WORKING MATHEMATICALLY #43

Roman Sebrle

1.Using the “Official Decathlon Points Formula” on the next page, calculate howmany points Seberle scored at the 2007 World Championships if his resultswere:

100mLong JumpShot PutHigh Jump400mHurdlesDiscusPole VaultJavelin1500m11.047.5615.922.1248.8014.3348.754.8071.184:35.32

2. Explain why the constants A, B and C for each event have been chosen.Why is “B - P” used for running events and “P - B” for field events?3. Use the table of “Roman Sebrle’s Personal Bests” to calculate whatpercentage of the World Records he has achieved in each event. Rank his 10decathlon events from best to worst. Which event does Sebrle have toimprove in the most?4. What decathlon score would all the World Records total? 5. Devise a new scoring system for the decathlon and justify the fairness of your system.

Roman Šebrle

(bornNovember 26,1974) is an athlete from theCzech Republic. Originally ahigh jumper, he competes indecathlonand heptathlon. He is a world record holder in decathlon - in 2001 inGötzishe became the first decathlete ever to achieve over 9,000points, setting the record at 9,026 points. He won the worldchampionships in 2007 at Osaka, Japan.

On 22 January 2007, Šebrle was injured by a javelin thrown by a female javelin thrower from a distance of55 metres while training inSouth Africa.The javelin pierced the edge of his right shoulder from thefront, 12 cm deep. Shocked, Šebrle ripped the javelin out immediately, which could have caused even moredamage. Luckily for him, it did not cause any serious injury, because it slipped between a muscle and hisskin. He was taken to a hospital, but left soon with just eleven stitches. However, he was limited in trainingfor some time, especially in thepole vault. Later he stated that he was only 20 cm away from being killedand 1 cm from an injury that would have ended his career. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/)

Official Decathlon Points Formula

The formula follows the following format:

•

Points =

A*(B-P)

for Running Events

•

Points =

A*(P-B)

for Field Eventswhere P is your performance in the unitsdescribed below and A, B, and C are constants.

EventABCP

100 m25.437 18.0 1.81 secLong Jump0.14354 220 1.40 cmShot Put51.39 1.5 1.05 mHigh Jump0.8465 75 1.42 cm400 m1.53775 82 1.81 sec110 m Hurdles5.74352 28.5 1.92 secDiscus Throw12.91 4.0 1.1 mPole Vault0.2797 100 1.35 cmJavelin Throw10.14 7.0 1.08 m1500 m0.03768 480 1.85 sec

Roman Sebrle’s Personal Bests

EventYearPerformanceWorld RecordNameCountry100m200010.64 sec9.74 secAsafa PowellJAMLong Jump20018.11 m8.95 mMike PowellUSAShot Put200716.47 m23.12 mRandy BarnesUSAHigh Jump20002.15 m2.45 mJavier SotomayorCUB400m199947.76 sec43.18 secMichael JohnsonUSA110m Hurdles200113.68 sec12.91 secColin JacksonUSADiscus 200349.37 m74.08 mJurgen SchultGERPole Vault20035.20 m6.15 mSergey BubkaUKRJavelin20071.18 m98.48 mJan ZeleznyCZE