To be fair it wasn't just a running event. I gather that keeping one's heart rate slow is fairly critical. Certainly, no amount of extra speed could have made up for the shooting misses by the Polish girl this morning.
Of course they are not going to be as good as specialist middle distance runners, but then the decathletes aren't very good 100m sprinters either. I don't think that necessarily makes them bad athletes - certainly, in track and field circles, decathletes are generally highly respected for their prowess.
They're actually pretty good 100m sprinters, it's the 1500 and the throwing events that they're usually s**t at (well, s**t compared to the world class guys).
But IRT modern pentathlon, if it was that bloody easy why isn't everyone doing it and winning gold medals? I can tell you i'd take a gold medal in that in a heartbeat.
And I can't believe buzz from brazil hasn't made it into the worst list. Deadset most horrible piece of cringeworthy television in history. Especially when Roy & HG are rotting away on radio.