Ashton Eaton, Brianne Theisen-Eaton to compete at World Indoors

Ashton Eaton looks to win his third gold medal in the heptathlon and break his own world record.

Ashton Eaton, a decathlon world record holder and Olympic champion, and his wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton have accepted invitations from the IAAF to compete at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in March.

The IAAF will invite 12 athletes based on performances and world rankings to the IAAF World Indoor Championships.

Eaton looks to win his third gold medal in the heptathlon after claiming gold in 2012 and 2014. The events that will be contested will be the 60-meter dash, long jump, shot put and high jump on the first day and 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000-meters on the second day.

Eaton also holds the world record in the heptathlon with 6,645 points and looks to break it.

“I’ll try to break the world record,” Eaton said in a press release. “I will keep my strategy the same. I will try to win, have some fun, and if the world record is there, I’ve got to go for it.”

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Eaton is coming off an outdoor campaign in which he earned IAAF Athlete of the Year honors after breaking his own world record in the decathlon (9,045 points) and claiming gold at the 2015 world outdoor championships.

Theisen-Eaton will compete in the pentathlon, which consists of the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800-meter run. She looks to improve upon her silver medal and Canadian record finish of 4,768 points in 2014.

At last year’s world outdoor championships, she won a silver medal in the heptathlon with 6,554 points to finish only behind Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Theisen-Eaton and her husband both attended the University of Oregon.

“I do feel like this will be my home track, and I’m excited because my family gets to come,” Theisen-Eaton said. “Nobody in my family has ever seen me compete at a professional indoor meet.”

Both athletes will compete at the Camel City Invitational on Jan. 30 in Winston-Salem, N.C. The world indoor championships are set to begin on March 17.

- Christopher Chavez