Decathlon

Fiacra, Ailbhe and I went to a decathlon and a heptathlon that were in town this weekend. It was right by our local pool, so we were able to ride our bikes. It ran over Saturday and Sunday, and was a lot of fun.

The most exciting thing to watch was the pole vault. Here is someone's second try at 4.40 meters.

By 5.00 meters, most of them were out of it. At 5.10 meters, there were only two guys left. One guy made it on his third try, but the other guy didn't get through. When they moved on to 5.20 meters, the guy missed on his first try. Then a new guy came out. He had declined to jump each of the earlier heights, and was only joining in now. He made it on his first try. This was a complete shocker for me! He might just as well have parachuted in.

He kept going. Here is his last successful jump, which was 5.40 meters.

It was pretty cool.