Thirty-nine of the BPA's best cardboard athletes turned out late Friday night to vie for the title of World's Greatest (Dice-Rolling) Athlete. While the turnout was a bit down, due partially to other events that were still going on, everyone that attended had a great time.

The evening began with a wonderful rendition of the Olympic song (Dum, dum, da-dum, da, dum, dum) that GM John Coussis conducted from atop a chair in the middle of the room. That highlight was followed with a full body search of Bruce Monnin to be certain that there would be no repeat of last year in which he brought a detailed analysis of Kuznetzov's performance. While Bruce bowed to pressure, and did not bring any "cheat-sheets"; with him this year, he did take the opportunity to announce that there will be a very detailed analysis of all the athletes in Decathlon coming up in a future edition of The Boardgamer. While such an analysis may go against the basic idea of just getting together and having some fun, I must admit I am a bit intrigued to see this, especially since I am looking to revise the handicaps given to each athlete. Keep an eye out for that article; it will be a must-read for any cardboard Decathlete.

As for this year's event, Raefer Johnson once again proved to be the dominant athlete, capturing both the Gold and Silver Medals. GM John Coussis led Johnson to an impressive score of 8810 points to capture the Gold Medal. Naturally this brought some light-hearted teasing from some of the crowd, the GM winning his own event and all, but as us veterans of the WBC know, GM's are encouraged to play in their games, and if they happen to win, then that's how it is. Defending champion Devin Flawd tried valiantly to make it back-to-back titles, but fell just short scoring 8775 points, also with Johnson. Mike Dwyer took home the Bronze by leading Milt Campbell to a solid 8550 points.

So we close the curtain on another fun-filled Decathlon, the second jewel in the WBC late-night-sports triple crown (along with Pro Golf and Slapshot) - whatta heavyweight trifecta!. Everyone who played had a lot of fun and, of course, didn't take things too seriously. Which is what the late-night sports games are all about. Despite that, I do encourage everyone to keep an eye out for the upcoming article in the Boardgamer, reading it may just give you the edge next year.