 Feat of Clay
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-23 10:30 Bryan Clay won the decathlon at the Beijing Games, the first American to win the 10-discipline event at the Olympics since 1996. The 2004 Olympic silver medalist and 2005 world champion had 8,791 points, finishing off with 522 in the 1,500m late yesterday. Dan O'Brien was the last US athlete to win the Olympic decathlon. Clay took the lead in the first event of the two-day event, the 100m sprint, which was held in heavy rain on Thursday morning, and never relinquished it. He was comfortably ahead after the day's five events. Yesterday, he kept consolidating his position and was assured of victory before the final event, the 1,500m, which he finished in a slow 5 min, 06.59 sec. In the race for silver, only 13 points separated Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus (8,790) and Leonel Suarez of Cuba and Alexander Pogorelov of Russia (both 8,777) at the start of the last event, the 1,500. Krauchanka handled the pressure best, running the race in 4:27.47. Suarez's clocked 4:29.17 and took bronze. Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic, the reigning world and Olympic champion, finished sixth. Agencies 
 (China Daily 08/23/2008 page5) |
