By the time the field lined up for the final event, the 1,500m, Mayer was still in with a chance of victory, albeit a slim one, needing to beat the American by seven seconds to win gold.
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Following the great man home was Canada’s 21-year-old young gun Andre de Grasse, bronze medallist in the 100m, who clocked 20.02.
“I put my hope and trust in my coach and it paid off”.
The Olympic champion also expressed the belief that not enough people consider the importance of mentality in sport, “You can speculate all day, by what you perceive people to do, but I think there’s two aspects to athleticism.People like to focus on just the body part”.
Bronze medallist Damian Warner of Canada, addressing the same theme, told reporters one factor that dampened fans’ enthusiasm was that decathletes can not match the performance of those who specialise in a single event.
Eaton amassed 8,893 points in the gruelling 10-discipline event to tie the Czech Republic’s Roman Sebrle record set at the 2004 Athens Games.
He then slowly walked to the stands, where he was greeted with a hug from his wife, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, a Canadian won the bronze in the women’s heptathlon last Saturday.
The older Brownlee brother is the first triathlete to retain the Olympic title and his brother moves up a notch after he won bronze in London 2012.
And picking the world’s greatest athlete is an open debate, but it would be hard to find a better athlete anywhere in the world who is less well known in his homeland than Eaton is in America.
Four of his six throws in the final were farther than silver medalist Joe Kovac’s best.
The Texas alum also joined Longhorn Michelle Carter who won the women’s shot put in Rio de Janeiro.
“I’ve worked all my career, all my life, for this moment”, Bolt said.
And to highlight how the USA team feeds off each other, Ashton Eaton briefly took time off his decathlon to congratulate Clement as he lay exhausted in the midday sun after his 400-meter hurdles final.
“The reality of winning is better still than the dream”, Muhammad told reporters.
Denmark’s Sara Petersen won the silver medal ahead of Ashley Spencer of the United States.
Dalilah Muhammad became the first American woman to win the 400-meter hurdles after she scythed through the field, clocking a time of 53.13 seconds to win by a margin of 0.42 seconds. The team was running alone on the track, seeking to qualify after successfully protesting that they were bumped in qualifiers. “I tightened over the last hurdle but I got it done”.
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“We were laughing and joking out there”, said English Gardner, who ran the anchor leg. In the fifth and final event on Wednesday, he ran the 400 meters in a very strong time of 46.07. Stanford graduate Ekaterini Stefanidi of Greece heads into the pole vault final Friday ranked first after clearing 4.60 meters, or just over 15 feet.
