 "Photo: Kevin Sanders, The Associated Press")
Midway through the two-day, 10-event, full-body gauntlet known as the decathlon, former Longhorn Trey Hardee is halfway to a dream come true.
Having completed the first five events on Sunday, Hardee sits in second place. If Hardee finishes among the top three on Monday, he will earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team and once again be on a Bubba-Thornton-coached team, but this time he will trade burnt-orange for the red, white and blue.
When the decathlon started early Sunday in Eugene, Ore., Hardee, a former NCAA champion and record holder in the decathlon, lined up in the same 100-meter heat with Bryan Clay, the top qualifier heading into the trials, and Tom Pappas, a two-time Olympian and 2003 World Champion. Hardee would know quickly where he stood among America's best.
The 100-meter race, and the standings after day one of the decathlon, were the same - favorite Bryan Clay, silver medalist at the Athens games, finished first; Hardee was just behind. Hardee's 10.43-second time in the 100-meters was only four hundredths slower than Clay; Hardee's 4,454 points after the first five events trailed Clay's total by 22 points. Hardee's total put him 49 points ahead of third-place Pappas, and more than 200 points in front of fourth place.
Starting the trials off strongly, Hardee followed up his second place finish in the 100-meters with another second place in the long jump, jumping 7.75 meters. Hardee finished in the top 10 in every event Sunday, placing ninth in the shot put and sixth in the high jump, and he finished the first half of the grueling two-day event with a fourth-place finish in the 400-meters, running 47.99 seconds.
There is no place Hardee would rather be. The former Longhorn has been looking forward to the Olympic trials for months. Hardee, who missed a season of competition last year after fighting numerous injuries, just recently returned to the track. In April, at the Texas Relays, Hardee competed in his first decathlon in more than a year - his first-place finish in what he called his "pre-olympics Olympics" earned him a spot at qualifying for the Beijing games.
On Monday, Hardee will have the chance to complete not only in the decathlon, but in the battle he has been fighting for more than a year - a battle that saw the former Texas standout fall from the top of his sport.
Five events stand between Hardee and his year-long battle back to the top of his sport.
Hernandez just misses finals
Jacob Hernandez, winner of the NCAA Championship in the 800-meters earlier this month, failed to qualify for the finals in that event, ending his bid to join his Longhorn coach Bubba Thornton on the U.S. Olympic team.
On Saturday, Hernandez finished fifth in his semifinal heat, running a 1:46.16 half mile - a time that left him 14-hundredths of a second away from claiming the final spot in the final - a time that, had he run in the first semifinal, would have qualified him for the finals.
"Fractions of a second is what it's all about, and unfortunately, I came up a little short," Hernandez said.
Hernandez's time would have placed him second in the other semifinal heat, earning him a spot in Monday's 800-meter final.
Today you can catch highlights of the day's events, including Trey Hardee's final five events in his bid to make the U.S. Olympic team, on USA Network from 10 p.m. to midnight.
Be the first to comment on this article!