The 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials keep getting better... and stranger.
On Saturday, Ashton Eaton completed one of the greatest decathlons in history, setting a new world record of 9039 (the old record was Roman Seberle's 9026 from 2001).
Meanwhile, confusion reigned after the women's 100m as Jeneba Tarmoh and Allyson Felix were given the same time (11.068) and place (3rd) in the final event of the evening.
Eaton Dominates
Eaton's performances in the sprint events were unworldly. He opened the competition on Friday with a 10.21 100m -- a personal best and the fastest the event has ever been run in a decathlon.
In the very next event -- the long jump -- Eaton soared 8.23m (27-0) on his first attempt, another personal best. More remarkably, it matched the 10th best mark in the WORLD this year. In two events, Eaton had amassed 2164 points and had a 242-point lead over two-time world champion Trey Hardee.
After a serviceable shot put (one of his weakest events), Eaton won the high jump with a leap of 2.05m (5 centimeters off his personal best) and finished Day 1 by winning the 400m in 46.70. Both events were likely hampered by the heavy rain that fell into the evening in Eugene. Nevertheless, heading into the second day of competition, Eaton had 4728 points and a 300-point lead.
Day 2 started quietly for Eaton. He edged Hardee by 0.01 in the 110 hurdles as the two continued to pull away from the rest of the field. (It was in this event that defending Olympic Champ Bryan Clay's chances appeared to vanish; he finished in 16.81 and was initially DQ'd for pushing over the last hurdle. Eventually the DQ would be reversed, but the poor performance and a subsequent foul in the discus doomed his bid to make the team.)
In the discus, Eaton had a decent throw, but Hardee was much better, gaining 129 points on the leader. But from that point forward, it was all Eaton. He won (and PR'd) in the pole vault with a jump of 5.30, and followed that with a PR in the javelin. At this point the U.S title was a foregone conclusion. But there was another goal.
Needing to run 4:16 to break Seberle's world record, Eaton ran a four-second PR of 4:14. To put that in perspective, he had improved his 1500 PR a grand total of two seconds in the last three years, but improved it by four seconds with the record on the line. In a classy move, the fastest man in the field, Curtis Beach, eased up at the end of the race so that Eaton would cross the line first.
Tarmoh, Felix Tie for Final Spot in 100m
An unprecedented result in the women's 100 overshadowed Carmelita Jeter's win and Tiana Madison's second place. After initially declaring that Jeneba Tarmoh had edged Allyson Felix for third, review of finish-line photos showed that the two training partners had finished in a dead heat.
As of this writing, nobody seems to know how to select the third athlete for the Olympic team, or when such a decision will be made.
1 comment:
Have a race off. It is the only fair way to solve the issue.
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