Eaton Thinks Heptathlon World Record Could Fall in Sopot

Published by IAAF on February 10, 2014

USA's Ashton Eaton has acquired all the multi-event honours the sport has to offer in the past two years.

He set a heptathlon world record of 6645 points when winning the indoor discipline at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He then went on to produce a decathlon world record of 9039 points at the 2012 US Olympic Trials before going on to win gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games and 2013 IAAF World Championships.

In the Polish city of Sopot next month, where the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships will be held between 7-9 March, he will be bidding to defend his first global title, which he won in Istanbul two years ago.

With less than one month to go until the biggest global athletics event of 2014, Eaton spoke to the international media in a teleconference on Monday (10).

Below are the edited highlights of that question-and-answer session.

You are just one month away from this year’s World Indoor Championships, how do you assess your form this time around?

Ashton Eaton: I took a big break after Moscow because 2011, 2012 and 2013 – that chunk together really taxed me. I started training late but based on the two competitions I’ve done so far this year, I don’t really feel I’ve lost very much. I did an indoor PB in the shot put and I did a decent 60 even though I had a bad start, and a couple of weeks ago I was one-hundredth away from my indoor hurdles PB, so far I think I’m going into Poland doing pretty good.

Tell us a little more about how you coped with injuries in 2013, and are they definitely behind you?

AE: Coping with injuries is always difficult for athletes because all we want to do is, basically, to have our best performances unhindered. When you have an injury you are hindered a little bit. The way I dealt with it wasn’t any different to any other athlete, I complained a lot! But when you are at a competition and you are on the line, you just try to forget about all of it and just try to get worked up.

The injuries were most seen in the high jump where I was jumping under two metres in all my multi-event competitions, which isn’t normally me. I took those hits and just tried to make up the points in other places.

Last Saturday in Boston (at the IAAF Indoor Permit meeting) you ran 60m in 6.73 and had an indoor PB of 15.05m in the shot put. Both performances were better than when you set the world record in Istanbul, so what does this tell you?

AE: I’ve been keeping track of my training sessions, I’ve done about 40 (this winter) and it tells me that I’m getting a little bit more mature. It’s not so much about the physical work now, it more the mental part of it. Remembering that, I’m like a seasoned veteran now, getting more performance done with less work.