Posted on: Friday, June 22, 2001
Hawai'i's Bryan Clay second in decathlon
Advertiser Staff and News Services
EUGENE, Ore. — Hawai'i's Bryan Clay scored three personal-best marks and stood in second place yesterday after five events of the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships men's decathlon.
Clay won the meet-opening 100 meters in 10.50 seconds and the second event, the long jump, at 24 feet, 9 inches — both personal bests. He also made a personal best in the first day's final event, finishing fourth in the 400 meters in 48.81 seconds.
His other marks were 43 feet, 7 inches in the shot put and 6-6 in the high jump.
Clay's first-day total was 4,259 points, second to 4,472 by Tom Pappas, a former NCAA champion at Tennessee who placed fourth in the 2000 Olympics.
Clay is a 1998 Castle High graduate and a junior at Azusa Pacific University in California.
The first-day totals were career bests for both Pappas and Clay.
"He's excited," Azusa Pacific coach Kevin Reid said of Clay. "He can't wait for tomorrow. You could not have asked for anything better today. He was relaxed and did a great job."
Meanwhile, Maurice Green fulfilled his promise to run a fast 100 meters, overcoming a false start and a smattering of boos.
Greene, competing in only one round in protest of the national governing body's rule that he must run in order to be eligible for the World Championships, was timed in 9.90 seconds, the fastest in the world this year.
The time tied the meet record set by former world record-holder Leroy Burrell in 1990, and matched by Greene in 1997. It also was a Hayward Field mark, erasing the record of 9.92 by Ato Boldon of Trinidad & Tobago in 1996.
Alan Webb, running smartly and conservatively, powered down the stretch after being fourth entering the final curve, took the lead with 25 meters remaining and finished in 3:45.77 in his semifinal heat of the men's 1,500.
The popular victory moved the precocious 18-year-old high school student from Reston, Va., into tomorrow's nationally televised final. This was Webb's first race against the nation's best middle-distance runners and he handled it like a pro, timing his closing burst perfectly. He ran the final 200 meters in 25.5.
Last month Webb broke Jim Ryun's scholastic record for the mile with a 3:53.43 at the Prefontaine Classic.
He came into this meet oozing confidence, saying, "I can compete with these guys."
He left no doubt about that.
Tomorrow, Webb tries to become the first teenager to win a mile or 1,500-meter national title since Marty Liquori in 1969, and the first high schooler to make the U.S. team for the World Championships in August. The first three finishers in each event qualify.
Webb said the veterans in the final likely would be unhappy losing to him.
