BRYAN CLAY UPDATES: Big lead with two events left

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 of the second and final day, in Beijing today.
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. He was 11th in the event.
Clay, the silver medalist in 2004 at Athens, won the 100 meters and the long jump and was second in the shot put to build an early lead in the first day's morning session.
The 2005 world champion ran the 100 meters through a deluge in 10.44, then long-jumped 7.78 meters. Clay followed with a personal best of 16.27 in the shot.
More quotes from Clay on his first day, from a USATF news release:
"I don't know about scores. I really don't pay attention to scores until we get to about the javelin, then I look to see what I need to do to stay in the position that I'm in."
"I'm coming out tomorrow just trying to compete against the conditions and the competitors. Hopefully I'll be the best one there and be at the top of the podium at the end of the day."
"I think every event in the decathlon is important. You can't win the decathlon without having all ten events. Anytime you have a poor event, that's going to set you back a bit, and every time you have a good event, that'll put you ahead."
"I don't think it was the rain. I think that I was a little fatigued. We started in the rain and mentally and physically, it takes a lot to get through that and I think I did it very well. That made me a little fatigued going into the high jump and the 400."