USA Track & Field – News – Competition close at 19th Thorpe Cup

CHULA VISTA, CALIF. – Setting up a close and intriguing second day, the United States and Germany gave fans at the Olympic Training Center all they could handle in the first day of competition at Saturday's 19th edition of the Thorpe Cup.

The German team currently holds an advantage over the United States in the men's competition, 20,263 points to 19,956, while the United States women lead Germany in Heptathlon competition, 10,552 to 10,198. Competition concludes today with live results available at https://flashwest.com/11Meets/11ThorpeCup/; fans can follow a free live webcast of the event www.usatf.org.

Germans Simon Hechler and Steffen Fricke are leading the decathlon with scores of 4,194 and 4,158, respectively, and Nick Adcock is the top American, in third place with a score of 4,043. On the women's side, the United States' Bette Wade leads the heptathlon with 3,699 and Germany's Sara Gambetta is second at 3,443. America's Ryann Krais is currently third with 3,346 points.

Competing in individual events, U.S. decathlon champion Ashton Eaton (10.26) and defending world champion Trey Hardee (10.53) went 1-2 in the men's 100m, and Eaton had the top mark in the high jump at 2.10m/6-10.75. Likewise, Olympic heptathlon silver medalist Hyleas Fountain competed in two events, posting the fastest time in the 100m hurdles (13.12) and 200m dash (23.67). Eaton, Hardee and Fountain are tuning up for the 2011 IAAF World Championships August 27-Sept. 4 in Daegu, South Korea.

The Thorpe Cup is an international multi-event competition between the U.S. and Germany. Teams are made up of seven men and women with the top five men's decathlon scores and the top three women's heptathlon scores added up to determine the overall men's and women's team winners.

For more on the Thorpe Cup, visit www.usatf.org

Jared Slinde
Communications Manager
USA Track & Field