Where Ashton Came Up Short of Expectations

This was Ashton's second World's. In 2009 he was 18th with 8061, and he was second with 8505 this year. On the surface that was quite an improvement, but he fell short of many people's expectations (and I would guess his).

Where did he fall short? I would say it was due to a relatively poor set of jumps. His 2537 points in the jumps was 8% less than his 2754 points in 2009. Did he get worse in the jumps in two years -- no, because he had 2786 points 2 months ago at the US National meet. (He improved 8% on the track,
and 20% in the throws over 2009).

I think his problems began with the long jump where he continues an apparent recent pattern of scratching on the first jump and then being overly cautious on the second one. I can imagine him at the end of the runway for his final jump getting stressed out about getting out a jump he was expecting. After the LJ he looked frustrated the rest of the meet, and I imagine you don't jump your best when you are frustrated.

Hopefully this meet experience will serve him well for his next international meet, which I hope won't be the Olympics.

I think this