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Former Central Coast resident coaches Ashton Eaton to decathlon gold
Posted: Aug 9, 2012 4:21 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Aug 9, 2012 4:30 PM
Former Atascadero resident Harry Marra is all smiles on Thursday. The latest in a long-line of distinguished athletes, who he has coached, won Olympic gold on Thursday.
World record-holder Ashton Eaton won the Olympic decathlon gold medal by 198 points.
Eaton set the decathlon world record at the U.S. Trials of 8,939 points in June. He backed it up with an Olympic victory with 8,869 points.
Two-time world champion Trey Hardee settled for silver with 8,671 points. It marked the first time since 1956 that the Americans finished first and second in the decathlon.
Leonel Suarez of Cuba took the bronze, 346 points behind Eaton, at 8,523.
Eaton had a 151-point lead going into the final event, the 1,500 meters, and is a better middle-distance runner than Hardee. But there were still some nerves in the field, with a rare false start in the 1,500.
Eaton needed to slash six seconds off his fastest ever time in the 1,500 to break his world record, but ran a cautious race and finished well outside his personal best in 4 minutes, 33.59 seconds.
Marra lived in Atascadero until he relocated to Oregon specifically to train Eaton full-time in 2010.
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