Ashton Eaton caught up with British Athletics before the 8th Diamond League meeting in Paris on the 5th of July.
The decathlete-turned-400 metres hurdler says he is enjoying his new event which has seen him improve his personal best to 48.94 seconds. Eaton was brutally honest as he explained his reluctance to continue to work at the decathlon after the 2013 season; underpinned by both physical and mental fatigue. He was seemingly aware that another season of training and competing in the decathlon would only end badly, that his hunger for multi-events had (at least temporarily) subsided, and that it was time for a new challenge.
There was now a distinct freshness around the Olympic decathlon champion and world record holder, the self-assurance of an athlete who has already achieved so much in his sport and is now relishing this new chapter. How remarkable it is, that an athlete who has trained for such a broad range of athletic disciplines is now capable of competing with the very best in the world in an event he has never done before.
Eaton will no doubt continue to progress and compete with the likes of Javier Culson and Michael Tinsley in the coming years, and look to dominate the event as he did so convincingly in the decathlon.
