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London 2012 Olympics: Ashton Eaton secures decathalon gold

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Eaton digs deep to see off rival Hardee and secure decathlon gold

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UPDATED:

22:16 GMT, 9 August 2012

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Ashton Eaton deservedly took the unofficial title of the world's greatest athlete when he won gold in the Olympic decathlon on Thursday with a total of 8,869 points.

World champion Trey Hardee took silver, 198 points behind in a United States one-two and Cuba's Leonel Suarez secured a second successive bronze thanks to an Olympic best performance for the decathlon of 76.94 metres in the javelin.

Relief: Ashton Eaton celebrates as he crosses the finish line in the 1500-m

Relief: Ashton Eaton celebrates as he crosses the finish line in the 1500-m

Eaton had virtually sealed the gold medal after nine of the 10 events but after dragging himself around the concluding 1,500 metres in a time of four minutes 33.59 their was only relief on his face.

The 24-year-old had a cushion of 222 points going into the race and was content to stay in the pack, not bothering to follow when Belgian Hans van Alphen upped the pace.

Eaton caught his breath and was congratulated by the other decathletes. They then started the customary joint celebrations, posing for a group photo – Eaton draped in the U.S. flag – before setting off on a lap of honour together. Having broken Roman Sebrle's 11-year-old world record in June, Eaton missed out on taking the Czech's Olympic mark of 8,893 by 24 points.

He had started the second day with a lead of 220, only to be pegged back to 99 points by Hardee after a poor discus. However, Eaton took control again with third place in the pole vault of 5.20 metres and a personal best of 61.96 in the javelin.

One-two: Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee (right)

One-two: Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee (right)

He was helped in the pole vault by the failure of Hardee's gamble of passing at 4.90 and going straight to 5.00. Wearing a support on his right elbow following surgery last year, Hardee knocked the bar off on all three attempts, leaving him with a best of 4.80 and allowing Eaton to stretch his lead.

He had been left shaking his head at the end of the discus after only managing 42.53, almost five metres down on his personal best for 22nd out of the 27 athletes.

Hardee, the stronger thrower of the U.S. pair, had finished third in the discus with 48.26 for 834 points, 118 more than Eaton's mark earned, to close the gap on the leader.

'I threw a terrible one, he threw a bad one and I was like “all right, we're doing okay”,' Eaton told reporters. 'I threw another bad one, he threw an awesome one and it was: “oh I have to figure out what I'm doing and do this” and I threw another bad one. I was so disappointed with myself… he competed well. I didn't.'

Hardee also beat Eaton in the day's first event, the 110 hurdles, shouting as he crossed the line in a personal best time of 13.54.

Eaton had got his first Games off to a flying start on Wednesday with the fastest 100 metres in an Olympic decathlon of 10.35 seconds. He then won the long jump with 8.03 metres before going close to his personal best in the shot put with 14.66.

Group photo: The Decathlon athletes

Group photo: The Decathlon athletes

London 2012 Olympics: Daley Thompson – My five Americans to watch

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My five Americans to watch at the London Olympics

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UPDATED:

23:03 GMT, 5 July 2012

I was surprised at America's lack of depth in a lot of events they were previously very good at: the men's discus, javelin, long jump and high jump in particular.

Only two triple jumpers had the 'A' standard. On the track, the men's 200 metres wasn't that good. There was nothing there to vaguely worry the Jamaicans. It was a bit of a shock because of the numbers of athletes the US have to select from. Either the athletes are just not doing it or the coaching's not as good as it should be.

But there's still an appetite for track and field in the US. Eugene in Oregon, where the trials were held, calls itself Track Town USA . Even in the rain there were more than 20,000 people at Hayward Field.

And despite the US team's problems, I reckon these five will be worth watching out for:

U.S. triple jumper Christian Taylor

In-form: World record holder Eaton

Ashton Eaton: decathlon

The fact he set a world record in poor conditions impressed me, plus he was 656 points in front of the next guy, Trey Hardee, who is the current world champion and probably the second best guy in the world. You look at Eaton's new best and think he's still got a lot left to show, particularly in the high jump, 400m and javelin.

Allyson Felix: 100M, 200m, 4 x 100m relay

I was surprised Jeneba Tarmoh pulled out of the run-out against Felix after the two of them dead-heated for third in the 100m final, but I'm not sure running the 100m as well as the 200m is going to be good for Allyson. She tends to run better when she's just got the one thing to do and she was unbelievable in the 200m. She set a new personal best of 21.69 – the fourth fastest time ever.

Ashton Eaton

Christian Taylor: Triple Jump

The world champion (above) put in a very professional performance. He did one jump to qualify for the final and then jumped 17.63m to win the competition with his first jump. He's going to pose a big threat to Phillips Idowu, or maybe it's the other way round: I think it's Phillips who is the challenger now.

Aries Merritt: 110m hurdles

Merritt and world champion Jason Richardson both ran really well and dipped under 13 seconds in the final. Jeff Porter, whose wife Tiffany has made the British team in the 100m hurdles, came in third. If the conditions had been better a world record might have been on the cards because Richardson ran 12.98 in his semifinal. Two runs under 13 seconds in just over an hour is pretty good.

Galen Rupp

Genuine threat: Impressive Rupp

Galen Rupp: 5,000m, 10,000m

For the last couple of years he's always looked really strong but didn't seem to have a lot of speed to kick at the finish. But he really bombed along in the final lap of the 5,000m to outsprint former 1500m Olympic silver medallist Bernard Lagat. You don't need to warn Mo Farah about Rupp because he trains with him every day, but can he provide a genuine challenge to Mo, the Ethiopians and Kenyans in London Yes, why not