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

Johnson and C.K Yang

5 - 6 September   1960: It was 51 years ago today, two great men competed at the 1960 Olympics in Rome,  Rafer Johnson of the United States with  background of Olympic silver medalist from the 1956 Olympics and C.K Yang of Chinese Taipei, the two-times Asian Games champion. Both lived, trained and studied together at the University of California, L.A (UCLA).

Yang was very good in running events especially the 100m, 400m and 110mh but Johnson's huge strength could not be challenged by Yang, he was much better in the power events likes shot put and discus throw.

Yang won 4 out of 5 events on the first day with advantage of 15 points, he increased the lead by winning one of his favorites events, the 110mh in which he gained 923 points, 183 over than Johnson. But it all ended when they finished the discus throw where Johnson's exceptional throw awarded him huge points, 272 over than Yang then took the lead with 74 points.

In the 1500m, the final event, Yang with lifetime best of  4:36.0 was 18.2 seconds faster than Johnson's personal best. Yang would win the gold if he finish only 10 seconds ahead of Johnson. But Johnson ran the fastest time in his life, 5 seconds faster than his previous best, only 1.2 seconds slower than Yang and win the gold medal.

Yang took the silver medal with a score of 8334, 56 points short of Johnson's winning score 8392 points.  Russian's Vassily Kuznetsov who broke a few world records in Decathlon was far behind with 7,809 points in bronze medal position.

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
906	15.82		Shot Put	13.33		703
832	1.85		High Jump	1.90		900
985	48.3		400 meters	48.1		1005
4577			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

On April 28, 1963, at age of 30 and less than three years after the Rome Olympics, Yang set the world record of 9,121 points at Walnut, California - the highest decathlon score ever recorded by human being. However, amendment of scoring formula devalued the score to 8009 points only, which then enabled him to officially became the first human to score over 8000 points in decathlon. Serious injury prevented him to win the gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and finished in fifth.

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