Posted on: Sunday, August 22, 2004
Clay confident as decathlon begins
By Elliott Denman
Gannett News Service
ATHENS, Greece — At 5 feet 11 and 174 pounds, Bryan Clay might be easy to overlook by decathlon standards.
The Castle High alum from Kane'ohe says that would be a mistake.
"I've got a lot more points in me," he said Thursday.
"My leg's 100 percent now, so that's going to help all my running events.
"My throws are all getting better.
"And my jumps should be pretty good, too."
Add it all up and it just might put Clay on the Olympic medals stand when the decathlon concludes tomorrow night, Hawai'i time.
Some may say Clay is undersized to be a big-time competitor in a 10-event challenge that determines the man often referred to as the world's greatest athlete. Stand him next to such past Olympic decathlon champions as Bob Mathias, Milt Campbell, Rafer Johnson, Bill Toomey and Dan O'Brien and he'd be deep into the shadows.
But they've never found a way to measure heart, either, and Clay has it in abundance.
Even with his left leg aching with a hamstring injury, Clay put together a superb first five events at the U.S. Olympic Trials last month in Sacramento, Calif., then put it away with an even better second five events to win it all with a career-best total of 8,660 points, defeating reigning world champion Tom Pappas in the process.
Added centimeters here and fractions of seconds there would translate to points across the board and put Clay right in the mix for a medal.
Pappas, the man considered by many a favorite to take the gold in Athens after his decisive triumph at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, settled for second place at the Trials with an 8,517 score.
The Olympic decathlon opens with the 100-meter dash tonight, Hawai'i time.
To Clay, a graduate of Azusa Pacific University in California, the opening 100 is the biggest key of them all.
"Get a good 100 under your belt, and that sets the tone for everything else that follows," he said.
"At the Trials, I ran a 10.48, and that was with a bad leg."
Now that he's fully healthy, he sees a 100 in the 10.2 range as a strong possibility. That would likely rocket him into a lead, a lead he'll hope to hang on to over the full 10 events. His career best 100 is a 10.39.
At the Trials, he followed with a 24-11 long jump, 50-1fl shot put, 6-7 high jump, and 47.90 400-meter dash.
The next day, he reeled off marks of 14.23 in the 110 high hurdles, 170-11 in the discus throw, 16-8fl in the pole vault and 224-3 in javelin. The concluding 1500 meters, which he ran in 5:06.18 at the Trials, remains his weakest link.
"Once I get through the first events, I think it's just going to be money from there," Clay said.
Clay's confidence is soaring after his victory in Sacramento, especially knowing that there were several events he could have been better in. He knows, too, that he's an unknown to most of those who will tune in to watch next week.
"I think when it comes down to media and stuff like that, yeah, people don't pay me much attention," he said. "But if you're talking to people that know the event or follow the event — or even people that know me and have followed my career — I think they'll tell you otherwise.
"They know that this is going to be a big meet for me. I think it's going to be a lot of fun."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
