| By the time of the Moscow championships, Daegu silver medallist Ashton was world record holder an Olympic Champion. He won the 100m in 10.35 but was below par (by his standards) in the long jump, shot put and high jump. At this point he was in third place with 3495 behind Nixon (3611) and Schrader (3501). A sharp lecture from his coach Harry Marra led to a 46.02 400m race, the quickest ever in a World Championship Decathlon. That gave Eaton a small lead (4502- 4493) from Nixon overnight. Schrader was third with 4427, just ahead of Canada’s Warner. Eaton opened up the second day with the excellent hurdles time of 13.72. After the discus the American’s lead was 119 points over Schrader, with Freimuth and Warner close behind. The German, performing at his best, lost a small amount of ground to Eaton over the next two events. With just the 1500m remaining, the German was on 7895, 168 points behind Eaton and 118 points ahead of Warner. The medal positions were now settled and Eaton came home the victor by 139 points over the lifetime best of 8670 for Schrader. Personal bests also fell to Warner and Mayer, who moved up from 15th to fourth on the second day. The quality of the event can be gauged by the fact that no previous decathlon had ever seen 10 men score over 8300, but in Moscow there were 13 at that level. |
