Hawai'i's Clay 2nd in U.S. decathlon

Advertiser Staff

Hawai'i's Bryan Clay was in second place by 161 points yesterday after the first day of the USA Decathlon Championships at Berkeley, Calif.

Clay scored 4,239 points to 4,400 for leader Tom Pappas. Dan O'Brien, 1996 Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder, was in third place early in the day, but withdrew from the event and announced his retirement.

Clay, a 1998 Castle High graduate, set personal decathlon records in the first two events with a shot put of 46 feet, 5 inches and a 6-8 high jump.

Although he won the 100-meter dash in 10.73 seconds and equaled the second-best long jump at 24-3, Clay said those marks were "decent, but not where I want to be."

An eighth-place finish in the 400 meters in 49.65 hurt his chances.

He was 20 points behind his pace of last year, when he finished third with 8,169 points and was the top-ranked collegian.

Clay said he was "not at 100 percent, not on the top of my game," because of training time he lost this spring after knee surgery on April 8.

"My knee is feeling awesome, and technique-wise, everything is coming along, but I didn't get to train as well as I needed to," Clay said. "I'm at least 90 percent, and I'm not looking for extraordinary results here.

"God is telling me, 'You need to be patient, I'll let you know when it's time,' " Clay said. He said he hopes that time will be at the USA vs. Germany meet July 27-28 in Southern California.