20 August,2016 09:58 AM IST | | AFP
US athletes snapped up four more golds with wins in decathlon, men’s and women's 400m hurdles and shot put. Ashton Eaton led an American gold rush by clinching back-to-back decathlon title as he wrote another chapter of Olympic history.
Ashton and Dalilah
Rio de Janeiro: US athletes snapped up four more golds with wins in decathlon, men's and women's 400m hurdles and shot put. Ashton Eaton led an American gold rush by clinching back-to-back decathlon title as he wrote another chapter of Olympic history.
Ashton embraces wife Brianne after his win. Pic/Getty Images
Eaton, the defending decathlon champion and world record holder, overcame a fierce challenge from France's Kevin Mayer to win the punishing 10-event discipline with a total of 8,893 points. Mayer won silver with a total of 8,834pts, with Canada's Damian Warner taking bronze.
USA's Dalilah Muhammad after winning the 400m hurdles gold on Thursday. Pic/Getty Images
Eaton's back-to-back titles matched Britain's Daley Thompson, who won gold in the event in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
Arguably the performance of the day by a US athlete came in the women's 400m hurdles, where Dalilah Muhammad became the first American to win the event since it was introduced at the 1984 Olympics.
"Being the first American to win this title adds a bit of extra sparkle," added Muhammad, who finished in 53.13sec. Sara Slott Petersen of Denmark took silver in 53.55sec while Ashley Spencer claimed bronze in 53.72.
