Pappas returns to U.S. track limelight

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.newsreview.info/article/2006 ... /106300097

Pappas returns to U.S. track limelight

TOM EGGERS
June 30, 2006

He's back.

Tom Pappas is the United States outdoor decathlon champion for the fourth time.

The Azalea native, a 1994 graduate of Glendale High, won the 10-event competition in the U.S. track and field championships last weekend in Indianapolis.

Pappas, who turns 30 on Sept. 6, hadn't completed a decathlon since the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. He'd been idle from competition after dropping out of the decathlon on the second day with a foot injury at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

The 6-foot-5, 210-pounder had surgeries on his shoulder and knee in 2005.

Pappas, representing Nike, scored 8,319 points -- well below his personal best of 8,784 set in the U.S. outdoor championships in 2003. Ryan Harlan (7,872) finished second and Robert Arnold (7,827) third.

Pre-meet favorite Bryan Clay, the silver medalist at Athens, didn't finish the competition after no-heighting in the pole vault.

"I'm excited ... it's been so long since I've competed," Pappas said Thursday as he was driving home to Knoxville, Tenn.

"My biggest goal was just to finish, and to win is a bonus. This (U.S. outdoor) title feels better than any other one because of what I've had to go through with injuries and being the underdog going into this meet."

Pappas had the top marks in the long jump (24 feet, 6 1/4 inches) and shot put (54-2 3/4), and tied for first in the pole vault (16-8 3/4). His other efforts included 10.88 seconds in the 100 meters, 6-5 in the high jump, 48.68 in the 400, 14.32 in the 110 hurdles, 163-4 in the discus, 182-8 in the javelin and 4:59.50 in the 1,500.

"I thought my score would be a little better, but all the decathletes seemed to be struggling," Pappas said. "My high jump, javelin and 1,500 weren't very good, but I was happy with the other seven events."

It was an important step confidence-wise for Pappas, who ranks No. 3 on the all-time U.S. list in the decathlon behind Dan O'Brien (8,891 points in 1991) and Clay (8,820 in 2004) and No. 9 in the world rankings.

"I still felt I was one of the best in the world, but a lot of people thought I was done (after 2004)," he said. "This reassures me I still belong with the best."

Pappas, who finished fifth in the decathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, hopes to make the Olympic team a third time in 2008. Those games are set for Beijing, China.

Pappas had a personal highlight earlier this year. His wife, Kim, gave birth to a daughter, Kinley Elizabeth, on March 8.

[ladyvolspvcoach]

Congratulations, Tom! Good to see you back. It must have been all those golf games that got you there!!!