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Craig Saalfeld nabs silver in decathlon

by Joshua Weinstock on September 13, 2009

On Friday, September 11, Craig Saalfeld began a two-day journey of ten events, going up against seven exceptional international athletes in the decathlon in Taipei Stadium. Saalfeld was the lone American squaring off against three Germans, two Russians, one Japanese and one Chinese Taipei athletes. There originally were ten athletes, but Chinese Ming Yuan and Russian Ali Ametov backed out before the 400m for unknown reasons. In order to earn points, one does not have to come in first place, but earns points based on a pre-determined chart. “The decathlon is a competition against one’s self,” head coach Thomas Withrow said. “Saalfeld must perform his best in every event to get the highest points possible.” Saalfeld’s decathlon results, in chronological order: Friday, Sept. 11 9:00 A.M. - 100 meters Saalfeld ran past the pack in the second heat for first place. However, his time of 11.53 seconds put him in third overall. Russian Kirill Tsybizov won the 100m with a time of 11.35 seconds. Saalfeld earned 746 points with his performance, putting him 38 points behind the leader, Tsybizov. 10:00 A.M. – Long jump After the 100 meters took place, the decathlon athletes moved to the long jump strip to warm up. Saalfeld leaped for the third-best distance, 6.35 meters, earning him 664 points. Taiwanese Ching Lung An took first place with 6.65 meters, bagging 784 points. At this point, Saalfeld had 746 points, 38 behind An. 11:30 A.M. – Shot put At the shot put, Saalfeld often looked into the crowd to get pointers from throwing coach Dan Fitzpatrick, Withrow and shot put gold medalist, Joanel Lopez. Their pointers helped on his first throw of 11.05 meters, the best of his three throws. Saalfeld placed third and received 549 points for his best throw. German Christopher Bischlager won the event with 679 points for his toss of 13.19 meters. Entering the 4 ½-hour break, Saalfeld was in third place overall with 1959 points, 161 points behind Tsybizov. 5:00 P.M. – High jump Saalfeld got his chance to grab the lead during the high jump, his best event. He jumped 1.92 meters, well below his personal best, but it was enough to win first place in the event over Bischlager’s mark of 1.86 meters. Saalfeld made up lost ground, earning 731 points, which put him only 32 points behind Tsybizov as Tsybizov placed fourth with 602 points in the event. Overall, Saalfeld had 2690 points. 7:00 P.M. – 400 meters In the final event of the day, the 400m, Saalfeld gave it his all and ran a strong race in which he had a big lead but ran out of steam at the end. However, his first-place finish with a time of 51.04, earning him 767 points, was good enough to catapult Saalfeld into first place. The slim lead of six points ahead of Tsybizov wasn’t secure, but Saalfeld was well ahead by 228 points of the third place athlete, Bischlager. Saturday, Sept. 12 9:00 A.M. – 110-meters hurdles Saalfeld continued his three-event streak of finishing first; earning the highest points and extending his six-point lead to 126. Saalfeld’s time was 15.34, which obtained him 809 points for an overall total of 4,266 points. 9:15 A.M. – 4x400 meters relay heat Saalfeld also participated in the 4x400m relay heat in the third runner slot. The other runners were Delvin Furlough, Michael Saalfeld and Josh Hembrough. While every other decathlon athlete took time to rest between the hurdles and discus, Saalfeld helped the Americans advance into the finals with a time of 3:23.80, second only to Ukraine’s 3:22.21. During the race, Saalfeld appeared to not give it his all, conserving his stamina and strength for the decathlon. 9:50 A.M. – Discus throw In the discus throw, Saalfeld once again took pointers from Withrow in the stands, but it wasn’t enough. Saalfeld threw for a distance of 28.82 meters on his final throw, which placed him sixth. Bischlager won the the event with a throw of 37.22 meters. The second-place Tsybizov chipped away at Saalfeld’s lead, reducing the margin from 126 to 87 points. 11:20 A.M. – Pole vault The toughest event for Saalfeld came with the pole vault, as four of the decathlon participants also competed in the individual pole vault event. Those vaulters finished inside the top six as Saalfeld took fifth place with a vault of 3.8 meters. During the event, Saalfeld received assistance from gold medalist Patrick Southern and fellow vaulter Tom Guidon, who was visibly restless in the seats as he tried to help Saalfeld do his best. Tsybizov, not one of the pole-vaulters, took fourth place as he earned 617 points to Saalfeld’s 562 and slowly caught up with only 32 points to go. 5:00 P.M. – Javelin throw The javelin throw is Saalfeld’s worst event in the decathlon, he admitted. Saalfeld’s performance reflected his disclaimer as he threw a best of 38.80 meters for 414 points, which put his point total at 5683. Tsybizov, Saalfeld’s greatest threat to take away the gold, threw the farthest with a result of 51.93 meters for a whopping 617 points. 5:15 P.M. – High jump finals Saalfeld took a hiatus from the decathlon to compete in his second side event in which he excels the most: the high jump. Saalfeld jumped his way to a 1.99-meter finish, better than his 1.92m mark in the decathlon. However, it wasn’t enough to overcome Russians Alexy Landar and Alexy Savostin who tied the Games Record at 2.05m as Saalfeld finished fifth. Landar was able to break the record with a jump of 2.08, but wasn’t able to advance since he failed to overcome 2.11 meters. The high jump ended at 6:30 p.m., and Saalfeld had only 20 minutes to prepare for the 1,500 meters, the conclusion of the decathlon. 6:50 P.M. – 1,500 meters Heading into the final event, the Russian Tsybizov had a 171- and 230-point lead over Saalfeld and third-place An of Chinese Taipei. Saalfeld led most of the 3 ¾ laps around the track until the final 100 meters, when Manuel Rapp blew past him for a first-place finish. Saalfeld finished with a time of 4:37.13, earning 698 points. Overall points leader Tsybizov came in fourth with a time of 4:45.44, which netted him 646 points, more than enough to earn the gold medal and the title of “best athlete in the Deaflympics.” When the athletes crossed the finish line, every runner except Saalfeld and Markus Bednarek, of Germany, fell to the ground, out of energy and struggling to catch their breath. It was the end of a grueling ten-event, two-day athletic feat. In the end, Tsybizov ended with an even 6,500 points. Saalfeld trailed by 119 points with a respectable total of 6,381 to earn the USA’s first silver medal of the 2009 Taipei Deaflympics. Heavy crowd favorite An won the bronze medal with a final of 6106 points. The Russian Tsybizov fell short of the Games record of 7,423 set by Austrian Dean Barton-Smith in 1989.

(Photo by Jason Chiou)
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