2012 London Olympics: Eaton Dominates First Day of Decathlon
By Brian Spaen
In the event where 10 different sports span out in two days, the expected domination of Ashton Eaton came into fruition. He has a dominating lead after the first day, and the spotlight on the second day will be if USA can finish with both gold and silver.
Eaton grabbed a total of 4,661 points in the series of events so far, scoring first place with an olympic record of 10.35 seconds in the 100-meter dash to open things up. He also placed first with 26.35 feet in his group, which was good for the entire event.
It looks like there was a chip in the indestructible armor with 10th place in his group in shot put, but he was with a bevy of stallions. Eaton had 48.1 feet, which would have been good for second place (easily) in the second group and was 11th overall. Four members in Eaton’s party had seasonal or personal bests and seven finished above 15 meters, including the highest mark of 54.04 feet by Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Karpov.
Eaton’s head coach, Harry Mara, wasn’t worried. He believed “48 feet [was] pretty good for Ashton when you remember he used to throw 39 feet.”
Things picked up in the high jump, achieving 6.73 feet which was good for second in his group and overall. In the final event, he had his third first-place finish in the fourth heat of the 400-meter dash, finishing in 46.90 seconds and over a full second better than everyone else.
Can Eaton still break his own world record? In general, the second day is a lighter day on points than the first, meaning just doubling his point total is worthless. If that was done, he would dominate the record by around 300 points. Eaton is already 67 points behind where he was when he broke the record during the Olympic trials earlier this season. More than likely, he will not achieve a world record, but he is ahead in the standings by 220 points.
Another American, Trey Hardee, is currently in second place with 4,441 points and is 55 points ahead of Canada’s Damian Warner. The final two racing events (110m hurtles and 1500m) will be the most intriguing watches tomorrow. Hardee clearly has the same speed finishing first in his heat as well in the 400-meter dash and just .07 seconds behind in the 100-meter in the same heat. He also had a better shot-put with 50.13 feet, climbing to fifth place overall.
H/T The Oregonian for quotes
Brian Spaen is the lead editor for Autzen Zoo, follow the site on Facebook and Twitter. Read his other work on the Iowa State blog, Clones Confidential, and Watson Talk Lacrosse.