieved the greatest height in the high jump in an Olympic decathlon to date .

Schenk then tore three times the height of 2.30 m.

Classification space Surname 1.70 m 2.00 m 1.73 m 2.03 m 1.76 m 2.06 m 1.79 m 2.09 m 1.82 m 2.12 m 1.85 m 2.15 m 1.88 m 2.18 m 1.91 m 2.21 m 1.94 m 2.24 m 1.97 m 2.27 m Points 01 Gift - o - - - - - o - - - o - o - o - o - x o 1061 02 Kruger - o - - - o - o - o - x o - xxx - - - - - - 944 03 Placiat - o - - - o - xxo - o - xxx - - - - o - - - 915 04th Bright - o - o - xx o - xxx - - - - - - o - - - o - 859 Mellado - o - xo - x o - xxx o - - - o - - - o - - - Szabó - o - o - xx o - xxx - - o - - - o - o - o - 07th Gugler - o - o - xxx - - - - - - - - o - o - o - 831 Johnson - o - o - xxx - - - - - - o - - - - - o - F. Lee - o - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - o - - - Poelman - o - xx o - xxx - - - - - - o - - - o - o - Thompson - o - o - xxx - - o - - - o - - - o - o - 12 Kjulvet - o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - o - o - o - 803 Olander - xx o - xxx - - - - o - - - o - xo - xo - o - Peñalver - x o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - o - o - xo - de Wit - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - xo - xo - o - 16 Blondel - xxx - - - - - - - - - - o - - - o - xx o - 776 Keskitalo - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - o - x o - children - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - - - o - Shirley - xxx - - - - - - - - - - o - - - xo - xx o - Smith - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - - - xx o - Steen - xxx - - - - - - - - o - - - o - - - x o - Tarnovetsky - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - - - xx o - Voss - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - - - xx o - 24 Sincerity - - - - - - - - - - o - - - o - o - xxx - 749 Gähwiler - - - - - - o - o - o - o - o - o - xxx - Miller - - - - xo - o - - - o - xo - o - x o - xxx - Valenta - - - - - - - - o - - - xo - o - x o - xxx - Warming - - - - - - - - o - o - o - xo - o - xxx - Werthner - - - - - - - - o - - - o - - - x o - xxx - 30th Guohua - - - - - - - - o - xo - o - o - xxx - - - 723 G. Lee - - - - o - - - o - o - o - x o - xxx - - - 32 O'Connell - - - - o - - - - - xo - xx o - xxx - - - - - 696 Solórzano - - - - - - - - xo - - - x o - xxx - - - - - 34 Moser - - - - - - o - o - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - 670 35 Richards - - - - - - - - o - xxx - - - - - - - - - 644 36 Hrabaň - - - - - - o - - - xxx - - - - - - - - - 619 37 Kuwar xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 544 Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Gift 3604 02 Placiat 3482 03 Thompson 3474 04th Keskitalo 3411 05 Voss 3376 06th Shirley 3293 07th Tarnovetsky 3272 08th de Wit 3266 09 Poelman 3265 10 Johnson 3260 Szabó 12 Steen 3258 13 Kjulvet 3251 14th Smith 3246 15th Bright 3242 16 F. Lee 3237 17th Kruger 3227 18th Gähwiler 3224 19th Blondel 3212 20th Hrabaň 3175 Olander 22nd children 3166 23 Peñalver 3161 24 Sincerity 3128 25th Werthner 3121 26th Gugler 3120 27 Warming 3109 28 Valenta 3054 29 Mellado 3006 30th Moser 2965 31 O'Connell 2921 32 Solórzano 2910 33 Richards 2896 34 Guohua 2852 35 G. Lee 2822 36 Miller 2816 37 Kuwar 2190

400 meter run

The Canadian Mike Smith took fourteenth place in the overall statement

The discipline was carried out in five runs.

Fidel Solórzano did not participate in this fifth discipline.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Blondel 47.44 s 936 02 Voss 47.71 s 923 03 Smith 47.83 s 917 04th Warming 47.97 s 911 05 de Wit 48.21 s 899 06th Szabó 48.23 s 898 07th O'Connell 48.24 s 898 08th Steen 48.29 s 895 09 Placiat 48.34 s 893 10 Mellado 48.37 s 891 11 Tarnovetsky 48.60 s 880 12 Moser 48.63 s 879 13 Shirley 48.84 s 869 14th Gift 48.90 s 866 15th Gähwiler 49.02 s 860 16 Thompson 49.06 s 858 17th Johnson 49.15 s 854 18th Richards 49.27 s 849 19th Bright 49.34 s 845 20th Hrabaň 49.68 s 829 21st F. Lee 49.73 s 827 22nd Sincerity 49.84 s 822 23 Poelman 49.89 s 820 24 Keskitalo 49.94 s 817 25th Kruger 49.98 s 816 26th Werthner 49.99 s 815 27 Peñalver 50.24 s 804 28 Miller 50.30 s 801 29 Gugler 50.60 s 787 30th Kjulvet 50.62 s 786 31 G. Lee 50.71 s 782 32 Valenta 51.16 s 762 33 Guohua 51.25 s 758 34 Olander 51.28 s 757 35 children 51.79 s 734 36 Kuwar 52.32 s 711

Intermediate result after the first day space Surname Points 01 Gift 4470 02 Placiat 4375 03 Thompson 4332 04th Voss 4299 05 Keskitalo 4228 06th de Wit 4165 07th Smith 4163 08th Shirley 4162 09 Szabó 4158 10 Steen 4153 11 Tarnovetsky 4152 12 Blondel 4148 13 Johnson 4114 14th Bright 4087 15th Poelman 4085 16 Gähwiler 4084 17th F. Lee 4064 18th Kruger 4043 19th Kjulvet 4037 20th Warming 4020 21st Hrabaň 4004 22nd Peñalver 3965 23 Sincerity 3950 24 Werthner 3936 25th Olander 3932 26th Gugler 3907 27 children 3900 28 Mellado 3897 29 Moser 3844 30th O'Connell 3819 31 Valenta 3819 32 Richards 3745 33 Miller 3617 34 Guohua 3610 35 G. Lee 3604 36 Kuwar 2901

110 meter hurdles

The discipline was carried out in five runs.

Gary Kinder did not compete in this sixth discipline.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Placiat 14.18 s 951 02 Keskitalo 14.25 s 942 03 de Wit 14.36 s 929 04th Bright 14.39 s 925 05 Blondel 14.40 s 924 06th Voss 14.46 s 916 07th Warming 14.49 s 912 08th Johnson 14.66 s 891 09 Smith 14.70 s 886 10 Thompson 14.72 s 884 11 Tarnovetsky 14.76 s 879 12 Poelman 14.78 s 876 13 Steen 14.81 s 873 14th Hrabaň 14.94 s 857 15th F. Lee 14.96 s 854 Szabó 17th Peñalver 14.97s 853 18th Miller 15.00 s 850 19th Sincerity 15.04 s 845 20th Gähwiler 15.11 s 736 21st Moser 15.13 s 834 Gift 23 Valenta 15.18 s 828 24 Gugler 15.22 s 823 25th Kruger 15.38 s 804 26th Mellado 15.39 s 803 27 Shirley 15.44 s 797 28 Richards 15.56 s 783 29 O'Connell 15.61 s 777 30th Werthner 15.64 s 774 31 Guohua 15.88 s 746 32 Olander 16.06 s 726 33 G. Lee 16.20 s 710 34 Kuwar 17.05 s 619 - Kjulvet DNF 0

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Placiat 5326 02 Gift 5304 03 Thompson 5216 04th Voss 5215 05 Keskitalo 5170 06th de Wit 5094 07th Blondel 5072 08th Smith 5049 09 Tarnovetsky 5031 10 Steen 5026 11 Bright 5012 Szabó 13 Johnson 5005 14th Poelman 4961 15th Shirley 4959 16 Warming 4932 17th Gähwiler 4920 18th F. Lee 4918 19th Hrabaň 4861 20th Kruger 4847 21st Peñalver 4818 22nd Sincerity 4795 23 Gugler 4730 24 Werthner 4710 25th Mellado 4700 26th Moser 4678 27 Olander 4658 28 Valenta 4644 29 O'Connell 4596 30th Richards 4528 31 Miller 4467 32 Guohua 4356 33 G. Lee 4314 34 Kjulvet 4037 35 Kuwar 3520

Discus throw

The discus throw was conducted in two groups.

Walter Kjulwet did not take part in this seventh discipline.

Classification space Surname 1st attempt Second attempt 3. Attempt Points 01 Olander 49.00 m 46.72 m 50.66 m 884 02 Gift 44.56 m 49.28 m x 855 03 Tarnovetsky 48.02 m x 47.12 m 829 04th Sincerity 43.64 m 46.66 m x 801 05 Peñalver 41.24 m 45.50 m 46.34 m 794 06th Guohua 44.22 m x 46.18 m 791 07th Valenta x x 45.84 m 784 08th Hrabaň 43.98 m x 45.32 m 773 09 Thompson 44.44 m 44.80 m 42.26 m 763 10 Voss 44.36 m x 43.16 m 754 11 Smith 40.26 m 43.88 m 43.56 m 744 12 Steen 43.66 m x 42.02 m 739 13 Poelman 42.26 m x 43.20 m 730 14th Placiat 42.12 m x 43.06 m 727 15th Gähwiler x 41.96 m 42.46 m 715 16 Johnson 42.36 m x x 713 17th Richards 38.54 m 38.24 m 42.32 m 712 18th Keskitalo 39.94 m 41.86 m x 702 19th Bright 40.42 m 41.68 m x 699 Shirley 39.48 m 41.68 m 41.00 m 21st de Wit x x 41.32 m 691 22nd Blondel x 40.64 m 41.20 m 689 23 Warming x 39.56 m 40.38 m 672 24 Szabó 38.20 m 39.54 m 38.24 m 655 25th Gugler 39.08 m 38.46 m x 646 26th Werthner x 38.82 m x 641 27 Kruger 38.72 m x 36.88 m 639 Miller x 38.68 m 38.72 m 29 F. Lee 36.46 m 38.06 m 32.62 m 625 30th Moser 35.70 m 38.04 m x 625 31 O'Connell 38.02 m 36.66 m 36.54 m 624 32 Mellado 35.50 m 35.60 37.52 m 614 33 G. Lee 34.36 m x 33.84 m 551 34 Kuwar 24.16 m 25.96 m 27.10 m 408

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Gift 6159 02 Placiat 6053 03 Thompson 5979 04th Voss 5969 05 Keskitalo 5872 06th Tarnovetsky 5860 07th Smith 5793 08th de Wit 5785 09 Steen 5765 10 Blondel 5761 11 Johnson 5718 12 Bright 5711 13 Poelman 5691 14th Szabó 5667 15th Shirley 5658 16 Gähwiler 5635 17th Hrabaň 5634 18th Peñalver 5612 19th Warming 5604 20th Sincerity 5596 21st F. Lee 5543 22nd Olander 5542 23 Kruger 5486 24 Valenta 5428 25th Gugler 5376 26th Werthner 5351 27 Mellado 5314 28 Moser 5303 29 Richards 5240 30th O'Connell 5220 31 Guohua 5147 32 Miller 5106 33 G. Lee 4865 34 Kuwar 3928

Pole vault

The discipline was conducted in two groups.

At 5.70 m, Tim Bright achieved the highest height ever in the pole vault as part of an Olympic decathlon.

At the height of 5.80 m, Bright had three failed attempts.

Classification space Surname 2.80 m 4.70 m 2.90 m 4.80 m 3.70 m 4.90 m 3.90 m 5.00 m 4.00 m 5.10 m 4.10 m 5.20 m 4.20 m 5.30 m 4.30 m 5.40 m 4.40 m 5.50 m 4.50 m 5.60 m 4.60 m 5.70 m Points 01 Bright - - - - - - - - - - - o - - - o - xxo - xo - xx o 1132 02 Blondel - - - o - - - xo - o - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - 972 Steen - - - o - - - o - o - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - Tarnovetsky - - - o - - - xo - xo - x o - xxx - - - - - - - - 05 Voss - xo - - - o - o - o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - 941 06th Szabó - - - o - - - o - - - xxx - - - - - - - - o - 910 07th Sincerity - - - o - x o - xxx - - - - - - - - o - - - xxo - 880 Hrabaň - - - xxo - o - xxx - - - - - - - - xo - - - o - Johnson - - - xxo - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - xxo - Placiat - xo - - - x o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - xo - - - Poelman - - - xxo - o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - Thompson - xo - - - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13 Keskitalo - - - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o - 849 Olander - xo - o - xxx - - - - - - - - o - - - xo - - - Warming - xo - o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - xo - - - o - de Wit - - - x o - - - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - 17th Gähwiler - o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - xo - o - xo - 819 Gugler - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - o - o - Moser - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o - - - Gift - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - o - o - xxo - o - Shirley - xx o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - o - - - o - o - 22nd Guohua - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o - xo - o - 790 Kruger - xxx - - - - - - xo - - - - - o - xxo - o - xx o - Mellado - xxx - - - - - - - - xxo - - - o - - - o - o - Valenta - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - o - - - xo - x o - Werthner - xxx - - - - - - o - - - - - - - - - o - o - 27 F. Lee - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o - - - 760 Richards - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o - x o - - xxx 29 O'Connell - - - - - - - - o - - - - - xo - xx o - xxx - - - 731 Peñalver - - - - - - - - o - - - o - - - x o - xxx - - - 31 Smith - - - - - - - - o - - - xo - xx o - xxx - - - - 702 32 G. Lee - - - - o - xo - o - x o - xxx - - - - - - - - - 645 33 Miller - - - - - - - - x o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - 617 34 Kuwar o - xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 309 Intermediate result Torsten Voss, GDR, winner of the silver medal space Surname Points 01 Gift 6978 02 Placiat 6933 03 Voss 6910 04th Thompson 6859 05 Bright 6843 06th Tarnovetsky 6832 07th Steen 6737 08th Blondel 6733 09 Keskitalo 6721 10 de Wit 6634 11 Johnson 6598 12 Szabó 6577 13 Poelman 6571 14th Hrabaň 6514 15th Smith 6495 16 Shirley 6477 17th Sincerity 6476 18th Gähwiler 6454 19th Warming 6453 20th Olander 6391 21st Peñalver 6343 22nd F. Lee 6303 23 Kruger 6276 24 Valenta 6218 25th Gugler 6195 26th Werthner 6141 27 Moser 6122 28 Mellado 6104 29 Richards 6000 30th O'Connell 5951 31 Guohua 5937 32 Miller 5723 33 G. Lee 5510 34 Kuwar 4237

Javelin throw

The discipline was conducted in three groups.

Classification space Surname 1st attempt Second attempt 3. Attempt Points 01 Olander 69.30 m 68.84 m 72.80 m 932 02 Werthner 63.44 m 67.04 m 62.12 m 844 03 Keskitalo 57.76 m 66.64 m 59.28 m 838 04th Smith 59.38 m 65.46 m 66.54 m 837 05 Johnson 62.70 m 66.46 m x 835 06th Gähwiler 63.90 m 65.84 m x 826 07th Steen 61.44 m 64.16 m 62.58 m 801 08th Thompson 59.06 m 60.62 m 64.04 m 799 09 Shirley 58.56 m 64.00 m 54.22 m 798 10 de Wit 58.06 m 62.02 m 63.00 m 783 11 Voss 61.76 m 58.04 m 59.14 m 764 12 Bright 61.60 m x 59.98 m 762 13 Gift 59.50 m 61.32 m 56.00 m 758 14th Gugler 59.82 m 60.92 m 58.48 m 752 15th Hrabaň 60.48 m 58.96 m 59.80 m 745 16 Sincerity 59.68 m 57.96 m 60.20 m 741 17th Tarnovetsky 58.38 m 59.48 m 58.58 m 730 18th Guohua 57.26 m 56.10 m 57.84 m 705 19th Blondel 56.26 m 57.46 m x 700 20th Miller 55.54 m 57.26 m 56.38 m 697 21st Poelman 55.60 m 53.48 m 57.18 m 696 22nd Szabó 56.80 m 49.84 m 56.12 m 690 23 Valenta 52.86 m 55.68 m 56.28 m 682 24 Peñalver 48.66 m 48.32 m 55.68 m 673 25th Mellado 51.76 m 55.28 m 55.42 m 669 26th G. Lee 52.96 m 54.88 m 54.94 m 662 27 Kruger 46.08 m 53.04 m 54.34 m 653 28 Richards 51.76 m 55.28 m 55.42 m 669 29 F. Lee 52.82 m 51.90 m 49.80 m 630 30th O'Connell 52.10 m 52.68 m 50.04 m 628 31 Paziat 51.20 m 52.18 m x 621 32 Warming 49.02 m 51.50 m 50.02 m 611 33 Moser 46.50 m 49.10 m 49.52 m 581 34 Kuwar 34.10 m 39.10 m 32.48 m 429

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Gift 7736 02 Voss 7674 03 Thompson 7658 04th Bright 7605 05 Tarnovetsky 7562 06th Keskitalo 7559 07th Placiat 7554 08th Steen 7538 09 Blondel 7433 Johnson 11 de Wit 7417 12 Smith 7332 13 Olander 7323 14th Gähwiler 7280 15th Shirley 7275 16 Poelman 7267 17th Szabó 7267 18th Hrabaň 7259 19th Sincerity 7217 20th Warming 7064 21st Peñalver 7016 22nd Werthner 6985 23 Gugler 6947 24 F. Lee 6933 25th Kruger 6929 26th Valenta 6900 27 Mellado 6773 28 Moser 6703 29 Guohua 6642 30th Richards 6641 31 O'Connell 6579 32 Miller 6420 33 G. Lee 6172 34 Kuwar 4666

1500 meter run

The discipline was carried out in two runs.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Blondel 4: 16.64 min 835 02 Gähwiler 4: 16.74 min 834 03 Szabó 4: 17.85 min 826 04th Moser 4: 21.90 min 799 05 Gugler 4: 21.93 min 798 06th Warming 4: 22.41 min 795 07th Steen 4: 23.20 min 790 08th de Wit 4: 25.86 min 772 09 Werthner 4: 26.42 min 768 10 Shirley 4: 27.48 min 761 11 Poelman 4: 28.54 min 754 12 Gift 4: 28.95 min 752 13 Smith 4: 28.97 min 751 14th Johnson 4: 29.62 min 747 15th G. Lee 4: 29.98 min 745 16 Mellado 4: 30.07 min 744 17th O'Connell 4: 32.06 min 731 18th Peñalver 4: 32.68 min 727 19th Voss 4: 33.02 min 725 20th Placiat 4: 34.07 min 718 21st Kruger 4: 37.84 min 694 22nd Kuwar 4: 41.24 min 673 23 Thompson 4: 45.11 min 648 24 F. Lee 4: 45.57 min 646 25th Sincerity 4: 46.04 min 643 26th Bright 4: 51.20 min 611 27 Tarnovetsky 4: 52.24 min 605 28 Miller 4: 53.72 min 596 29 Richards 4: 53.85 min 596 30th Guohua 4: 54.99 min 589 31 Keskitalo 4: 55.89 min 584 32 Olander 5: 02.42 min 546 33 Valenta 5: 03.17 min 542 34 Hrabaň 5: 06.68 min 522

Summary

Date: 28./29. September 1988

Two-time Olympic champion Daley Thompson from Great Britain was not considered a favorite because he was injured in the spring. Thompson's long-time competitor Jürgen Hingsen, BR Germany, was no longer in the top form of past years and had not yet produced a really high-class record of performance in the Olympic season. So he was not one of the closest favorites either. The first contender for the Olympic victory was world champion Torsten Voss from the GDR. And even in the first discipline, the 100-meter run , Hingsen had a debacle. He caused three false starts and was disqualified. Since he no longer saw any chance of a good result, Hingsen gave up the competition.

Thompson, on the other hand, was very strong in this first discipline. He won the 100-meter run and was 19 hundredths of a second faster than the French Christian Plaziat. Voss was a quarter of a second behind Thompson. The long jump , the second exercise, was dominated by Plaziat in front of the Finn Petri Keskitalo. Voss again took third place. Plaziat now had a narrow lead in the classification, he was twelve points ahead of Thompson, followed by Keskitalo and Voss.

The Swede Mikael Olander won the shot put as the third discipline in front of the Czechoslovak Roman Hrabaň and the two GDR athletes Uwe Freimuth and Christian Schenk. Thompson came in ninth, three points ahead of Voss. Plaziat only finished 24th and slipped to fourth place in the overall standings. Thompson had taken the lead again. He was eight points ahead of Keskitalo. 35 points behind the Finn followed Voss, another 34 points behind Plaziat.

The fourth discipline, the high jump , caused a sensation. Schenk won the discipline with 2.27 m. This height is still today - 2018 - the Olympic record within a decathlon. Schenk was the only high jumper who jumped the straddle style . Behind Schenk, Briton Alexander Kruger placed with 2.15 m and Plaziat with 2.12 m. Schenk also took the lead. His lead over Plaziat was 122 points. Thompson followed eight points behind Plaziat. Voss was in fifth place.

The final exercise of the first day, the 400-meter run , was won by Frenchman Alain Blondel ahead of Voss and Canadian Mike Smith. Plaziat was able to make up 27 points on Schenk, while Thompson lost another eight points on the leader. Voss had caught up with Thompson and was now only 33 points behind.

In the 110-meter hurdles , the first discipline of the second day, Plaziat was able to take the lead again. He won the discipline before Keskitalo and the Dutchman Robert de Wit. Voss finished sixth, Thompson tenth. Schenk came in 21st and scored 117 points less than Plaziat in this exercise, whose lead in the overall ranking was 22 points. Thompson was 92 points behind Schenk and only one point ahead of Voss.

In the seventh exercise, the discus throw , won by the Swede Olander, Schenk was able to overtake Plaziat with his second place, who was only fourteenth. Thompson in ninth was just able to keep Voss in check with a difference of nine points. Schenk's lead over Plaziat was 106 points. The next discipline, the pole vault, was won by the US athlete Tim Bright with the new Olympic record in the decathlon of 5.70 m. He jumped half a meter higher than the runner-up Blondel, Dave Steen from Canada and Pavlo Tarnowezkyj from the Soviet Union. Voss came in fifth, Plaziat and Thompson together in seventh. Schenk was seventeenth here. His lead over Plaziat had shrunk to 45 points. This in turn was only 23 points ahead of the new third-placed Voss, who was 51 points ahead of Thompson. So it was very close to the penultimate discipline.

The Swede Olander achieved the third individual victory of the competition by winning the javelin throw . He won ahead of the Austrian Georg Werthner, who completed an Olympic decathlon for the fourth time. Thompson placed eighth, Voss eleven, Schenk thirteen, Plaziat 31. In the overall standings, Schenk was 62 points ahead of Voss, who in turn was 16 points ahead of Thompson. Plaziat had slipped to seventh place and was 104 points behind a medal rank.

In the final 1500 meter run , Christian Schenk was not in danger. In twelfth place, he ran safely to the Olympic gold medal. Torsten Voss crossed the finish line in nineteenth, but was able to defend his silver medal. Bronze surprisingly went to the Canadian Steen, who crossed the finish line in seventh place. His time was so good that he improved from eighth to third and thus won the bronze medal. Thompson was only fourth.

The quality of this competition did not match the level of the decathlon of 1984 , when two exceptional athletes, Daley Thompson and Jürgen Hingsen, were in top form and Thompson was still setting the current world record at the time of the Seoul Games .

Dave Steen's bronze medal was the first Canadian medal win in the decathlon .

Bottom line

space	Surname	nation	Points	annotation
1	Christian Schenk	GDR	8488
2	Torsten Voss	GDR	8399
3	Dave Steen	Canada	8328
4th	Daley Thompson	Great Britain	8306
5	Christian Plaziat	France	8272
6th	Alain Blondel	France	8268
7th	Tim Bright	United States	8216
8th	Robert de Wit	Netherlands	8189
9	Dave Johnson	United States	8180
10	Pavlo Tarnovetsky	Soviet Union	8167
11	Petri Keskitalo	Finland	8143
12	Beat Gähwiler	Switzerland	8114
13	Dezső Szabó	Hungary	8093
14th	Mike Smith	Canada	8083
15th	Simon Shirley	Australia	8036
16	Simon Poelman	New Zealand	8021
17th	Mikael Olander	Sweden	7869
18th	Uwe Freimuth	GDR	7860
19th	Lars Warming	Denmark	7859
20th	Roman Hrabaň	Czechoslovakia	7781
21st	Georg Werthner	Austria	7753
22nd	Christian Gugler	Switzerland	7745
23	Antonio Peñalver	Spain	7743
24	Alexander Kruger	Great Britain	7623
25th	Fu-An Lee	Chinese Taipei	7579
26th	Santiago Mellado	El Salvador	7517
27	Severin Moser	Switzerland	7502
28	Věroslav Valenta	Czechoslovakia	7442
29	Carlos O'Connell	Ireland	7237
30th	Gregory Richards	Great Britain	7237
31	Gong Guohua	People's Republic of China	7231
32	Albert Miller	Fiji	7016
33	Lee Gwang-ik	South Korea	6917
34	Dambar Kuwar	Kingdom of Nepal	5339

Web links

• SportsReference Decathlon , accessed January 29, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: pp. 246–250, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 29, 2018

Video

• OG 1988 - Decathlon , published August 15, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed January 29, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 681 , accessed on January 29, 2018
2. ↑ SportsReference (high jump) , accessed January 29, 2018
3. ↑ SportsReference (pole vault) , accessed January 29, 2018
4. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: pp. 246–250, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 29, 2018