Ashton Eaton carves history at the US Decathlon – Athletics news
Professional American decathlete, Ashton Eaton, made history by marking a world lead 8729 points at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene. The points tally put by the formidable young athlete on the board have culminated in earning him
the US Decathlon title.
Since this was the first major event Eaton was participating in, he was least expected of clocking some prominent results, leave alone carving out history while outdoing some of the most dominant players of the disciplines. For this remarkable performance,
he has already elevated to the 5th position among the all-time US decathletes. Moreover, he is also on the path to be considered among the top-ten best US performers ever.
For marking this winning total, Eaton has not only bagged the event title, but has also secured a place in the US contingent for the IAAF World Championships at Daegu, Korea to commence from August 27 this year.
Dwelling upon his remarkable success and revealing his future plans for performing in the Daegu event, Eaton said, “I didn’t expect to score that high, I didn’t get any big marks. It was constant. My goal in Korea is to win. There’s no timetable when to
set the American record.” For emerging in the US outdoor track and field event, Eaton annihilated the efforts of the reigning Olympic champion, Bryan Clay, with a huge margin.
His close rival at the US Outdoor event, Clay, who was also expected of marking some good results, while discussing the reasons of his not-up-to-the-mark performance said, “I sprained my calf a little bit, on the hurdles, a tough setback, but I’m going to
get back to training and step it up in the next few meets.”
For Eaton, this was his first remarkable show at the national level, though he has always been an outstanding performer while representing his college at various events. He started to prevail as a prominent performer back in 2008, when he first won the NCAA
Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which he successfully defended in 2009 for marking an impressive total of 8241 points.
Besides decathlon, the quality of the play he depicted in heptathlon at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships was also remarkable, where he bagged a total of 5,988 points.
While continuing with his winning streak, Eaton had broke the heptathlon at the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships, where he put 6,499 points on the board and outshined Dan O’Brien’s 17-year-old dominance with a margin of 23 points. The same year, he also claimed
the Bowerman Award, a title that is regarded as the Track and Field version of the Heisman Trophy.
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