Saturday, July 10, 1999

LATE BREAKING:
HAWAII'S CLAY WINS GOLD

Clay in 2nd after
Day 1 of decathlon

The Castle alum is in second
place at the Pan Am Junior Track
and Field Championships

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

Kailua's Bryan Clay trailed Jamaica's Maurice Smith by 17 points after five events yesterday in the men's decathlon at the 30-nation Pan American Junior Track and Field Championships at the University of South Florida.

Smith, who entered the competition seeded third, led with 3,762 points.

Marcell Allmond of USC, whom Clay beat for the USA Track and Field championship in Denton, Texas, on June 20, was 40 points behind in third.

The decathlon, which was contested in muggy conditions yesterday at the USF Track Stadium in Tampa, concludes today with the 110-meter high hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the critical 1,500-meter run.

Clay, a freshman at Azusa Pacific University (Calif.), held a nine-point lead over Smith going into the last event of the day before faltering in the 400 meters.

The former Castle High standout opened the decathlon by winning the 100-meter dash in 10.89 seconds.

He was second in the long jump, third in the shotput, and third in the high jump.

Punahou junior Victoria Chang enters tomorrow's 3,000-meter race as the No. 2 seed behind Sara Gorton of Arizona.

Clay and Chang are striving to become the first Hawaii athletes to win at the Pan American Juniors since Joey Bunch captured the 800-meter title in 1984.