Dan O’Brien Makes Point Quickly Wins Nine Of 10 Events In An Hour During Made-For-TV Production

It’s hard to tell how this Short-Attention-Span Decathlon played for the national cable audience, but it drew one of the largest crowds ever to Washington State’s Mooberry Track.

And what the estimated 2,500 fans saw was that Dan O’Brien doesn’t need to spread his talents across two days to reinforce the notion he’s the world’s greatest athlete.

In a made-for-ESPN concoction, O’Brien scored 7,891 points in 1 hour to easily defeat 1992 Olympic gold medalist Robert Zmelik of the Czech Republic (6,974) and rising young American Chris Huffins (5,738).

O’Brien won nine events - being edged by Zmelik in only the javelin - and capped it with a Cal Ripken victory lap, slapping hands with the hometown fans lining the track.

That lap was only slightly slower than the one he clocked in the 400 meters, but it showed the bond between O’Brien and the Palouse track fans.

“This was awesome,” said O’Brien, who pocketed an equally awesome check of $25,000 for his efforts. “I was worried during the day because I didn’t know what to expect. You can’t really train for something like this.”

O’Brien said his plan was “to get as many events done as early as possible so when you get down to the hurdles and the 1,500, you don’t have much else to do.”

The format called for the athletes to compete in the four running events at appointed times, but they had no restrictions on the order of the other six.

While O’Brien appeared under control, Zmelik’s efforts became a bit frantic when he almost failed to make it to the starting line for the 1,500. And Huffins, who did a great deal of huffin’ in the 1,500, crossed the line in that final event with less than 11 seconds left in the allotted hour.

O’Brien had strong performances in the 100 (10.68), shot put (50-10), high jump (6-10-3/4), discus (161-11), pole vault (16-8-3/4) and javelin (204-1).

The javelin was only 2 feet off his personal record and the shot put was 2 feet farther than he threw while winning his third world championship in August.

“He had some big events,” said O’Brien’s coach, Rick Sloan, who is also the WSU head coach. “I thought he would go between 8,000 and 8,250. I think that’s a good job, though, I think we underestimated how hard the 400 and the hurdles would be.”

O’Brien won the 400 in a leisurely 58.68 - 11 seconds off what he generally runs.

“You just can’t go any faster than that,” O’Brien said. “I tried to go out in that first 100 meters and I was just shaking.”

As it evolved with the athletes racing from site to site, a tired Huffins no-heighted in the high jump - starting at 6-0-3/4 .

“I showed the sheer ignorance of youth, but I have to admit, it was an awful lot of fun,” Huffins said.

The crowd - surely swollen by the free admission - was in the spirit of the event, rhythmically clapping for the contestants throughout and holding up signs for the TV cameras.

“I think the guys were surprised how hard it was and I was surprised by how many people came out for this,” said two-time Olympic decathlon champ Daley Thompson, who served as commentator for ESPN. “In Europe, track is supported very well and not so well always in America, but this certainly was.”

Sloan said the only larger crowd at Mooberry Track, that he could recall, was for an Oregon dual on a Moms’ Weekend.

The fans in their Barca-loungers at home was what interested O’Brien’s agent Brad Hunt.

Independent New York television producer Barry Frank tried to sell Thompson on the idea of a 60-minute decathlon 10 years ago, but Thompson balked. “I didn’t want to waste good efforts on something that wouldn’t count,” Thompson said.

However, Frank revived the idea, got ESPN interested, and Hunt got O’Brien lined up. The obvious reason? Exposure.

“This fits in with our goal of getting exposure and visibility for Dan on U.S. TV,” Hunt said. “That was 90 minutes of Dan O’Brien on TV, so it was a great idea. ABC showed a total of 12 minutes of the two days of the decathlon at the World Championships, and this was 90 minutes.”

O’Brien said he will not compete in the DecaStar meet in Talence, France, next week. That was the site of O’Brien’s 1992 world record of 8,891.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo