1. ASHTON EATON
Drumroll for our No.1 athlete of the year, USA’s Ashton Eaton who set a WR of 9,045points at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing!!! Eaton’s WR-breaking achievement in Beijing is the fifth in his illustrious career, having set three WRs in the Indoor Heptathlon and two in the Decathlon. He remains the WR holder in the Indoor Heptathlon.
Eaton first broke the Decathlon WR by setting a new mark of 9,039points at the US Olympic Trials in 2012, making him only the second decathlete to break the 9,000-point barrier. He went on to win the Olympic title in London later that year. He won his first World Championships title a year later, which was an improvement from the Silver medal he picked in Daegu in 2011.
Coming to Beijing, one would have expected some sort of rustiness from the American, considering that he had ‘rested’ in 2014, competing only in the Heptathlon at the World Indoors in Sopot. However that was not the case with Eaton who got down to work from Day 7 of the competition, five days after his wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton won Silver in the Heptathlon.
On the first day of competition, Eaton set a Decathlon Championship Record (CR) of 10.23s in the 100m and capped it with a WR of 45.00s in the 400m later that day! He finished 1st in both events including the Long Jump where his mark of 7.88m was much lower than his Personal Best (PB) of 8.23m. He placed 2nd in the 110m Hurdles, 4th in the Javelin throw and 5th in the Pole vault. He further finished 9th in the Shot put and 11th in the High Jump and Discus throw.
Eaton’s last event, on which his fate hung, was the 1500m. The 27-year old would have to run 4:18.25 for the record, but he surpassed expectations by clocking 4:17.52 despite the exhaustion that was almost setting in following two days of relentless competition. He couldn’t even celebrate his remarkable feat as he hit the ground immediately after crossing the finishing line in 2nd place.
“I think the point of life is just trying to improve. Do something. Get inspired to do something and then try to do better”, he said. Eaton was named IAAF World Athlete of the Year alongside Genzebe Dibaba, and also joined Cuba’s Yarisley Silva as 2015 North Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) Athletes of the Year.
He certainly deserves our No.1 spot!
