Eaton defends decathlon crown
U.S. track star Ashton Eaton became the third man to defend his title in the all-encompassing event in men's athletics, winning Olympic gold once again in the decathlon.
Eaton triumphed in the 10-event competition nearly wire-to-wire, but it wasn't the dominating performance he had last summer when he set a world record in Beijing. He had to hold off the hard-charging Frenchman Kevin Mayer, who crept to within 44 points heading into the final discipline.
The U.S. all-rounder, however, was able to cruise past Mayer in the 1500m finale, and broke the threshold at the exact moment to match the Olympic record set by Roman Sebrle in 2004.
Pos. | Athlete | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Ashton Eaton | 8893 |
2 | Kevin Mayer | 8834 |
3 | Damian Warner | 8666 |
4 | Kai Kazmirek | 8580 |
5 | Larbi Bourrada | 8521 |
6 | Leonel Suarez | 8460 |
7 | Zachery Ziemek | 8392 |
8 | Thomas van der Plaetsen | 8332 |
The upstart Mayer broke a 26-year-old national record with 8834 points, or 59 fewer than Eaton, while Damian Warner hung on for bronze to deliver Canada its second ever medal in the competition.