Coming into the 2008 season, Ashton Eaton’s best decathlon performance was good for third place at the 2007 USA Junior Championships and a mark of 7,155 points. He now finds himself in fifth place after the first day of the decathlon at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, where he was seeded seventh in a field of 20 competitors.
What a difference a year makes.
Eaton’s meteoric rise began at the Sacramento State Nike Elite Invitational in March. The meet was only the second of the outdoor track season, but Eaton nevertheless punched his NCAA ticket early, obliterating his personal best by scoring 7,792 points, 292 ahead of the NCAA standard qualifying mark.
At the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, Eaton helped the men take their seventh Pac-10 title since 1979. His 7,604 points bettered those of Washington State’s Rickey Moody, the early favorite, who is currently in sixth place at the Trials. But Eaton saved his best act for last: an NCAA championship and Olympic ‘A’ standard in Des Moines, Iowa, scoring 8,055 points and again defeating the favorite, Jangy Addy of Tennessee. Addy is currently in fourth place at the Trials.
“For him to score 8,000 as a sophomore, I haven’t seen that in a long, long time,” said Dan O’Brien, the American record holder in the decathlon and a volunteer assistant coach at Arizona State. “He could do something really phenomenal if he stays in college or not. Does he have a chance here? An outside chance. He’s going to have the house advantage. If he goes 8,200, theoretically, if somebody makes a mistake he could make this team.”
Astoundingly, the Trials decathlon will only be the seventh of his collegiate career, but Eaton’s NCAA championships mark is his current personal best. He’ll likely have to set a new one to make the team, and his approach would make Allen Iverson grimace.
“To get another PR, I’m just going to have to treat it like another practice,” Eaton said.
Practice?
“It keeps you level-headed,” he said. “If you’re like, ‘I’m in the biggest meet in the world on the biggest venue in the world,’ you’ll just get too overwhelmed. You got to treat it like, ‘Oh, I’m at Hayward; I’m just going to practice the javelin a bit.’”
The approach worked at the NCAA championships, and he expects it to help in his own backyard, Hayward Field.
“I went to the NCAAs like it was another practice. And it took me to some PRs because I could stay consistent,” Eaton said. “I think that’s what it’s going to take to get another PR. I don’t even know what it’s going to take to get into the Olympics. Probably like 8,700 points, which is just ridiculous.”
Practice has paid off.
Eaton’s score of 4,226 after five events is 23 points behind Addy and 250 points behind day-one leader Bryan Clay. Eaton posted the third-best marks in the 100m and long jump, and the best mark in the 400m (47.07, close to a personal best). However, he finished 11th in the high jump and dead last in the shot put, earning only 1,390 points in those two events.
“I’m getting a pretty good education out there from the older fellas as far as (decathlon) mentality and that sort of stuff,” Eaton said in a press conference after the last events. “Definitely the intensity is higher, just with the crowd. The learning curve out there is incredible.”
Tomorrow’s events are the 110m hurdles (11:30 a.m.), discus throw (12:20 p.m.), pole vault (2:35 p.m.), javelin throw (4:45 p.m.) and 1,500m (8:35 p.m.). Eaton’s Olympic dreams will likely be realized or dashed during the throwing events.
“To win the world championships, you need to be able to throw the disc and the javelin,” O’Brien said. “For him to be Olympic-caliber, you need to throw 190 (feet) at least in the javelin. That’s the only place he’s lacking, but he’s getting better.”
“The throws always decide how you do in a decathlon,” Eaton acknowledged. “Shot put’s one of those events I just have to survive. Probably most of my throwing events I have to survive and get through. For right now I think I’ll be all right with 40-footers, but in the future I’m clearly gonna have to learn some of that stuff technique-wise.”
Practice makes perfect.
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