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Eaton celebrates Millrose win, heads to Tallinn, Estonia to face decathlon WR holder

Published by
Matt Scherer   Jan 30th 2011, 7:52pm
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Eaton celebrates Millrose win, heads to Tallinn, Estonia to face decathlon WR holder

OTC Elite rookie talks about beating Clay and Hardee and traveling to Europe

A day after winning the first-ever contested Millrose Multi Challenge at the historic 104th Millrose Games against 2008 Bejing gold medal decathlete Bryan Clay and 2009 World Champion decathlete Trey Hardee, OTC Elite star Ashton Eaton celebrated in the Big Apple with mother Roslyn and coach Harry Marra.

Eaton had defeated Hardee and Clay the night before in a three-event showcase of strength, speed and explosive lift off – specifically the shot put, 60m hurdles and high jump – so there were many reasons to celebrate. Eaton set personal bests in the first two events. He put the shot 46 feet, 8 inches and hurdled to a tune of 7.64 seconds. Then, Eaton cleared nine centimeters higher than both Clay and Hardee in the last event, winning with 2,666 points to Hardee’s 2,640 and Clay’s 2,609.

Speaking of lift off, I was able to catch up with Eaton (via phone) as he prepared to head from LaGuardia Airport to Tallinn, Estonia for his third and final indoor competition – a heptathlon against three more of the world’s best names in the multi-events: current decathlon WR holder Roman Sebrle (Czech Republic), 2010 European Champion decathlete Romain Barras and Estonia’s own Mikk Pahahill – the 2009 European indoor pentathlon champion. Last March, Eaton put his name right up with theirs on the world’s list. And, when it came to the indoor heptathlon, he technically put his name above theirs and everyone else’s, when he broke Dan O’Brien’s 17-year-old world record in the seven events, with a score of 6,499.

Here’s what Eaton had to say, as he prepared to depart.

You’ve improved nearly four feet in the shot put recently. What is working for you?

It’s just the training that I’ve been doing, and I’m starting to see the dividends. It’s good to do so well, especially so early in the year. But (on Friday) I was a little worried after the shot, because Trey (Hardee) PRd and Bryan (Clay) did well, so I was behind. Once the hurdles came along, I knew I was the fastest, and after I won that, I was feeling better about my chances to win.

 

What was it like getting in the blocks with an Olympic Champion and a World Champion?

It was pretty nerve-wracking. In the shot, I wasn’t so nervous, because I just waited for them to throw and then took my turn. I knew they were both fierce competitors, and, in hurdles, I knew they were fast. I’ve never hurdled against them at the same time. …

But once we were in the blocks, they were just two guys I had to beat. They were just my opponents. … I felt like I got a good mental edge after the hurdles. Going into the high jump, I knew what I had to do to beat them. I’d moved to within a hundred of Trey, so I had to jump three bars higher than Trey and two bars higher than Bryan. I knew what I had to do. Then the competitive edge took over.

 

Prior to the meet, and after the meet, there was a lot of attention given to the decathletes. Do you think that’s good for the sport?

It’s been really well received. It hasn’t been my experience, but hearing from other people, the decathlon doesn’t get a lot of attention, so it was a good experience for us to get a lot of press. I didn’t expect to get this much press. It’s been surprising.

 

In some of those articles, the possibility of you three training together has come up. What do you think about that?

I think it would be okay for a little while, because we push each other in certain events. But, for an extended period of time, I don’t know if it would be that great. It would be like the competing in the world championships everyday.

 

So now you’re headed to Estonia.

Yeah. I just want to go over there, do what I do, and come back home. This has been a long travel trip for me. I know other athletes travel longer, but I’m ready to come back home.

 

It will be your first indoor heptathlon since breaking the World Record last March. Are you looking forward to taking another shot at it?

I’m excited for the competition. It’s a good indicator for what will happen in the decathlon. And I’m excited to see what I can score. Also, at this stage, being a professional, there’s prize money. And that’s cool too. … I just want to keep extending the world record as much as I can. I was in college when I broke it last time, and the college season – with meets every weekend – isn’t geared toward doing well in indoor meets. This year is more specialized to doing well at these types of events. I definitely want the world record, anything less would be disappointing.

 

Becky Radliff
OTC Elite Media Relations
(541) 343-7247
[email protected]



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3 comment(s)
Matt Scherer
I believe the live feed is here: http://sport.delfi.e...i.d?id=39652461
Matt Scherer
I'm having trouble finding much info for the meet online but my best guess for a site that may have real time updates would be here: http://www.decathlon2000.com/eng. If I come across something else I'll post it here.
Jseven1
Is there a web site that will give real time results of the Tallinn meet?
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