”FREIGHTTRAIN” is the monicker that appears between Kyle Garland’s first and last names on his Instagram account, and he rolled like few ever have in the decathlon with a score of 8869, a PR by 149 points and the second-highest in meet history.
It also made the 25-year-old No. 3 in U.S. history behind WR setters Ashton Eaton and Dan O’Brien, both of whom own gold medals from the Olympics and WC.
From the start, Garland seemed destined for victory unless he became derailed — à la last year when he broke his foot in vault warmups at the Olympic Trials while in contention for a team spot.
Heath Baldwin (8407) and Harrison Williams (8223) were far off their best scores here but outlasted the rest of the contenders, who dealt with a variety of mishaps.
Here’s how it went down.
100 Meters: Peyton Bair — the NCAA champ for Mississippi State now transferring to Oregon — wasn’t as fast as his DCR 10.25 in June but was able to edge Garland, 10.41–10.44. Garland shaved 0.06 off his previous PR, set in May at Götzis. Looking solid were the two oldest in 32-year-olds Zach Ziemek (10.69) and Garrett Scantling (10.86), the latter coming off a doping suspension a month earlier.
Long Jump: Garland was more than a foot better than anyone else, leaping an outdoor PR 25-10¾ (7.89). Hakim McMorris was next at 24-9¼ (7.55) as few other contenders were even close to their PRs.
Shot: Garland PRed twice, ultimately to 55-7½ (16.95) to lead everyone by more than 4ft. His projection seemed insane at 8804, but it would go higher on Day 2. Ziemek (51-¾/15.56) and Williams (50-8¾/15.46) were closest, while Baldwin — whose PR is 54-2½ (16.52) — went just 49-11 (15.21). Tokyo Olympic 4th-placer Scantling, the USA champ in ’21 and ’22, was a DNS.
High Jump: No PR here for Garland, but he tied Baldwin for highest at 7-¼ (2.14). Ziemek cleared 6-9¾ (2.08) with no misses but could go no higher; he was in 2nd overall, 352 points behind Garland. Williams did 6-5 (1.96).
400 Meters: Baldwin won the first section in a PR 48.39 as Garland was 3rd in 49.29. While Garland’s time seemed slow compared to his PR 47.78 from ’23, it brought his Day 1 total to 4714, a Hayward Field Record in becoming just the third American to go over 4700 (following O’Brien and…
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