Ashton Eaton of the United States (R) and Mikk Pahapill of Estonia compete in the Men's 60 Metres in the Heptathlon during day one - WIC Istanbul (© Getty Images)
24-year-old Ashton Eaton confirmed his outstanding dominance of the men’s Heptathlon when he achieved the longest ever Long Jump in any Combined Event competition, indoor and outdoor, landing at a personal best 8.16 with his opening effort this morning in Istanbul.
And it could have been even better had Eaton not fouled his second attempt which was clearly a better effort.
When establishing his latest World Heptathlon record, Eaton had recorded 7.77 in the Long Jump but a better mark was expected from the Oregon-based who had improved his personal best to 8.06 this winter. But even he was pleasantly surprised when the scoreboard flashed 8.16.
It was the second win of the day for Eaton who clearly leads the overall standings with a score of 2060 points; 51 points ahead of his World record score after 2 events.
Eaton left his opponents compete for second best as Oleksiy Kasyanov could only manage a last round effort 7.68, almost half a metre off his personal best. Kasyanov strengthened his second position overall with 1909 points but he’s already trailing Eaton by a massive 159 points.
The Russian pair of Ilya Shkurenev and Artem Lukyanenko set Long Jump personal bests at 7.50 (935 points) and 7.38 (905 points) respectively to stand fifth and third overall.
Based on personal best performances, Eaton is currently on course to score 6755 points.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
