Arnold finishes 4th in decathlon at Olympic Trials

<p>After his dream of qualifying for the 2008 Summer Olympics had officially dissolved Monday night, Santa Rosa’s Jake Arnold could take comfort in this: He’d been beaten out by a decathlon dream team.</p><p>On the final day of the decathlon Monday at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., Arnold, 24, finished fourth with 8,130 points, the second-best score of his career.</p><p>Arnold, who began the day in eighth place, will serve as an alternate to the Olympic team, but will not travel to Beijing unless one of the top three qualifiers can’t make the trip due to injury.</p><p>Don’t count on it. Judging by its performance in Eugene, it’s possible that the U.S. decathlon team has never been healthier.</p><p>Bryan Clay, a silver medalist at the 2004 Olympics, won with an Olympics Trials record score of 8,832, the second-best mark in U.S history and the best in the world in four years. Trey Hardee, a former NCAA champion at the University of Texas, was runner-up with 8,534, the eighth-best score in American history. Tom Pappas, the two-time defending U.S. champion, was third with 8,511 points, 296 points above Arnold’s personal-best score.</p><p>The 381-point margin separating Pappas and Arnold was the biggest point differential between a third-place and fourth-place finisher in the decathlon in U.S. Olympics Trials history. The second-largest margin — 216.81 points — occurred in 1932 at Stanford.</p><p>It wasn’t the type of history Arnold planned on making when the trials began Sunday. But he wasn’t leaving Eugene with many regrets.</p><p>“I would have been happier with a higher score,” Arnold said. “But those guys deserve it. It’s probably one of the best teams we’ve ever sent to the Olympics.”</p><p>Said Arnold’s coach, Sheldon Blockburger, “Even if Jake would have had 8,400, it wouldn’t have mattered. Heck, 8,500 wouldn’t have mattered, unfortunately. Fourth was as good as it was going to get.”</p><p>And fourth place was a nice achievement, particularly given Arnold’s physical condition. He tweaked his left hip in the shot put Sunday, an injury that affected him 24 hours later in the pole vault.</p><p>Arnold opened the second day with personal-best decathlon marks in the 110-meter hurdles (14.12) and discus (151-0) to move into sixth place with the pole vault, his best event, coming up.</p><p>But instead of continuing his momentum, Arnold cleared 16-4¾, well short of his personal-best mark of 17-5. Considering the tightness he felt in his hips and his hamstrings, however, he wasn’t too disappointed.</p><p>“Things were a little tight after the shot put,” Arnold said. “But no one can say I’ve ever quit. No matter what, I’m always going to grind it out.” </p><p>Arnold recovered with a solid throw in the javelin (189-9) to move into fifth place, 98 points behind Tennessee’s Jangy Addy, runner-up at the NCAA Championship earlier this month. Arnold then finished by running 4:31.61 in the 1,500 meters — .57 hundredths of a second off his personal-best. Addy finished in 5:05.07 to fall back to sixth and Arnold finished eight points ahead of Oregon’s Ashton Eaton, the defending NCAA champion.</p><p>Next up for Arnold, is several weeks of rest and recovery — he battled hip and groin problems leading up to the trials.</p><p>Arnold plans to continue to make the decathlon his full-time job, with the ultimate goal of making the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.</p><p>He will be 28, considered a prime age for a decathlete.</p><p>Even better news for Arnold? Clay will be 32 and Pappas will be 35.</p><p>“I’m still young in this sport,” Arnold said. “I know I’ve still got a couple things to learn.”</p>