Report28 Aug 2011


Men's Decathlon - 1500m - Final - Despite bumps and bruises, Hardee prevails

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Trey Hardee of the USA in the Decathlon's 100m (© Getty Images)

Daegu, Korea - Trey Hardee completed the job he began at around 10am yesterday morning to become the third man in history to retain this title.


It may not have been the most earth shattering performance in terms of points – in fact with a total of 8607 it was the lowest total to win gold in this event in World Championship history – but what he lacked in points he made up for through sheer dogged persistence when not always dominating from the front.


Yet the real drama in the final event happened behind, where Ashton Eaton produced the race of his life to overhaul the 4.75 second gap on Leonel Suarez and clinch silver by just four points from the Cuban.


The day was certainly a momentous one for the USA who secured the first ever one-two in this event at an IAAF World Championships and it was also the fourth time in the past five editions that this title has gone Stateside.


Hardee had trailed Eaton by 53 points overnight but it was his throwing arm on day two which helped seal victory. He moved into the overall lead thanks to a season’s best 49.89m in the discus and did not surrender that position for the rest of the competition.


Yet the pivotal event proved the javelin, where the 27-year-old dug deep into his reserves to throw a new personal best of 68.99m and negate the threat of the dangerous Suarez.


The second heat of the 1500m proved a relatively routine challenge – as much as the 1500m can be described as routine for the 95kg Hardee with the physical baggage of nine gruelling events in his body.


He was quite satisfied to jog around towards the back of the field simply happy to do what he had to and crossed the line in a season’s best 4:45.68 safe in the knowledge that bar disasters the gold would be his. While Hardee was content to “enjoy” the three-and-three-quarter lap victory parade it was a very different state of affairs for the men in the race for the minor medals.


For the first couple of laps Suarez was happy to keep a watching brief on Eaton and was never more than a couple of seconds down. Eaton, though, who had entered the championship as pre-event favourite, but has been given a bruising with some below par performance across several events, revealed a champion’s spirit.


He caught and passed the long-time leader Eelco Sintnicolaas of Holland with a little over 500m to go and grimacing and head rolling he set about extending his advantage over Suarez. At the bell the gap was about three seconds but down the back straight he stretched further away. Suarez set off in pursuit but it was to prove a forlorn hope.


Eaton was scenting silver and crossed the line in a new lifetime best of 4:18.96. The Cuban then followed and after a brief but agonising wait it had flashed up that Suarez had recorded 4:24.16 – a season’s best – and Eaton had snatched silver by a mere four points - 8505pts to 8501.


There was a large gap behind the three medallists. Russia’s Aleksey Drozdov (8313) finished fourth in a World Championship Decathlon for the second time. Sintnicolaas who ran 4:25.40 in the 1500m wound up fifth with 8298 points and Mihail Dudas of Serbia completed the top six with 8256pts helped by a season’s best 4:26.04 in the 1500m.


We cannot complete out Decathlon reports without a quick mention of heat one where South Korea’s Kun-Woo Kim almost received the biggest cheer of the night when running Larbi Bouraada close. The fast-finishing Algerian took the heat win in 4:14.97 with Kim 0.66 further back in second.


Kim’s set a national record 7860pts for 17th overall and the men’s Decathlon here in Daegu will be an experience neither he nor Hardee will forget in a hurry.


Steve Landells for the IAAF


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