PORTLAND: American Ashton Eaton successfully defended his world indoor championships heptathlon title on Saturday to complete a husband-and-wife golden double that the couple will aim to repeat at the Rio Olympics.

After Canadian Brianne Theisen-Eaton won the pentathlon on Friday, Eaton followed suit by posting a winning total of 6,470 points, the sixth highest ever to make them the first married couple to win golds at the same world championships.

“I was thinking it doesn’t matter what happens to me today,” said Eaton, who was born and lives in Portland. “Brianne is the one that stole the show.

“I am really happy about that and proud of her,” he added of the Canadian, who finally ended a frustrating run of second-place finishes at major championships.

“I was just finishing it off for the family, finishing it off for the home town crowd.”

The 28-year-old’s victory was one of the highlights of a day that saw American athletes claim four gold medals.

American Barbara Pierre used a blazing start to beat a favoured Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands in the women’s 60m final by 0.02 seconds.

With one day remaining in the championships, the US are the runaway leaders at the top of the medal table with 15, including eight golds. No other country has more than one gold or three medals.

The hosts have also benefited from Russia’s absence after the traditional powerhouse were banned from international competition when a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigation uncovered evidence of what it termed state-sponsored doping.

GOLDEN EVENING

Also contributing to a golden evening for the US was Boris Berian, who two years ago was working at a fast-food outlet but on Saturday was standing on top of the podium after grinding out a victory in the men’s 800m in one minute, 45.83 seconds.

The other American gold on Saturday came in the women’s shot put, where Michelle Carter conjured up an almighty heave of 20.21m with her final throw.

The most interesting look of the evening belonged to Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi, who was clean shaven on the right side of his face and had stubble on the left for good luck.

By a razor-thin margin, he won the event over Robert Grabarz of Britain with a winning leap of 2.40m.

Venezuela sent one athlete to the world championships and made it count, 20-year-old Yulimar Rojas returning home with the gold medal in the women’s triple jump.

Saturday also saw Dong Bin become only the third athlete from China to win a World Indoor Athletics Championships gold with victory in the triple jump.

The 27-year-old from Changsha led the competition from start to finish, winning with a best leap of 17.33m.

Elsewhere, the Czech Republic’s Pavel Maslak became the first reigning 400m champion since Alleyne Francique in 2006 to successfully defend the title while Bahrain’s Oluwakemi Adekoya held off a pair of fast closing Americans to win the women’s 400m.

The Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan held off two former Ethiopian compatriots, Dawit Seyaum and Gudaf Tsegay, to win the women’s 1,500m.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2016