World and Olympic decathlon champion and world record holder Ashton Eaton will be joined by several world-class multi-event athletes at Westmont’s Thorrington Field this weekend for the annual Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational.
Many of the athletes competing are contenders for spots on the U.S. Olympic track and field team in the decathlon and heptathlon for this summer’s Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
Among the entrants vying for a berth as a heptathlete is Barbara Nwaba of the Santa Barbara Track Club. She recently competed at the World Indoor Championships and finished fourth in the pentathlon with a personal best of 4,661 points. It was her highest finish in a world event. She is the reigning U.S. champion in the pentathlon.
Nwaba, a UCSB alum, will be competing on Saturday in the long jump (scheduled at 12:30 p.m.) and javelin (2 p.m.). Sharon Day, U.S. pentathlon record holder and a 7-time U.S. Champion, is competing in the high jump (2 p.m.) and shot put (3:45 p.m.) on Friday and the javelin (2 p.m.) on Saturday.
Eaton plans to do the shot put on Friday at around 2:20 p.m. and discus on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
Canada’s Damian Warner, the 2015 World Championship Decathlon Silver Medalist, is scheduled to do the long jump (1 p.m.) and shot put (2:20 p.m.) and the 400 meters (6 p.m.) on Friday and the pole vault on Saturday (2 p.m.)
Other high-level athletes competing this weekend include Nia Ali, the 2016 Indoor World Champion in the 60-meter hurdles, decathlete Thomas FitzSimons, Jr., heptathletes Lindsay Schwartz and Kiani Profit.
Additional Santa Barbara Track Club athletes competing in full decathlon and heptathlon events include Chari Hawkins (heptathlon), Tom Hopkins (decathlon), Lindsay Lettow (heptathlon), Derek Masterson (decathlon), Sarah Skipper (heptathlon) and Calvin Sullins (heptathlon).
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.