Elite athletes past and present have been telling SPIKES how they would change the rules and shake-up athletics (you can read them all here). Now it’s our turn: so brace yourselves for sixty action-packed minutes of multi-eventing as we introduce the ’60-minute pentathlon’…

The 60-minute pentathlon 
Combined events can provide some of the most intriguing action in athletics. The ebb and flow of the different disciplines can provide an exciting narrative across two days of competition. Yet as a one-off special, SPIKES reckons that an hour-long made-for-TV indoor pentathlon would make for thrilling competition. Packaged right, and with those all-important commercial TV-pleasing natural breaks, it could just work…

What?
Five megastars go head-to-head over the 60m hurdles, high jump, shot, long jump and 800m. To quicken the pace of the event, competitors would only be allowed three attempts at the high jump (as well as the shot and the long jump).

How?
Let’s keep it simple. In each discipline you score one point for first, five points for last, and so on. 

Who?
How about Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis up against four selected rivals, such as world indoor pentathlon champion Nataliya Dobrynska, world heptathlon champion Tatyana Chernova, Germany’s Olympic silver medallist Lilli Schwarzkopf and Austra Skujyte, the world indoor heptathlon bronze medalist. You could even create a specialist all-star/legends team event, to push the standard even higher.

Where?
Just imagine Jess Ennis in a jam-packed O2 arena in London; Ashton Eaton, Trey Hardee and David Rudisha going toe-to-toe in Madison Square Garden, or Olympic champions Anna Chicerova, Ivan Ukhov and Mariya Savinova taking on the world in Moscow? Electric!

When?
These flexible indoor meets could be the jewels in the off-season crown; staged at the end of the regular season, the beginning of the traditional indoor season, or even on the cusp of the outdoor season.

So how about it? Tweet us your thoughts @spikesmag or write on our Facebook page.