Clay begins his quest for gold

Appeal Staff Report

Bryan Clay will begin his quest to become the world's greatest athlete when the decathlon begins tonight in the Olympics in Beijing.

The decathlon will begin at 6:20 p.m. today with the 100 meters and continue at 7:30 p.m. with the long jump. The decathlon will conclude on Friday morning with the last event, the 1,500 meters, scheduled for 6:40 a.m.

Clay's coach, Kevin Reid, a 1983 Carson High graduate, said his athlete is as ready as he's going to be.

"Everything's going well," said Reid from China. "The past two weeks have been great. He is at the best he can be, I believe.

"He's ready to be at his best. He's completely ready to go and ready to better where he was at at the trials."

If that's the case and based on what's been done this year, Clay will be tough to beat. He set a U.S. Olympic Trials record in June at Eugene, Ore., when he scored 8,832 points.

While Reid stopped short of predicting gold for Clay, he did say if Clay exceeds what he scored at the Olympic Trials, "he'll be difficult to beat. The outcome should take care of itself."