Usain Bolt can not be beaten.
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American Ashton Eaton successfully defended his Olympic decathlon title on Thursday, becoming the event’s first repeat champ since 1984.
He still has his sights set on winning gold on Thursday of course, but that will take perfection from him and a mistake or two from Eaton and a couple other rivals in the final five events.
In a way, Eaton will be as measured as much by the way he did things as what he did.
“I don’t need to prove anything else”, he said. “I mean, these guys, they’re pretty excited”, Powell said. He’s the fastest man ever. Mayer finished with a new French record of 8,834 points while Damian Warner of Canada won the bronze at 8,666 points.
Eaton failed only in coming short of the all-time record he established at last year’s worlds, where he finished on a total of 9,045 to break his own mark by six points.
Maybe there was some comfort for Eaton – and loads of other athletes looking for some attention – with Bolt’s suggestion afterward that he’s almost done.
“On the straight, my body didn’t respond”.
“I think I got propelled at about 20 miles an hour”, Felix said.
That unofficial title has stuck, and the US has now won 14 gold medals in the event, far more than any other country. They were timed in 41.77 seconds, the top qualifying time. “There was some pressure to make it to the finals”.
In one burst Wednesday night, dubbed the “awesome hour” by victorious long jumper Tianna Bartoletta, the USA team added six medals in around 60 minutes. His wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton captured bronze in the heptathlon this past weekend. The duo won bronze together in the 10-metre synchronized event, defending the medal they won at the 2012 London Games. “It cuts deep. It’s very painful, and that’s OK”, U.S. coach Karch Kiraly said. Let the man wear a Canada hat (sometimes). The U.S. won 29 medals, including nine golds, in London.
Eaton, a 28-year-old OR native, finished off his second-straight decathlon gold by placing first in the 1,500-meter race, the final event in the two-day, 10-event competition. Eaton said, smiling. “When you look at 10 events, and look at all the little centimeters for those 10, how could there not be one stinking point in there somewhere”.
Eaton had briefly darted away from the decathlon in the morning session to congratulate Clement as his teammate knelt exhausted in the midday sun after the 400-meter hurdles final.
Crouser’s Olympic record delivered his first major title.
Melissa Bishop of Eganville, Ont., qualified for the semifinal with the best time in the women’s 800-metre heats of one minute 58.38 seconds.
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The decathlon only receives broad attention once every four years at the Olympics, and even then, the spotlight is fleeting. “Nothing and no one was going to stop me from achieving that”. “So hopefully people can read about me as the greatest”.
