Hawai'i's Clay on rise in decathlon
Advertiser Staff
Honolulu's Bryan Clay is the seventh-highest scoring American in decathlon history and "may be the best little guy" ever in one of the Olympic Games' signature events, according the leading decathlon historian in the U.S.
Clay, 23 and in his first season of full-time training, scored 8,482 points last weekend to finish second to a meet-record 8,784 by Tom Pappas of Knoxville, Tenn., at the USA Track and Field championships at Stanford University in California.
"Bryan Clay is one of the bright young talents in the world," said C. Frank Zarnowski of Maryland, recognized as the leading decathlon historian and statistician in the country.
"His best days are ahead," Zarnowski said. "He certainly can be a contender by 2008, and he has an outside chance for a medal in 2004."
In addition, Zarnowski said, Clay "may be the best little guy in history. It's unusual to find a world-class decathlete as small as Bryan."
Clay is 5 feet 11 and "bulked up" from 174 to 185 pounds since January by taking protein and carbohydrate supplements, coupled with intense weight lifting.
The other nine men on the top-10 U.S. list averaged 6-2 1/2 and 195. Pappas is 6-4. Third-ranked Dave Johnson, the "Dave" of the "Dave-Dan" fervor of 1996, was 6-3 and 200 pounds.
"I take pride in being the littlest guy on the track," Clay said. "I like it when people don't take me seriously because I'm small. It fuels my fire."
Not only is he the smallest man in the top 10, he is by far the youngest — three years younger than anyone else. Clay is 23 and 5 months. Dan O'Brien was 26 when he set the world record, the same age as Bruce Jenner when he won the 1976 Olympic Games. Johnson was 29 when he scored his best total.
"Bryan will be in his prime (28 1/2) for the 2008 Olympics," Zarnowski said.
Clay's main coach, Azusa Pacific's Kevin Reid, says Clay "is scratching the surface right now. ... I don't know if I could put a limit on the upside (of his potential)."
"There is a lot more room" for improvement, Clay said. "I ran the fastest 100 of my life (10.43 seconds) on Saturday but I stumbled out of the blocks; it wasn't a clean race. My coaches are confident I can run in the 10.3's."
Clay fouled on his first two long jumps, creating extraordinary pressure for his third and last jump. If he fouled again, he would score no points and would be out of the running after the second event.
"I got the crowd to start clapping for me, and I jumped into a little headwind and made my best decathlon jump (25 feet, 3 1/2 inches)," Clay said. (His two foul jumps, he said, were both well beyond his lifetime best of 25-7 1/2.)
"Even though I had my best score by 250 points, there is so much more there," Clay said.
Clay got his degree from Azusa Pacific University on May 3 and finally has time to train full-time with Reid. "There are so many intricate little things" to perfect in the 10 events, Clay said. "If you get just a little bit off, it's magnified.
"Fitness is the only thing you have to have for all of them. Fitness is a base for all the events," Clay said. "That was the key last Sunday."
Reid said, "We are going to fine-tune and sharpen each event. It's going to be fun and exciting."
Clay's next decathlon will be at the World Championships in Paris, Aug. 26-27. But he and all the Team USA members will participate in an exhibition in Walnut, Calif., next month.
He wants to compete in the U.S. vs. Germany meet in Germany at the end of July, but he needs a sponsor to pay his way. "I'll get about $3,000 or $4,000 from USA Track and Field for finishing second last weekend, but that's not enough to take me and my coach to Germany for two weeks," Clay said.
The price of being an amateur athlete is high.
FINISH LINE: Bryan Clay's 8,482 total was the 24th highest score by an American. Six individuals, led by former world record holder Dan O'Brien, have scored more than Clay an aggregate 23 times. ... O'Brien, four-time world or Olympic champion, scored more points than Clay 11 times and more than Pappas five times. But injuries caught up with O'Brien, who will be 37 next month, and he has done only one decathlon since he won Olympic gold in 1996. ... Pappas' meet record is the second-highest total by an American; he has two scores higher than Clay's. "Pappas and Clay are head and shoulders over anyone else in the U.S. today," historian C. Frank Zarnowski said. ... Current world record holder (9,026) is Roman Sebric of the Czech Republic, the only man to score more than 9,000 points. In a novelty meet Sunday in Austria, Sebric completed a decathlon in 100 minutes (they usually take two days). He scored 7,989, but finished a few seconds over 100 minutes so was penalized 42 points to 7,947.
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Bryan Clay
Born: Jan. 3, 1980 in Austin, Texas
Ethnicity: half-Japanese, half-African American
Military family moved to Hawai'i: age 5
Schools:
- Ali'iolani Elementary, Palolo
- Jarrett Intermediate (6th grade)
- moved to Kane'ohe, finished 6th grade at Ben Parker King Intermediate
- Castle High, graduated 1998
- Azusa Pacific University, graduated 2003
Parents: Michele and Mike Vandenburg, reside in Kaimuki
Highest achievements: Second in decathlon at USA Championships, 2002, 2003
College achievements: Earned 23 NAIA All-America awards, including two long jump championships
