The decathlon is two days of battling the elements, the events, emotions, and your body. The long time coach of Ashton Eaton is Harry Marra. Harry told me that the decathlon has ten ways to get injured. The 1968 Olympic gold medalist, Bill Toomey once told the media that the decathlon is ten ways to make mistakes.
At the end of day one, Damien Warner of Canada lead, with 4,513 points. In second, Pierce LaPage, CAN hit 4,486. Three points separated 2nd and 3rd, as Kevin Mayer had a score of 4,483.
Niklaus Kaul, photo by PhotoRun.net
In sixth place was Maicel Uibo, of Estonia, (4,317), and in 11th, Niklas Kaul, Germany, hit a score of 4,164.
Day 2 was nuts. Kevin Mayer hurt himself in the discus, then could not finish the pole vault. Damien Warner slowly began to disintegrate on day 2, as his lead went away and he found himself in the bronze medal position. Maicel Uibo, using a huge 5.40m pole vault, moved into the silver position. But it was youngster Niklaus Kaul, the young German decathlete, had won the discus (49.34m) and vaulted 5.00m. But, Kaul’s javelin, a huge 79.05m, put him in gold medal contention. His 4:15.70 in the 1,500m gave him the gold, and Maicel Uibo followed in silver with Damian Warner in bronze.
The presser is amazing. Warner and Uibo give an exhilerating description of how to sell the decathlon. The final part of the presser had NIklaus Kaul speaking about his competition.
When Niklaus Kaul was asked who his hero was, he pointed to the back of the presser. Sitting there was Ashton Eaton and his wife, Brianne Theisen Eaton.
