The new pin-up boy of Australian athletics won a historic bronze medal but the real hero of Ash MoloneyтАЩs triumph was the bloke beside him.
Ash Moloney has sensationally won AustraliaтАЩs first medal on the track in Tokyo as the menтАЩs decathlon came to a thrilling close on Thursday night.
Moloney entered the final 1500m event in third place as he sought to claimтАЩs AustraliaтАЩs first ever Olympic medal in the 10-part event. He finished the run 12th in a time of 4:39.19 and it was just enough to sneak home for bronze.
тАЬF*** yeah!тАЭ Moloney screamed as he embraced countryman Cedric Dubler at the finish line.
The 21-year-old тАФ establishing himself as the new pin-up boy of Australian athletics тАФ ran a personal best in the 1500m but when he crossed the line several seconds slower than his nearest competitors there were fears Moloney may have slipped out of the medals at the death.
The Queenslander was just 62 points ahead of fourth-placed Garret Scantling going into the 1500m and while the American was quicker with a time of 4:35.54, Moloney still finished within a close enough range to ensure he remained in the top three.
CanadaтАЩs Pierce LePage (fifth) was also threatening to push Moloney off the podium in the final race but the Aussie superstar held on for dear life and because he finished within nine seconds of the North American pair, he secured his slice of history.
It took several minutes after runners had crossed the line for the final scores to register on big screens inside the Olympic Stadium before it was confirmed Moloney had won enough points in the last event to walk away with the bronze medal.
He finished with 8649 points тАУ just 38 points ahead of Scantling. CanadaтАЩs Damian Warner won comfortably with 9018 points.
TeammateтАЩs selfless act is an тАШiconic imageтАЩ
Dubler finished 21st overall but deserves a share of MoloneyтАЩs bronze for the way he spurred his training partner on during the final leg. Knowing he was out of medal contention, Dubler sacrificed his own race and ran alongside Moloney to act as a pacer, yelling encouragement and spurring his mate on.
тАЬHe had me worried for a little bit then I just started screaming at him and we got him there,тАЭ Dubler told Channel 7 after the race.
Moloney opened up on how important his countrymanтАЩs help was in delivering him a special souvenir to bring home from Tokyo.
тАЬHe was screaming. I canтАЩt repeat what he said. I could hear his voice bouncing in my cranium like a bat out of hell,тАЭ Moloney said.
тАЬI started hitting a wall at 800m and I was a bit concerned but I was like, тАШJust stick to Cedric. DonтАЩt let him get to far awayтАЩ. He screamed тАж like a nutter.тАЭ
DublerтАЩs selflessness didnтАЩt go unnoticed by Channel 7 commentators Bruce McAvaney and Tamsyn Manou.
тАЬHe has been able to help Ash mentally and now physically right to the end,тАЭ McAvaney said.
Manou added: тАЬHe has been fabulous. He sacrificed his own event here just to help his teammate.тАЭ
Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze called DublerтАЩs sacrifice a тАЬthing of beautyтАЭ, while Seven host Andy Maher said: тАЬWe will look back, I reckon when the books shut on Tokyo and you look at the Olympic Games and there are snapshot images, iconic images from an Olympic Games. Dubler screaming into MoloneyтАЩs ear is going to be one of those two or three-second images that all of those great motivational pieces we get put together with beautiful music, it is going to be one of those pieces.тАЭ
Australian cricket great Lisa Sthalekar agreed, adding: тАЬThatтАЩs going to be the iconic image тАж and it should be.тАЭ
Moloney dropped a personal best in the 110m hurdles to start ThursdayтАЩs action and although discus isnтАЩt his strongest suit, was still only one spot off the leader after his throw of 4.38m.
Moloney cleared 5m in the pole vault and hit a season-best when he launched his javelin 57.12m, but many of his rivals performed better in the penultimate event. Kevin MayerтАЩs monster 73m throw saw him go from fourth to second.
Moloney was in the bronze medal position going into the final 1500m event and held on to create Australian history.
The young gun performed strongly on Wednesday in the opening day of the decathlon. He finished in a personal best time of 10.34 seconds in the 100m and easily won his 400m heat, hit 7.64m in the long jump and soared to top spot in his high jump group with a leap of 2.11m.
