Cuba’s Leonel Suarez scored the highest point total in the javelin of the men’s decathlon on Thursday, throwing a 76.94 on his first attempt, easily the best mark of the day. Sergey Sviridov had the second-best throw, at 68.42, a full 8.5 meters behind Suarez.
Ashton Eaton, Trey Hardee 1-2 In Decathlon With Just 1 Event Remaining
The javelin gave Suarez 996 points and propelled him into third place in the decathlon overall standings, with just the 1500 meters remaining. That is as far as he will climb onto the podium, however, as Americans Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee finished 9th and 3rd in javelin, further increasing their stranglehold on the gold and silver medal, respectively.
Eaton set a new world record in decathlon at the U.S. Team Trials in June, scoring 9039 points to break Roman Sebrle’s (Czech Republic) mark that had stood for 11 years. And while that seems out of reach in London, he still has a shot at the Sebrle’s Olympic record of 8893 points. Eaton needs 746 points, which means he needs to run a time of 4:29.86 in the 1500m (4:20 p.m. ET).
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