Brian Clay maintained the lead in the heptathlon after the second event this morning. But the winner of the 60 metres knows that he will have his work cut out if he is to emulate his American compatriot, Tom Pappas, and win the IAAF World Indoor Championships, heptathlon here in Budapest.
Clay, 24, who lives in California, was the third best of the long jumpers this morning, managing just 3cm short of his lifetime best with 7.78m for 1005pts in a competition won by Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Karpov with his second-round 7.97m (1053pts).
Roman Sebrle, from the Czech Republic, the 2004 world leader, showed what a fine competitor he is, getting within one centimetre of Karpov, and notching up 1050pts to move into second place overall on 1943pts, 72pts behind Clay’s 2015pts. Karpov lies third on 1921.
With Erki Nool jumping 7.57 (952pts), the Olympic decathlon champion stays in contention on 1849pts, but the big mover in the long jump was Lev Lobodin. The Russian managed only 7.36 and 900pts, to slip from second to sixth with 1818pts.
The third discipline of the two-day test of all-round ability is the shot put, which is due to start just after noon.
