Eaton shows all facets in gold medal performance

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

The world's most versatile athlete won a gold medal in the city of his birth on Saturday and spent the day -- even the whole week -- displaying the traits that endear him to Oregonians and to track and field fans around the world.

Vaulting and running and jumping? Sure. Ashton Eaton is better than everyone else no matter how you package a collection of events, be it the decathlon or the indoor heptathlon.

The disciplines that were easiest to recognize and admire at the Oregon Convention Center, a building practically gift wrapped with Eaton's image, were in full view.

Graciousness. A couple thousand spectators sat through the entirety of the heptathlon pole vault before departing at the end of the Saturday morning session. After his final miss, Eaton approached on-field emcee Jordan Kent to use his microphone.

"I just wanted to say thank you for sticking around," Eaton told the audience of ticket buyers "I know that's going to mean (traffic) down in the parking garage."

Humility. For Eaton, a third world indoor championship paled in comparison to watching his wife Brianne win her first a day earlier.

"Brianne is the one who stole the show," Eaton said. "I'm really proud of her. I was just finishing it off for the family and finishing it off for the hometown crowd. It would have been cool to get the world record, but maybe that's why they're difficult. They don't happen very often."

Modesty. In the mixed zone where reporters get their first chance to record an athlete's reaction to a peformance, Eaton deflected praise and took a moment to single out coach Harry Marra's contributions to his career. 

"Since the very first day that Harry was at our practice, he was there an hour and 15 minutes early," Eaton said "Ever since then, he's been at every single practice an hour and a half early, setting up, thinking about the events we're going to do, what we did yesterday what we're doing tomorrow. The guy is incredible and he's been doing it for 50 years." 

Sportsmanship. As he sat on the dais in the post-competition press conference, Eaton told silver medalist Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine how much he admired his high jump form. He turned to his right and complimented German newcomer Mathias Brugger on his success in the pole vault

Kindness. Before the end of the post-competition press conference Eaton felt bad that bronze medalist Mathias Brugger hadn't received a single direct question from the media. So he turned to ask one himself: "So Mathias, what's next for you?"

Groundedness. Months ago, or even years, it seemed certain that the indoor championships in Portland would have hometown heroes in the competition. Galen Rupp, Ryan Crouser, Ryan Bailey and Alexa Efraimson all grew up around here, but none of them qualified for the U.S. team.

Eaton, who in 2014 was informally named Oregon's all-time greatest homegrown athlete by virture of a 64-name bracket and round-by-round public voting on oregonlive.com, was the top draw for the local fan base.  

"I know there was pressure on Ashton this week, getting his wife over the hump this weekend, being named team captain," former Olympic decathlon champion Dan O'Brien said. "We saw him speak earlier this week and he got emotional talking about what the sport means to him."

However, Eaton said he felt no such anxiety.

"I didn't feel any burden or any extra pressure," Eaton said. "It's great to be born here and to be able to display the skills that I have that were produced in this state. Hopefully there was some young kids in the audience that saw that there's this kid from the town that I'm from and he did something cool."

For the record, Eaton scored 6,470 points and won by 288 points. He owns five of the top six indoor heptathlon point totals of all-time. Less than a week ago, Eaton was accidentally hit in the head by a falling pole vault bar and went to the hospital to receive six stitches. Two days after that, Marra reports, Eaton had one of his best workouts of the year.

Elsewhere, there were a handful of sensational performances.

Michelle Carter uncorked an American record throw of 66 feet, 3.75 inches (20.21m) on her sixth and final attempt to win the women's shot put competition. 

She went into the final round trailing by less than an inch. She won by nearly three feet.

In the men's triple jump, Bin Dong of China won the competition with 56-10.25 while top American Omar Craddock was fifth. In the women's triple jump, Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela won the gold medal by going 47-3.50 on her one fair attempt among six attempts. Georgia sophomore Keturah Orji, the NCAA champion, jumped a lifetime best with 46-4.75 for fourth place -- fifth best ever by a collegian.

In the men's high jump, Italian Gianmarco Tamberi won gold with a clearance at 7 feet 9. American Erik Kynard took the bronze.

In the men's 800 meters, Boris Berian courageously went to the front and pushed through four laps. Daring anybody to come challenge him, nobody did. Berian went wire to wire and won the gold medal for the U.S. with 1:45.83. Antoine Gakeme of Burundi was second and American Eric Sowinski was third.

In the women's 400 meters, Oluwakemi Adekoya of Bahrain got the pole position and won from the front in 51.45 seconds. Americans Ashley Spencer and Quanera Hayes earned silver and bronze.

In a 400 meter men's final without a U.S. entrant, Pavel Maslak of the Czech Republic came out on top in 45.44 seconds.

In the women's 1,500 meters, Sifan Hassan of The Netherlands held off Ethiopian tandem Dawit Seyoum and Gudaf Tsegay after the three of them broke away. Hassan ran 4:04.96. American Brenda Martinez finished fifth.

In the final event of the night, the women's 60 meters, Barbara Pierre of the U.S. defeated Dutch star Dafne Schippers by running 7.02 seconds. Schippers took silver with 7.04 and Jamaica's Elaine Thompson went 7.06 for bronze.