Clay closing in

With two events to go in the decathlon, the Castle High grad holds a commanding lead

American Bryan Clay of Kaneohe expanded his lead in the Olympic decathlon after two firsts and a second-place tie in the first three events today in Beijing.

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Clay put up the best marks in the 110-meter hurdles (13.93 seconds, 984 points) and the discus (53.79 meters, 950), and tied for second in the pole vault (5.00 meters, 910) to move closer to the gold medal.

He had a sizable lead with two events - the javelin and 1500-meter run - remaining.

Clay finished the second day's morning session with 7,365 points. Andrei Krauchanka of Belarusia was second with 7,049.

Barring injury or some other disaster, Clay was nearly a shoo-in to win the gold medal after eight events.

Clay finished the first day (five events) with 4,521 points. Krauchanka was second with 4,443 and Trey Hardee of the U.S. third with 4,428.

"I had three very, very good events," said Clay after the first day, when he was first in the 100 and long jump, and second in the shot put. "Then I had one not so good event, a poor event, which was high jump. Then just an OK event in the 400, nothing special in the 400, but it was OK."

Clay, a Castle High graduate, completed the first day's events with a time of 48.92 in the 400 meters, worth 865 points.

Following the high jump, Clay had 3,656 total points to second-place Aleksandr Pogorelov of Russia, who had 3,510.

Clay scored 794 points after clearing 1.99 meters, but missing all three attempts at 2.02.

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MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

U.S. advances to gold-medal match

Former Hawaii opposite Clay Stanley put down 11 kills and added seven aces to help the U.S. men's volleyball team remain undefeated in Olympic play today with a 25-22, 25-21, 25-27, 22-25, 15-13 victory over Russia.

The U.S. will take on the winner of today's later semifinal between Italy and Brazil for the gold medal on Sunday. The Americans have not won the gold since doubling up in 1984 and '88.

Stanley had four kills and four aces as U.S. won Set 1. The U.S. rallied to win Set 2 with six unanswered points after trailing 21-19.

Reid Priddy led the U.S. with 17 kills and 12 digs. Riley Salmon added 13 kills and Ryan Millar 12.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Taurasi leads Americans to finals

Diana Taurasi scored 21 points and the U.S. women's basketball team beat Russia, 67-52, today to advance to its fourth straight Olympic gold medal game.

The Americans will face Australia tomorrow as they try to win an unprecedented fourth straight gold. Australia defeated China, 90-56 in the other semifinal.

WOMEN’S WATER POLO

Netherlands stuns U.S. for gold medal

Two former University of Hawaii players helped lead the Netherlands to one of the bigger upsets yesterday at the Olympics, beating the United States 9-8 for the gold medal in Beijing.

Iefke Van Belkum and Meike De Nooy helped the Dutch stun the U.S., who came into the Olympics ranked No. 1.

Van Belkum played the entire game and scored one goal on six shots. She added two steals and one block. De Nooy was the reserve goalkeeper for the Netherlands.

Van Belkum was one of two Dutch players to play all 102 minutes in the three games during the final rounds. She finished with six goals on 22 shots.

Van Belkum led the final rounds in extra player shots, scoring three goals and finished second overall scoring six goals.

TAE KWON DO

Honolulu’s Jason loses opening match

Honolulu's Anju Jason, representing the Marshall Islands, lost his opening-round match today in Beijing.

Jason fell to Aaron Cook of Great Britain 7-0 in the 80kg division. Jason did score in the second period on a defensive kick to close to 6-1 but had his point taken away on gam-jeom (deduction penalty).

It was the inaugural Olympics for the Marshall Islands, which sent a contingent of five athletes. Swimming for the Marshalls in the 100-meter back was Damien graduate Jared Heine, who was third in his heat (58.86), last week, 43rd overall.

MEDIA

NBC not letting go of Phelps

NEW YORK » Trying to keep the Michael Phelps glow, NBC has agreed to televise next year's World Swimming Championships from Rome, along with the 2009, 2010 and 2011 national championships.

The deal, announced yesterday, is NBC's latest attempt to ride the wake of the Olympic golden boy's race to history. In large part because of Phelps' successful attempt to win eight gold medals in Beijing, NBC Universal's Olympic telecasts have been a ratings success.

Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, had told the AP earlier that Phelps would definitely compete in Rome.

"It's like Michael said the other day, 'Debbie (Phelps' mother) wants to go to Rome, I want to go to Rome, that's why we're going,"' he said.

Bowman said that in Rome the swimmer will focus on relays and shorter events, including the 100-meter freestyle and one of the backstroke events.