Hardee's decathlon glory
Trey Hardee retained his decathlon title at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu on Sunday.
Last Updated: 28/08/11 3:18pm
Trey Hardee retained his decathlon title at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu on Sunday.
Hardee led home a one-two for the United States as team-mate Ashton Eaton pipped Cuba's Leonel Suarez to the silver.
Hardee trailed his compatriot coming into the second day of the event but moved to the top of the leaderboard thanks to a throw of 49.89m in the discus - more than 3m further than Eaton.
He took further points out of Eaton in the pole vault and the javelin, the latter event proving Eaton's downfall in the end.
He could only manage a best of 55.17m as Hardee posted a new personal best of 68.99m.
Successful
It left most pundits thinking the outcome was a mere formality in the final discipline, the 1,500m, but Eaton gave it all he had to give Hardee a fright.
Needing to beat his team-mate by more than 30 seconds, Eaton won in a new PB of 4mins 18.94secs, with a relieved Hardee coming home in 4:45.68.
Hardee finished with a points tally of 8,607 - 102 ahead of Eaton, whose 1,500m effort saw him pip Suarez to silver by just four points.
In the field, there was another successful title defence by an American in the women's long jump.
Brittney Reese's leap of 6.82m in the very first round was never bettered.
Russia's Olga Kucherenko got within 5cm in the final round but had to settle for silver, with Ineta Radevica, of Latvia, a further centimetre back in third.
There was a new champion though in the women's discus with China's Yanfeng Li winning with a best effort of 66.52m.
Germany's Nadine Muller (65.97) took the silver and Cuba's Yarelys Barrios (65.73) the bronze.
