| All eyes were on Eaton, competing in his first decathlon since winning the 2013 World title. He fully merited the attention. The American began with a magnificent 10.23 100m, with Canada’s Warner in second place with 10.31. Those marks established the positions which would remain throughout the competition. Eaton took the long jump with 7.88 ahead of Warner’s 7.65, After good, but not spectacular efforts in the shot and high jump, Eaton finished off day one with a phenomenal 400m of 45.00. The run, which he described as “fun”, drew gasps from the crowd when the flash time appeared on display boards. It shattered the altitude-assisted world decathlon best of 45.68 set 47 years earlier by Bill Toomey. The American’s first-day score of 4703 was close to the 4728 he had accumulated when setting his 2012 world record. Warner, a world class 110m hurdler with a best of 13.27, edged Eaton 13.63 to 13.69 in the sixth event. Eaton moved clear with 5.20 in the vault, and after 63.63 in the javelin needed 4:18.25 to beat his own world record. He ran 4:17.52 to round out the performance of the 2015 World Championships. Discus winner Freimuth took the bronze behind the two North Americans. |
