Rafer Johnson and Yang Chuan-kwang in the decathlon 1500m at the 1960 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
Yang Chaun-Kwang, of Chinese Taipei, was born on 10 Jul 1933 in Taitung and his country’s first Olympic medallist. He died in Los Angeles on 27 January 2007 of a brain haemorrhage three days after suffering a stroke at the age of 73.
Born to the indigenous Ami tribe in Taiwan, he made his decathlon début by winning the Asian Games title in 1954 and was encouraged to persist at this discipline by Bob Mathias on a visit to Taiwan. In his next competition at the multi-event, Yang added over 1000 points to his score for 8th at the 1956 Olympics.
He reached the world top three in 1958 when he was second at the AAU Championships to Rafer Johnson, whom he joined as a student at UCLA, coached by Ducky Drake. These training companions had a titanic duel at the 1960 Olympics, with Johnson winning narrowly. Following Johnson's retirement Yang became the world's best all-rounder and the first man to exceed 9000 points on any scoring tables with his World record 9121 (8009 on the current tables) at Walnut in 1963 (10.7, 7.17, 13.22, 1.92, 47.7, 14.0, 40.99, 4.84, 71.75 and 5:02.4).
Taking advantage of the benefits of the newly introduced fibre-glass pole his 4.84 vault was higher than the tables had a score for! He was ranked sixth in the world that year at the vault, with a best of 5.00. The change in the scoring tables in 1964 adversely affected him, bringing down his pole vault scores, and he was disappointing in finishing 5th in the Olympic decathlon. In all he won 13 of his 18 decathlons 1954-64, including a second Asian Games title in 1958 and AAU titles in 1959, 1962 and 1964.
Other pbs: 10.6 100, 47.7 400, 4:36.9 1500, 13.9 120yH, 1.95 HJ (2.02 unofficially), 7.75 LJ, 14.22 SP, 44.59 DT and 73.82 JT, plus 23.2st/23.5 for 220yH and 53.0 for 400H.
Peter Matthews and Mel Watman (Athletics International) for the IAAF
