Ashton Eaton ‘disappointed’ after missing world record in heptathlon; World Indoors recap

By Nick ZaccardiMar 8, 2014, 2:19 PM EST

Olympic decathlon champion and world record holder Ashton Eaton missed breaking his own world record in the heptathlon but still repeated as World Indoor champion in Sopot, Poland, on Saturday.

Afterward, he said he was disappointed and that he wasn’t in shape.

Eaton won his fourth straight global multi-event championship after taking the decathlon at last summer’s World Outdoor Championships.

Eaton’s win Saturday came with his wife, Canadian Brianne Theisen-Eaton, looking on at Ergo Arena one day after she won silver in the pentathlon.

“I’m never really satisfied if I don’t get a personal best,” Eaton told Eurosport. “Yeah, I’m disappointed. I wish I would have gotten the world record.”

Eaton entered the seventh and final event of the heptathlon needing to run the 800m in 2:33.54 for the world record, nearly three quarters of a second slower than he did to set the mark at the 2012 World Indoors.

But Eaton was well off the pace going into the final lap and, despite a valiant breakaway kick, came up shy in 2:34.72.

“I wasn’t in shape,” Eaton said. “I was feeling fatigued before I even started. … I tried. I’m not a robot.”

Eaton scored 6,632 total points. His world record from 2012 is 6,645. He won by 329 points over silver medalist Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus.

“I’m happy with being world champion, but no world record this time,” Eaton said. “Dang it.”

Eaton confirmed Saturday he would enter 400m hurdles races during the upcoming outdoor season.

There are no major outdoor championships for Americans this year, and he’s automatically qualified into the 2015 World Outdoor Championships decathlon. So he’s got some time to enter the events he pleases.

“It’s going to be good to kind of take a break from the multi events for a while to get ready for ’15 and ’16,” Eaton said.

Later, Brit Richard Kilty stunned the field to win the 60m in 6.49 seconds. American Marvin Bracy, a 20-year-old former Florida State football recruit, took silver in 6.51.

Olympic 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson of Australia was beaten in the 60m hurdles. American Nia Ali won in a personal best 7.8 seconds. Pearson took silver in 7.85. Michigan-born Brit Tiffany Porter grabbed bronze in 7.86.

In the women’s 400m, American Francena McCorory won the biggest title of her career in 51.12 seconds. The race was missing the last two World Outdoor champions (Christine Ohuruogu and Amantle Montsho) and U.S. Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross.

In the women’s 1500m, Ethiopian-born Swede Abeba Aregawi won in 4:00.61, consolidating her World Outdoor Championship last season.

This was the race American Mary Cain, 17, was slated to run before pulling out of the meet with a calf injury. Without Cain, Treniere Moser was fourth and Heather Kampf, Cain’s replacement, fell during the race and was later disqualified.

In the men’s 400m, American Kyle Clemons won a bronze medal in his global championship debut. The Czech Republic’s Pavel Maslak, 23, won gold. The Bahamas’ Chris Brown, 35, won silver.

In the women’s shot put, New Zealand’s two-time Olympic champion Valerie Adams won her fifth straight global championship and her 44th straight meet title.

After @ValerieAdams84 took her final attempt, "Simply The Best" played out in the stadium. #Sopot2014

— IAAF (@iaaforg) March 8, 2014

World Indoor Championships broadcast schedule

Follow @nzaccardi

At the French Open, a Ukrainian mom makes her comeback

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 1:30 PM EDT

Getty

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, once the world’s third-ranked tennis player, is into the French Open third round in her first major tournament since childbirth.

Svitolina, 28, swept 2022 French Open semifinalist Martina Trevisan of Italy, then beat Australian qualifier Storm Hunter 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the last 32 at Roland Garros. She next plays 56th-ranked Russian Anna Blinkova, who took out the top French player, fifth seed Caroline Garcia, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 on her ninth match point.

Svitolina’s husband, French player Gael Monfils, finished his first-round five-set win after midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. She watched that match on a computer before going to sleep ahead of her 11 a.m. start Wednesday.

“This morning, he told me, ‘I’m coming to your match, so make it worth it,'” she joked on Tennis Channel. “I was like, OK, no pressure.

“I don’t know what he’s doing here now. He should be resting.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Svitolina made at least one major quarterfinal every year from 2017 through 2021, including the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2019. She married Monfils one week before the Tokyo Olympics, then won a singles bronze medal.

Svitolina played her last match before maternity leave on March 24, 2022, one month after Russia invaded her country. She gave birth to daughter Skai on Oct. 15.

Svitolina returned to competition in April. Last week, she won the tournament preceding the French Open, sweeping Blinkova to improve to 17-3 in her career in finals. She’s playing on a protected ranking of 27th after her year absence and, now, on a seven-match win streak.

“It was always in my head the plan to come back, but I didn’t put any pressure on myself, because obviously with the war going on, with the pregnancy, you never know how complicated it will go,” she said. “I’m as strong as I was before, maybe even stronger, because I feel that I can handle the work that I do off the court, and match by match I’m getting better. Also mentally, because mental can influence your physicality, as well.”

Svitolina said she’s motivated by goals to attain before she retires from the sport and to help Ukraine, such as donating her prize money from last week’s title in Strasbourg.

“These moments bring joy to people of Ukraine, to the kids as well, the kids who loved to play tennis before the war, and now maybe they don’t have the opportunity,” she said. “But these moments that can motivate them to look on the bright side and see these good moments and enjoy themselves as much as they can in this horrible situation.”

Svitolina was born in Odesa and has lived in Kharkiv, two cities that have been attacked by Russia.

“I talk a lot with my friends, with my family back in Ukraine, and it’s a horrible thing, but they are used to it now,” she said. “They are used to the alarms that are on. As soon as they hear something, they go to the bomb shelters. Sleepless nights. You know, it’s a terrible thing, but they tell me that now it’s a part of their life, which is very, very sad.”

Svitolina noted that she plays with a flag next to her name — unlike the Russians and Belarusians, who are allowed to play as neutral athletes.

“When I step on the court, I just try to think about the fighting spirit that all of us Ukrainians have and how Ukrainians are fighting for their values, for their freedom in Ukraine,” she said, “and me, I’m fighting here on my own front line.”

Svitolina said that she’s noticed “a lot of rubbish” concerning how tennis is reacting to the war.

“We have to focus on what the main point of what is going on,” she said. “Ukrainian people need help and need support. We are focusing on so many things like empty words, empty things that are not helping the situation, not helping anything.

“I want to invite everyone to focus on helping Ukrainians. That’s the main point of this, to help kids, to help women who lost their husbands because they are at the war, and they are fighting for Ukraine.

“You can donate. Couple of dollars might help and save lives. Or donate your time to something to help people.”

Also Wednesday, 108th-ranked Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis ousted three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 in four and a half hours. Wawrinka’s exit leaves Novak Djokovic as the lone man in the draw who has won the French Open and Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz as the lone men left who have won any major.

The top seed Alcaraz beat 112th-ranked Taro Daniel of Japan 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. The Spaniard gets 26th seed Denis Shapovalov of Canada in the third round.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

Marcell Jacobs still sidelined, misses another race with Fred Kerley

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 7:07 AM EDT

Getty

Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy will miss another scheduled clash with world 100m champion Fred Kerley, withdrawing from Friday’s Diamond League meet in Florence.

Jacobs, 28, has not recovered from the nerve pain that forced him out of last Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, according to Italy’s track and field federation.

In his absence, Kerley’s top competition will be fellow American Trayvon Bromell, the world bronze medalist, and Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, the world’s fastest man this year at 9.84 seconds. Kerley beat both of them in Rabat.

The Florence Diamond League airs live on Peacock on Friday from 2-4 p.m. ET.

Jacobs has withdrawn from six scheduled head-to-heads with Kerley dating to May 2022 due to a series of health issues since that surprise gold in Tokyo.

Kerley, primarily a 400m sprinter until the Tokyo Olympic year, became the world’s fastest man in Jacobs’ absence. He ran a personal best 9.76 seconds, the world’s best time of 2022, at last June’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. Then he led a U.S. sweep of the medals at July’s worlds.

Jacobs’ next scheduled race is a 100m at the Paris Diamond League on June 9. Kerley is not in that field, but world 200m champion Noah Lyles is.

The last time the reigning Olympic and world men’s 100m champions met in a 100m was the 2012 London Olympic final between Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. From 2013 to 2017, Bolt held both titles, then retired in 2017 while remaining reigning Olympic champion until Jacobs’ win in Tokyo, where Kerley took silver.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

More: Olympics

More: Olympics