Ashton Eaton's World Record: Impressive, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

Ashton Eaton, WC 2009, decathlon pv, photo by PhotoRun.net.

Ashton Eaton is showing that he has a lot to say about the multi-event wars for the next decade or so. In his first professional global performance, Ashton breaks the indoor world record for the men’s heptathlon. Scoring 6568, Eaton finished the second day with a 1,000 meters in 2:34!

Eaton is the real thing. With Bryan Clay and Trey Hardee, the US has a serious chance to dominate the decathlon as we have not done in ages!

EATON IMPRESSIVE WR
TALLINN
(EST, Feb 6): First world indoor record of 2011 by US Ashton Eaton who
scored in Tallinn at International Combined Events meeting (EA Permit)
6568 points in heptathlon. He improved his own mark from last March by
69 points. His results: 6.66 PB – 777 – 14.45 PB – 201 – 7.60 PB and
heptathlon all-time best – 520 – 2:34.74. Eaton in his first pro
competition confirmed his superb talent. Supported by an enthusiastic
crowd he was always ahead of WR pace during the meeting. Only high jump
was not at the level he expected. “I’m so happy! I had a great day. I
think this was a great experience. I am most proud of the way I
competed, after some bad events I was able to come back and perform well
today. I made some bars in the Pole Vault on 3rd attempt when I really
needed them. I also think this shows that I have a lot of room to
improve. I had a bad High Jump, I took off way behind the board in the
Long Jump, I could have run better in the 1000m, and although the SP was
a big Personal Best, I know I can keep getting better. These fans here
in Estonia are great, they have such a great tradition of decathletes
and really support the event. Ever since I stepped off the plane I liked
this place. I felt like the crowd was really behind me the whole way,
they were pushing for me and I think that is why I did so well. I did
not want to disappoint my new fans. Nothing quite compares to my home
crowd in Eugene but Tallinn was a close 2nd. Now it’s time to go home
and get some rest before we start our preparations for outdoors. First I
need to make the US team, then it’s onto Daegu where I hope to make the
medal stand and hopefully be on top, ” he was quoted. Eaton plans first
decathlon in summer for Austrian meet in in Gotzis. Second Estonian
Andres Raja improved to European lead 2011 worth of 6114 points. Third
Austrian Dominik Distelberger improved to 5951 ahead of Tarmo Riitmuru
who also scored life-time best 5888. Only fifth after not good second
day all-time hero Roman Sebrle with 5848 points. Grit Sadeiko won
national women pentathlon with 4422 points PB.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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