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.

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.