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August 19, 2004 3:25 pm

Smallish decathlete says big gains in reach

By ELLIOTT DENMAN

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece — At 5-foot-11, 174 pounds, Bryan Clay might be easy to overlook by decathlon standards.

Clay 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 on Tuesday.

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 on Monday morning.

To Clay, a graduate of Castle High School in Keneohe, Hawaii, and 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, 50-1 3/4 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, 16-8 3/4 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.

The man the Americans will have to keep within range is world record holder Roman Seberle of the Czech Republic. He set the record of 9,026 points in 2001, as the first man past the 9,000 mark, and is the 2004 leader with an 8,842 score at Gotzis, Austria, on May 30.

Clay has been based in Crete, with many of his American teammates, for the last two weeks.

"The hospitality here (at the Pilot Beach resort hotel) has been wonderful," he said. "The Greek people have gone out of their way to make us feel comfortable."

He’ll make the short flight on Friday to Athens, head for the Olympic Village and have three more days for final preparations.

"I couldn’t feel any healthier," he said. "And that’s all I can ask for."

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