“Ireland rules” was the midnight Twitter message posted by decathlon Olympic champion and world record holder, Ashton Eaton after competing in the first International Grand Prix event to be held at the Athlone Institute of Technology Indoor Athletics Arena last night.
Describing the inaugural AIT International Arena Grand Prix as “a great event”, Ashton Eaton praised the full house of fans as “tremendous” and posted that he “saw lots of passion in the kids that competed”.
The hugely successful evening saw six new stadium records being set before a full house in the Athlone venue which was opened last year and is now in its second season.
@AthloneIT hosted a great event tonight. You fans were tremendous. Saw lots of passion in the kids that competed. Ireland rules.
— Ashton Eaton (@AshtonJEaton) February 26, 2014
Eaton and his wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton won three events between them at the athletics gala. Dubbed “the best athlete to ever walk the planet” Eaton claimed glory in the 60m in a new stadium record with a time of 6.69 secs. His wife went one better than him, however, winning two events – the shot put with 13.46m and the high jump with 1.80m, the former confirmed as a new PB for the world heptathlon silver medalist.
Portugal’s Eva Vital set a new record of 8.29 secs in the women’s 60m hurdles, while Alex Al Ameen won in a time of 7.97 in the 60m men’s hurdles.
Records came tumbling too in the long jump, with Kelly Proper beating her own record to achieve a new Athlone standard of 6.49m, while Daniel Bramble achieved 7.71m in the men’s.
The sixth new record was set by the Scottish sprinter Diane Ramsay in the women’s 400m, winning in a time of 53.87 secs.
The International Gala is expected to be repeated in 2015 and 2016 as Athlone establishes itself as a high grade and fast track which will appeal to other major stars.
