no OR for Eaton
no OR for Eaton
ahhh, he jogged it. missed the OR by a few seconds. Only ran 4:35. Still an awesome gold medal.
Nice for Roman Sebrle to get to keep it.
Gotta say he looks pretty spent though for 20 sec of his PR
He had to know what the OR requirement was, right? Surprising.
He clearly decided he was just going to run it on feel. Somewhat strange to not go for it. Only reason I could imagine is respect for Sebrle. Odd as it sounds, that's the sort of thing a deca would do. Also, nobody wants to run the 1500 harder than they need to, and with the WR and OG already in the bag, he might just not have had the inspiration to bother with the OR.
Man - to miss the OR by 5 seconds & jog it in. I don't get it. Go ahead & put your name in the record books. Why not?
For those that have never competed in a decathlon, running the 1500m at the end of it is an absolutely grueling experience after 2 days out in the elements. Most of you will never have any idea of just how tough it is. Having started 8 decathlons and finished 5 of them, I can tell you are basically spent. Very similar to trying to run a PR at the end of a long interval session. Your body basically goes into default mode and you're running on your basic conditioning.
ztrack wrote:
He clearly decided he was just going to run it on feel. Somewhat strange to not go for it. Only reason I could imagine is respect for Sebrle. Odd as it sounds, that's the sort of thing a deca would do. Also, nobody wants to run the 1500 harder than they need to, and with the WR and OG already in the bag, he might just not have had the inspiration to bother with the OR.
Very true. Roman started this Decathlon and will get to leave the Olympics and still see his name on the board. Eaton should be back in four years, and from a mindset of an athlete let him he could be thinking, if I am not good enough to get it in 4 years then I do not deserve it.
I started and finished my share as well, and I can tell you that places and records are the only thing that motivate you to run for a specific time at that point. Nothing is harder. But...the OR is nothing to laugh at. I think most in his position would have taken it.
Yeah, but his PR was 4:14 earlier this year and did he skip some jumps to conserve energy? I just don't get being 20 seconds off an in-event PR you set earlier in the year.
Olympic Gold Medalist and World Record Holder. His resume is just fine. Besides, Olympic Record Holder wouldn't fit on the Wheaties box.
Yes, but have either of us done it overseas under such pressure? I know I haven't. His run reminded me of Daley Thompson in 1984. Dead tired, lets get around the track 3 3/4 times and be done with this thing. I'm pooped.
I don't blame him a bit.
I don't think his skipping 5.30 was specifically to conserve energy per see. I see it as more a strategic move to not do anything to potentially hurt himself on a bad vault and thus ruin the gold medal.
Hardee pops a 2 second 1500 PR to protect silver . . .
He should've easily been able to muster enough energy to run 4:20s, when he just ran 4:14 barely a month ago!
That's a LOT of leeway! The only thing that stopped me from coming within 5 or 10 seconds of my 1500 PR in a decathlon was either being injured or having bad weather conditions (wind, mostly).
He wasn't injured and their weather was great, so he just cruised it in for some CRAZY reason!
I took a picture of that too because I did a double take the first time it scrolled on the screen. Another stunning display of NBC's incompetence. I loved how the online live feed went to 3 straight commercials after announcing the 800m finalists earlier this afternoon, so by the time it returned to the race I'd missed the first 18 seconds.
The entire second heat (highest scorers) agreed that the medal positions were set and that they would just run the race without killing each other off. Notice that nearly everyone ran 10 to 20 seconds slower than their PR times. This is not unusual for Decathletes to agree to this type of thing. Also, if you had been listening to Eaton, he has said in several interviews that the Gold Medal is all that mattered to him in this competition. The records will always show him as a gold medal winner. A week from now, no one will care what is the top score in the Olympic finals. Afterall, Eaton already has the World Record. Gd for him, he and his coach stuck to their plan.
Original Pancake House wrote:
The entire second heat (highest scorers) agreed that the medal positions were set and that they would just run the race without killing each other off.
Except that Hardee PR'd, so... no, not what you said at all.
Yeah, the Cuban had a PR 25-30 seconds better than Hardee and needed to beat him by 33 to move to silver. The only real race was between those two. I thought for a second that Eaton was pacing Hardee in the first lap. Hardee responded with a PR to protect silver.
Eaton may have let up out of respect to Sebrle. Or he might not have known what he needed. He knew the WR was out so he just cruised. Can't really say that he "enjoyed" that 1500 as the deca guys never do but at least he minimized suffering while winning a gold medal.