Dear International Friends of Decathlon!
 
 As each year since 1993 I´m staging the world´s largest decathlon event
 near school-close in Vienna. This time not directly in main Prater Stadium
 where June-concerts of the Stones, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Robbie
 Williams make the access difficult. But for the first time in the airport
 suburb Schwechat in a well suited stadium where the European Junior Champs
 were held in 1983.
 Due to the move I will not match the record 1000 point scorers of the year
 2000 with competitions not stopping all through the night, but 400 entries
 right now already qualify for the 03 world´s superlative. 
 
 Because of the airport vicinity and some remaining capacity I would like
 to inform you, your athletes and your still active friends about this
 opportunity of an exciting, colourful starting chance without any
 performance pressure (average score is around 3000, actually decreasing
 despite a lot of introducing workshops for pole, hurdles, discus etc. -
 due to the fact that more and more real hobbyists enter!).
 To get an overview about the event and our 5832 deca-results out of ten
 years, please enter www.werthner.at (sorry, still in German, but titles
 should be mainly understandable).
 
 Stars like Sebrle, Ryba, Ganiev, Balanque, Zuber, Pendergist, Poelman,
 Richards, Michailova, Garcia, Borozinsky, Dunkleburger, Janacek, Faber,
 Dhouibi a.m.m. have also competed and layed out the right dimensions for
 the hobby athletes from more than 25 nations.
 
 This year for the first time the event is running from Friday noon to
 Sunday noon. Sunday evening our main sponsor is offering a free concert to
 participants, guests, his employees and customers. In between we will have
 the main victory ceremony and the PREMIERE OF THE 100-MINUTES-DECATHLON.
 
 After my Olympic success in Moscow (4th with 8050 partly in rainy
 conditions) I was the first in history to stage a ONE-HOUR-DECATHLON on
 Monday 18-8-80 at 18 o´clock in front of more than 2000 immediate
 spectators. This and further ten one-hour-decathlons brought me (despite
 four Olympic starts in 76,80,84,88) the most exciting and fulfilling
 moments of my deca carreer. With spectators so close, ongoing action
 without waiting periods and no tiring re-wormups I´m still convinced that
 part of the deca-future lies in the "compact versions" with only two or
 three competitors at a time. Granting a good oversight and an almost
 complete introduction in the variety for new T&F-spectators. Robert Zmelik
 had 17.000 spectators (true!!!) in his hometown stadium when he showed the
 one-hour-decathlon after returning with Olympic Gold from Barcelona!
 
 With the 100-minute-idea I follow these thoughts: 8000 scores will be
 feasable; in the average duration of a soccer game you can consume almost
 all attempts the rules allow (LJ3,SP3,DT3,JT3 and up to seven in both
 vertical jumps) and come close to many personal bests; there will be no
 hurry or stress when changing the venues for athletes and spectators; the
 only real pause after 400m (20 minutes or more) can be used for
 interviews, advertising, cheerleaders or other track performances; 1500
 should be completed within 100 (10x10) minutes after the starting gun of
 the 100m; each (entered) second over 100 minutes means one point
 deduction; the 400, the hurdles and the 1500 each athlete may run
 separately if so desired.
 
 TO MAKE THE PREMIERE as much visible as possible I have now recruited some
 main stars of our scene: Roman SEBRLE - world record holder - and Frank
 BUSEMANN - silver at Atlanta - !!!!!
  
 With Erki NOOL - current Olympic Champion - I will negotiate on the next
 weekend at his Italian training camp.
 
 Together up to four athletes can compete. For four it is recommended to
 prepare two long jump, two high jump and two pole vault facilities right
 beside each other.
 
 I hope you support my initiatives for our great sport. I think, decathlon
 deserves the effort. I still love it and it still is part of my
 life-style. The recent European masters titles (over wellpacked fields) in
 Potsdam and San Sebastian over the last months prove that age 47 still
 allows some fine results....
 
 Best Regards from Austria,
 Your 
 G e o r g   W e r t h n e r
 georg@werthner.at

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