Pulled hamstring forces Castle grad out of World Championships
By Elliott Denman
Special to The Advertiser
SAINT-DENIS, France — Hawai'i's Bryan Clay spent all day yesterday yelling his lungs out.
"Waaaaaay to go, Tom," was the message, delivered loud and clear, morning, noon and night at the Stade de France.
Clay, one of the rising stars of the decathlon world, was on the sidelines, the last place in the world he wanted to be, as the unfortunate victim of a hamstring pull that knocked him out of the ninth World Championships of Track and Field the day before.
But all his encouragement paid a huge reward as Tom Pappas, a rugged 6-foot-5, 210-pounder out of Oregon's Glendale High School and the University of Tennessee, came through with a smashing performance that gave him the gold medal in the decathlon.
Clay's own bid for World Championships glory ended with the leg injury that forced him out of the 400-meter run Tuesday night after he'd led the whole decathlon field after three events and was still in third place after four.
Pappas, who occupied second place behind Kazakhstan's Dmitry Karpov following Tuesday's first five events, delivered outstanding second-day marks of 13.99 in the 110-meter high hurdles; 152 feet, 8 inches in the discus; 16 feet, 8 3/4 inches in the pole vault; 216 feet, 2 inches in the javelin, and a personal-best of 4:44:31 in the 1,500-meter run to net a score of 8,750 points.
It made Pappas the second best-ever performer in U.S. decathlon history, trailing only Dan O'Brien, who set a world record of 8,891 points in 1992.
Czech Republic's Roman Seberle, who set the world record of 9,026 points in 2001, wasn't in that kind of form and settled for second place with 8,634.
Karpov grabbed third at 8,374 — the territory Clay had hoped to occupy.
Clay, the 23-year-old graduate of Castle High School in Kane'ohe and Azusa Pacific College in California, had totaled 8,482, placing second to Pappas in the U.S. Nationals at Stanford in June.
The gold medal and the $60,000 check that goes with it make Pappas the early favorite to take the decathlon gold at the 2004 Athens Games. He could follow in the golden footsteps of O'Brien, the 1996 Atlanta champion, as well as such previous U.S. Olympic deca-kings as Bruce Jenner (1976), Bill Toomey (1968), Rafer Johnson (1960), Milt Campbell (1956), Bob Mathias (1948-52) and Jim Thorpe (1912).
All going well, Clay figures to be on the plane to Athens next year, too.
"We're going to have a super team at Athens," predicted Michigan State graduate Paul Terek, the third American decathlon entry, who had some tough luck of his own when he was disqualified in the high hurdles and settled for 12th place with 7,503 points.
"We've all seen how great Pappas is; he's not going to fold, he's a warrior, he's a competitor, he's America's best athlete and he's going to continue to get better.
"But Bryan's headed for big things in the decathlon, too. He caught a bad break here in the 400, his hamstring didn't hold out. But he's going to be back next year and we're going to take a heck of a team to the Olympics.
"Bryan is a guy who's going to come out and, if he doesn't PR (set a personal record) he's going to be at 99 percent every time."
Said Pappas: "Decathlon stock in the U.S. is definitely on the way up.
"It was unfortunate the way Bryan hurt his hamstring because he had a great meet going. I definitely think could have been right up there.
"He's got a lot of talent. He's a lot better than me in some events, just the way I'm a lot better than him in some others.
"Just give him a little time, though; he's definitely going to get a lot better. Watch out for all of us next year."
