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The games are strictly non-visual - no board of any sort is supplied or required, the action being controlled by pen and paper. But the results, times, and distances will be extremely accurate, being based on each athlete's leading performances in the most recently completed season.

Training rules ensure that athletes' Fitness Peaks are reached at different times, so performances will vary accordingly.

The sheer scope of the series precludes it from being published as a single game but each part is entirely self-sufficient, although The Combined Events does require International Track and Field for the basic game engine.

Many athletes are rated and a formula is supplied to enable you to convert any Personal Best for any year into a Rating!

Quick-playing, even for the longer distance events.

Ideal for solo play.

Based on an athlete's personal best for the season.

Seven Fitness Levels.

Fitness peaking and injuries.

Special Event Cards for every event - men and women.

Includes the Paris 2003 World Championships ratings set.

The field events use a similar system to the track events but each event has its own special Event Card. Most field events cover three aspects, for example in the Long Jump the run up, the take off, and the jump are all considered separately. A conversion formula is provided to enable you to convert any Personal Best to a Rating. And there are seven fitness levels.

Recommended for solo play.

The Lambourne system is simple and fast moving. When you first see it you might think it's too simple to be interesting. But I found a respectable level of excitement and tension in the game. The basic player ratings derive from the personal best for a given season. Each event is broken into segments. Dice are rolled and tables consulted to determine the variable results which determine the final outcome for each player.

Example: in the 100 meters, each runner rolls two dice three times, with each roll representing one-third of the race. With each player rolling three times, some numbers good and some bad, you do get a sense of the runners jockeying for position as they streak down the track. In the long jump, the player rolls four times for the runup, the takeoff, the jump, and a final minor variable. I used each player at peak performance. Here's what happened.......

The 100 meters started with surprises as Lewis and Christie barely made it through their qualifying heats. Then Christie fell out during the semi-finals, and Lewis finished fourth again! But in the finals, Lewis showed his stuff and blazed to a 9.89 gold medal, with (an apparently drug-free) Johnson taking silver (9.94), and Marsh the bronze (9.95).

Lewis followed his victory with a gold medal performance in the 200 meters. His times improved through the qualifying heat (20.12) and semifinal (20.05) before coming from behind in the final, running a 20.03 and nipping DeLoach by 0.01 seconds at the tape. Robinson took the Bronze with a 20.06.

In the 400 meter hurdles, Moses was the favorite. He blew passed the field to take first in the qualifying heat with the best overall time of the meet (47.17, winning by a full second). But Young raced to the gold in the finals at 47.54, fighting off Moses' strong finish and 47.71 time. Phillips had finished first in his qualifying and semifinal heats, but fell to third in the finals.

In the 1500 meters, Aouita took charge in the middle of the race and ran a golden time of 3:32.07, barely ahead of Cram's 3:32.67. A surprising third was Scott (3:33.24), who ran with the leaders the whole race.

The Long Jump provided the most excitement. From a field of 20 jumpers, the relative underdog Conley posted the two best jumps in the first three rounds, leading with an 8.25. Lewis' 8.17 placed him third going into the final three jumps. Then Myricks hit a jump of 8.26 and Lewis was down to third place. But Myricks faulted on his fifth try and finished with a poor final attempt. Lewis's fourth effort was a disappointing 7.81. Then he made 8.23 but still stood in third place. On his final attempt, Lewis streaked down the runway, sprung from the board, and landed with a jump of 8.76, equalling his personal best and taking home a third gold medal.

Bubka was the favorite in the pole vault. The early heights of 5.60, then 5.75 eliminated most of the contestents. The match came down to Bubka, Gataullin, and Tarpenny. Bubka needed three tries to clear 5.90 meters. Gataullin pushed his way over 5.93. Tarpenny cleared 5.90 but then missed three times at 5.93 and ended up with bronze. Bubka bettered the mark to 5.94. Gataullin missed twice at 5.95 to finish with silver. Bubka took one attempt at 6.00 meters but just grazed the bar enough to knock it off, settling for a gold medal but no record.

I'm looking forward to someday making the time to take on the Lambourne decathlon system with Thompson, Hingsen, etc in The Combined Events below.

Extension Sets

This package includes the latest IAAF Scoring Tables for the Decathlon and Heptathlon plus all you need to stage these exciting events. It comes complete with ratings for 1996 and also includes the Top 16 Men's All-Time-Greats and Top 12 Women's All-Time-Greats at these events.

Extension Sets

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