Dan O'Brien came out blazing today in the Goodwill Games in his bid to break his world decathlon record.
O'Brien won the 110-meter hurdles in 13.81 seconds, smashing the American decathlon record and matching his best ever in open competition. He then threw the discus 157 feet, 10 inches.The performances, worth a total of 1,830 points, gave O'Brien a seven-event total of 6,566 and put him 29 ahead of his record pace in amassing 8,891 two years ago in France. The previous American decathlon hurdles record was 13.91, shared by Bob Coffman and Vernon Heorge.
Today's final three events were the pole vault, javelin and 1,500.
Memories of his 1,500-meter race in the U.S. Championships were haunting O'Brien as he tried for the world record.
O'Brien can't help but remember the embarrassing time of 5:16.42 he ran at Knoxville, Tenn., last month that kept him from breaking the world record.
That pedestrian time was his slowest since high school and left O'Brien with only 8,707 points, not even the best score in the world this year. His No. 1 rival, Eduard Hamalainen of Belarus, owns that distinction with 8,735 points.
Now O'Brien is on record pace at an important stage of the competition for the second time in six weeks, with that 1,500 lurking as the final event.
"If the day is like today, I will be tired when I get to the 1,500," O'Brien said Thursday after compiling 4,736 points in the opening five events, putting him 16 ahead of his pace of two years ago.
"I'm not a distance runner."
O'Brien's first-day total was the second-best legal score ever, behind the 4,738 he had at Knoxville. O'Brien accumulated 4,747 points in the 1991 U.S. Championships in New York, but the mark was negated because there was no wind gauge for the 100 meters.
After the first day, he had a 623-point lead over fellow American Steve Fritz.
He cleared cleared 7 feet, 21/2 inches, matching the American decathlon record set by Jack Hoyt in 1991. That brought O'Brien from 145 points off record pace to 21 back after four events. He then went ahead by winning the 400 in 47.73.