by Larry Eder
Bryan Clay, World Indoor Champs, Doha, Qatar, March 2010, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Winning the first gold medal at the 2010 World Indoor Champs, Bryan Clay showed his fitness and competitiveness over the past two days, winning by 20 points over countryman Trey Hardee, 6204-6184!
Bryan Clay was thoughtful after his two days of competition: ” It was a tough competition. With all of the mistakes I have done during these two days, I can be happy that I was able to win. I am very proud that I could have competed here and I showed I am ready to go and I can be looking forward to a decathlon in the summer. I only have to sharpen up little bit and see what will happen. I had very, very strong two events–the pole vault was great, high jump also went pretty well. The line between champions and not champions is very small!”
Now, that was an understatement! Twenty points behind Bryan Clay was Trey Hardee! The U.S. finally has a 1-2 punch again. (Actually, with a healthy Tom Pappas and Duck stud Ashton Eaton, we have four Dec studs).
Clay ran 6.67 in the 60 meters, jumped 7.27m for the long jump, threw 15.31m in the shot, and high jumped 2.06m for the first day. In his second day, Clay hurdled the 60m in 8.00, vaulted 5.00m, and ran the 1,000 meters in 2:50.28, holding off Trey Hardee by twenty seconds! Bryan scored 6,204.
Trey Hardee, World Indoor Champs, March 2010, Doha, Qatar, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Trey Hardee had this to say, after his silver medal performance: ” After I crossed the line, I turned back and saw that Brian was close so I did not think I had done enough to get first!I was really running to preserve my second place because Drozdov is a good runner. This si my first indoor championships, so I am happy with the result. ”
Hardee had two strong days, scoring 6,184. Running the 60m in 6.80, reaching 7.28m in the long jump, hitting 14.44m in the shot put, and clearing 2.06m in the high jump. On the second day, TRey hurdled 7.79 for the 60m hurdles, vaulted 5.00m and ran 2:47.76 for the 1,000 meters.
In third, competing tough both days, was Aleksey Drozdov, of Russia, in a score of 6,141. Drozdov noted, ” The 1,000 meters was very hard for me. I am totally exhausted. Nearly not able finding some words. This the biggest achievement of my career. And excellent motivation for summer and Barcelona.”
(We will post complete final results later this evening!)
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