Rafer Johnson VS Yang Chuan-Kwang (C.K Yang)

Johnson and C.K Yang

5 - 6 September   1960: 51 years ago today, two great men competed at the 1960 Olympics in Rome,  Rafer Johnson of the United States with a background of an Olympic silver medalist (1956) and Yang Chuan-Kwang (or C.K Yang) of Chinese Taipei, a two-time Asian Games champion (1954 and 1958). 

Both athletes lived, trained and studied together at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Right before the Olympics, Johnson set a world record of 8,683 while beating Yang in second at 8,426, second best in history.

Yang had the physical attributes to 'attack' the sprint, hurdle, and running events (esp. 100m, 400m and 110mh) but Johnson had the 'strength' to be unlikely matched by his competitors in the throwing events including Yang.

CK Yang won 4 out of 5 events during the first day, but Johnson was ahead by 55 points as he gained a huge point from the shot put, 273 more than Yang. 

Yang took the lead by winning one of his favorites events, the 110mh in which he gained 923 points, 183 higher than Johnson after 6 events. 

But its all changed after the discus with Johnson's exceptional throw gave him a huge point, leading 272 from Yang, and taking the lead again with 74 points after 7 events.

After the 9th event, Yang accumulated 7989 points, and was short of 67 points from Johnson (8056). With a lifetime best of  4:36.0, or 18.2 seconds faster than Johnson's personal best, Yang would win the gold if he finish the 1500m the last event by only 10 seconds ahead of Johnson.

Johnson ran the fastest time in his life, 5 seconds faster than his previous best, only 1.2 seconds slower than Yang to secore the gold medal from Yang.

Yang took the silver medal with a score of 8334, 56 points less of Johnson's winning score of 8392 points.  Russian's Vassily Kuznetsov who broke several world records in the Decathlon (including his 8357, world record in 1959) was quite far behind with 7,809 points for the bronzes.

Below is a detailed statistics of the battle;

RAFER JOHNSON VS YANG CHUAN-KWANG AT THE XVII OLYMPICS, ROME 1960
Johnson			Events	C. K. Yang
948	10.9		100 meters	10.7		1034
906	7.35		Long Jump	7.46		950
976	15.82		Shot Put	13.33		703
832	1.85		High Jump	1.90		900
985	48.3		400 meters	48.1		1005
4647			Total Day 1	4592
740	15.3		110m Hurdles	14.6		923
894	48.49		Discus Throw	39.83		622
795	4.10		Pole Vault	4.30		915
980	69.76		Javelin Throw	68.22		937
336	4:49.7		1500 meters	4:48.5		345
8392 Points (OR)			Total Score	8334 Points (>OR)
Comparative   Statistics
3 events Javelin 1500m Shot Put & Javelin 110mh & Pole Vault 7901 Points		Number of event won Highest score Lowest score Killer events Weaker events New value (1984 Table)			7 events 100m 1500m 100m & 110mh Shot Put & Discus 7820 Points

April 28, 1963, at 30, Yang set a new world record with a point of 9,121 at Walnut, California to become the first man to score over 9000 points with then scaling system. In 1980s, the amendment to the scoring formula devalued the score to 8009 points, which also enabled him to become the second man to score over 8000 points in decathlon using the current scaling system.  A serious injury had prevented him to win gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and he finished in fifth. He passed away in 2007.

Below is the video of the greatest battle between two friends - Rafer Johnson VS C.K Yang;