The incredible Ashton Eaton won his second gold medal in Olympic decathlon, possibly establishing as the best athlete ever in this event.
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Ashton Eaton, the world record holder in the Decathlon, has stated that he believes that “tennis is the next most athletic sport”, behind his own.
Eaton tied the Olympic record of 8,893 points and defended the title he won in London.
“I wasn’t nervous, I was willing to run myself into the hospital if I had to”, Eaton told reporters after the competition.
American Ashton Easton claimed won his second straight gold medal in the decathlon with a score of 8893, which is an Olympic record.
Usain Bolt wins the men’s 200m Olympic title for the third straight Games in Rio on Thursday night. “There was some pressure to make it to the finals”.
It was a terrific night for American track athletes in Rio.
“I’ve always known that he would be able to set Olympic records and world records”, said Taiwo, who competed at the University of Washington when Eaton was at Oregon. New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh got bronze with 21.36.
Other US winners Thursday were 400-meter hurdles champs Dalilah Muhammad and Kerron Clement, and shot-putter Ryan Crouser. Now he has individual gold to go with his 400 hurdles silver medal and 1,600 relay gold from 2008. In one session late Wednesday they’ve dubbed the “awesome hour”, the USA team added six medals.
Eaton, 28, has dominated the challenging event throughout the decade, and led nearly start to finish in the two-day competition on Wednesday and Thursday. A fumbled baton change looked to have dashed their hopes, but officials adjudged they had been impeded by Brazil, so the American quartet were given the chance to come back for a time-trial in the evening and qualified comfortably. “Our coach said before we went out there, ‘It’s just like practice, just the whole world will be watching”. Just stay with him. 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”. He finished third in the last event, the 1,500, to win gold from France’s Kevin Mayer on 8,834 points. The Nielsen company said 20.7 million people watched NBC, with the number rising to 22.1 million when cable viewership and online streaming during the same time slot is added.
The American joined an elite pantheon of decathlon greats who have won back-to-back Olympic golds, Bob Mathias (1948, 1952) and Daley Thompson (1980, 1984) the other two to have achieved the feat.
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 hurdles final.
At least one Duck will be bringing back gold. “I know the Greeks really valued that”. But after Kovacs took an early lead with a put of 21.78 meters on his first attempt, Crouser took over. The Eganville, Ont., native finished second in her semifinal heat with a time of one minute 59.05 seconds in the semifinal.
Croatia’s Sara Kolak won the women’s javelin, another first-time Olympic champion like Crouser.
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Belgium, also in its first final, earned silver for its first medal since a bronze at its 1920 Antwerp Games.
