But team-mate Tom Parsons was not smiling, however, the 26-year-old from Birmingham crashing out with three failures at the opening height.

BBC: Phillips Idowu wins European Athletics triple jump gold

For Eaton, or any decathlete competing for a medal, the trick is getting through the pole vault, a dastardly maneuver that can spell doom if he can't manage to at least clear the bar at an opening height.

WSJ: Menu

Inside, there is about 3, 000 square feet, with a 28-foot-wide octagonal double-height living room with a library at one end and doors opening out to a terrace on the other.

WSJ: Selling Tudor City Treasure

Right from the moment of the opening ceremony, it has felt as if Britain suddenly had the confident voice it had been looking for since the height of the Industrial Revolution.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS