Rico Freimuth in the decathlon discus at the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 (© Getty Images)
USA’s Ashton Eaton leads the decathlon with 6451 points after seven events and, barring disaster, looks set to win his second consecutive world title.
The Olympic champion threw 43.34m in the discus and is just 13 points off the pace set when he set his world record of 9039 in 2012. The 27-year-old still needs a good result in the pole vault to stay within a reach for the record.
Canada’s Damian Warner lost a couple of metres in the discus, with a best throw of 44.99m, but his silver medal is not threatened. Warner has scored 6320 points for the second place and is now eight points short of his 8659 national record at the Pan American Games last month.
German Rico Freimuth is now third with 6266 points and the 27-year-old has enjoyed a fine start to the second day. He topped the discus competition with a massive 50.17m throw, a season’s best and just 20 centimetres from his personal best set last year. He is now in the best position to win the bronze medal here.
Ukrainian Oleksiy Kasyanov threw 45.84m in the discus, the fourth best in the event, and is in fourth place after the seventh event with 6101 points. The 30-year-old will not likely hold on to this position, because he is weaker than the other top athletes in the pole vault and javelin.
Germany’s Michael Schrader is in fifth with 6063 points after throwing 44.58m in the discus, but has fallen back a bit and needs to do well in the next event in order to get back to the bronze fight.
Pole vault specialist Ilya Shkurenev is in sixth place with 6035 following a 44.53m toss in the discus. Grenada’s Kurt Felix set a 45.95m personal best in the discus and went up in the rankings to seventh place with 6025.
In eighth place is German Kai Kazmirek, who has 5992 points after a 40.08m discus mark. The 24-year-old is still very much in medal contention; he is a 5.10m pole vaulter and a 64.45m javelin thrower this season and those kind of marks should see him overtake several athletes later today.
In ninth place is Algeria’s Larbi Bourrada and he too is still within the medal zone after seven events. The 27-year-old set a 41.53m personal best in the discus and has 5982 points now. He too is good in the next three events and is the fastest 1500m runner of the field.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
