A national record under his belt, Tejaswin Shankar spoke during the Asian Games about how the decathlon was not just an event but an entire experience that forces you to test yourself both mentally and physically. He also spoke about how the 8000-point mark was a challenge he was yet to complete.
As the only person to go far beyond that and cross the decathlon’s coveted 9,000-point mark twice and one of only four men to ever do it – Ashton Eaton makes the 10 different track & field events spread across two days sound quite simple.
“I would say ‘do another one, try again’. But that’s the truth, because you improve so much every time you do a decathlon that by the time you do another, you are so much better,” Eaton told Sportstar during an interaction on Thursday.
In town as the international event ambassador for Sunday’s Delhi Half Marathon, Eaton explained how the decathlon was different from single events and the mindset required to excel in the combined event in athletics.
The 35-year-old said, “It takes a lot of training but more than that, it takes a mindset. I think I was able to do it because I didn’t mind going to training and wanted to get better. But you also have to deal with a situation that sometimes, you may not improve. The highest I jumped was in 2012 (2.11m) and I never got better, so that’s four years of not improving.”
“But the thing about decathlon is, there are other things you can improve in. You have to be okay with never reaching your full potential in one event but overall, you can put it all together to get something. It is a game of margins – I know I run a certain time in the 100m but I also know what others do and I usually know what the difference is -- you always try to keep that margin at a minimum or increase for yourself. It’s about where I am in that margin. It’s important to be tactically aware to push that margin,” he added.
The two-time Olympic and World indoor and outdoor champion, Eaton quit at the peak of his career in 2016, having defended his title at Rio and still only 29.
“There were a few reasons – One, I was getting interested in other things in the world and thought I was getting older, so I had to get started right away. Two, I was getting injured a lot more without knowing why, that was my body signalling to me. And three, the thing about being at a peak is that you have valleys on both sides, so rationally it’s the best place to go out!
“Also, I saw a lot of athletes that I admire go through where they limped across or did not finish their last race. I had a choice of doing it on my terms,” revealed the Portland-born athlete.
“The only regret I perhaps have is that I could have been more open to experiences around the world as an athlete - open to my teammates, my fans. But I was just so focused. Would it have taken away the focus if I had done more networking?
“I don’t know but looking back, it is something I could have done. I did a half-marathon a couple of weeks ago for the first time ever and just the feeling I got, of being in a river of people of all body shapes and ages running, it’s just a very cool human thing to be a part of,” he added.
Comments
SHARE