30 August,2015 09:55 AM IST | | AFP
Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton thrilled the Bird’s Nest stadium crowd with a lung-busting 1,500m race as he broke his own world record to retain his world title on Saturday.
RIGHT: Ashton Eaton gestures as he competes in the javelin throw decathlon athletics event on Saturday. Pic/AFP
Beijing: Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton thrilled the Bird's Nest stadium crowd with a lung-busting 1,500m race as he broke his own world record to retain his world title on Saturday.
RIGHT: Ashton Eaton gestures as he competes in the javelin throw decathlon athletics event on Saturday. PIC/AFP
The American threw a season's best 63.63 metres in the javelin before clocking four minutes, 17.52 seconds in the 1,500m to finish with a new world best total of 9,045 points, eclipsing his previous mark by six points.
Canada's Damian Warner took silver behind Eaton, posting a national record of 8,695 points and German Rico Freimuth the bronze with a personal best of 8,561.
Eaton led from wire to wire after running 10.23 in the opening 100m before solid efforts of 7.88 metres in the long jump, 14.52 in the shot put and a high jump best of 2.01. But his sizzling world decathlon best of 45 seconds flat in the 400m raised the very real possibility of an assault on his previous record of 9,039 which he set three years ago in Eugene.
