Decathlon

U.S. decathlete Bryan Clay was walking slowly next to the Olympic Stadium track on a victory lap, and he reached the top of the homestretch just about the time Usain Bolt did while finishing the third leg of Jamaica's 400-meter relay Friday night. The man who had just earned the title of world's greatest athlete saw the sprinter who has become the world's fastest man speeding to his third OIympic gold medal, each in world-record time. "It was unbelievable," Clay said. With former 100-meter world-record holder Asafa Powell on anchor, the Jamaicans clocked 37.10 seconds, blowing away the record of 37.40 that had stood since a U.S. relay team anchored by Carl Lewis set it at the 1992 Olympics.

Academic Decathlon teams from Los Angeles have won the state competition and, in a first, taken both first and second place at the national competition. Now, the season ends with one more distinction for L.A. Unified: Franklin High School has won a national online competition. District officials said Tuesday that Franklin scored 38,184 points out of a possible 48,000 in the virtual battle of wits, in which students were tested in such subjects as math, science and literature. It's the third year that L.A. Unified schools have swept the state, national and online competitions, the district said.

LONDON - Ashton Eaton became America's newest decathlon champion, winning three events while scoring 8,869 points to finish ahead of teammate Trey Hardee. Eaton won the 100-meter dash, the long jump and the 400. He was asked if he was the greatest athlete in the world, seeing how Jamaica sprinter Usain Bolt  proclaimed himself the carrier of that title earlier in the evening. “Usain is clearly awesome in his own right,” Eaton said of the two-time 100 and 200 sprint champion.

Granada Hills Charter High School won its third consecutive national title in Academic Decathlon on Saturday, beating out about 50 other teams - including its closest competitor, another team from Los Angeles Unified. The team of nine students scored 54,652 points out of a possible 66,000, in the rigorous 10-subject battle of wits in which students are tested in such subjects as math, science, literature and art, as well as give speeches and are interviewed by judges, district officials said.  Another L.A. Unified team - El Camino Real Charter High School, a six-time national winner looking to reclaim the top prize - came in second.

- For two days, the U.S. Olympic track and field trials has been an ironic dry run for the London Summer Games, where the weather could be iffy. Wet. Unseasonably cold. Intermittent flashes of brightness, both in the sky and on the track. And no one shone brighter during those two days than decathlete Ashton Eaton. The conditions were perfect Saturday when Eaton completed the most stunning performance in the 100 years since the decathlon made its Olympic debut at the Stockholm Summer Games and King Gustav V of Sweden said to winner Jim Thorpe, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.

Re "Taft High Wins State Academic Decathlon," March 20 What a thrill it was to see a photo of most of the winning academic decathlon winners. We need to be happy and proud that we live in a country that encourages students who are a rainbow of diversity to excel. Congratulations to all of the participants and their teachers. ROBBIN CLOSE Sherman Oaks

LONDON -- Ashton Eaton, who set a world record of 9,039 points at the U.S. Olympic trials and established himself as a medal contender at the London Games, took the lead after the first three phases of the decathlon competition Wednesday morning at Olympic Stadium. Eaton, of Portland, Ore., posted the top 100-meter dash time, 10.35 seconds, and the top long jump mark of 26 feet, 4 1/4 inches. His shotput mark of 48-1 1/4 ranked 11th. Overall, he had 2,848 points. Olympic trials runner-up Trey Hardee of Birmingham, Ala., ranked second with 2,743 points.

Milt Campbell, a versatile athlete who became the first African American to win a gold medal in the Olympic decathlon, besting then-world record holder Rafer Johnson at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games, has died. He was 78. Campbell, who went on to play professional football before spending the rest of his career as a motivational speaker, died Friday at his home in Gainesville, Ga., his family said. He had been battling cancer and diabetes. A three-sport standout in football, swimming and track at Plainfield High School in New Jersey, Campbell had already established himself as a world-class high hurdler when he arrived in Los Angeles for the 1952 U.S. Olympic track and field trials at the Coliseum.

LONDON - The YouTube footage is humorous, the inexperienced subject half-somersaulting, half-back-flipping over a relatively low bar into the pole-vault pit with accompanying laughter from onlookers five years ago. Little did the videographer know he was shooting a future Olympic champion. Ashton Eaton was a college freshman at the time, no clue his future held a trip to London, not to mention the gold medal he won Thursday in the decathlon on a warm, memorable night at Olympic Stadium.

Forty years ago today, a young man from a Central California farm town walked into a leftover World War II barracks 10 miles outside of London. It was after midnight. It was dark and quiet inside, and he was careful to close the door softly. He could hear his fellow American athletes snoring softly in their narrow beds. He undressed quietly and slipped into bed. He blinked a few times, stared at the ceiling, and tried to comprehend what he'd just done. But he couldn't. He was too exhausted.

They were tired and worn from months of preparation and two days of intense competition, but when they returned home to Los Angeles on Saturday they were also thrilled. For the third year in a row, Granada Hills Charter High School's Academic Decathlon team came home with a national victory. "To see it pay off in this way," senior Faria Ghouri said, "it's amazing. " The team was the first in more than two decades to pull off three consecutive wins - a Texas high school in the 1980s was the last to do so. The team of nine students scored 54,652 points out of a possible 66,000 in the rigorous 10-subject battle of wits, according to district officials.

Over the years, it wasn't unusual to see a Southern California school dominate the Academic Decathlon national competition. After California teams took 19 national titles since 1982 - including the last 10 in a row - it was almost expected. But this year comes with a twist: The closest competition for Granada Hills Charter High School - California's first-place team - is another school from Los Angeles Unified. A change in the rules in the rigorous 10-subject event has allowed more than one team from each state to compete at the nationals, creating a freeway series between two of the strongest teams vying to bring the title back to Los Angeles once again.

For the former Marine base long envisioned as a sprawling metropolitan park, Irvine officials say they're hopeful one upcoming event could help the Great Park live up to its name. The Solar Decathlon, a nationwide competition in which college students build environmentally friendly houses, will move in October from a Washington, D.C., greenbelt to the Great Park, drawing hundreds of entrants and even more visitors - filling hotel rooms, creating jobs and, perhaps more important, bringing prestige to the park.

SACRAMENTO - For the first time, two Academic Decathlon teams from California are headed to the national competition, setting the stage for a showdown between former national title winners from Los Angeles Unified. Granada Hills Charter High School, the national winner the last two years, took first place in the state competition held over the weekend in Sacramento, the team's third consecutive win here. El Camino Real, a six-time national winner, came in second. "Nationals is going to be a toss-up," said Cliff Ker, who coordinates decathlon for L.A. Unified.

SACRAMENTO - They stayed late after school and came back on Saturdays and Sundays. They hunkered down in the cramped and messy room that could easily pass as a storage space, covered floor to ceiling with photos, newspaper clippings and plaques to remind themselves of the decathlon success they wanted to maintain. And they pulled it off: El Rancho High School made it to the state competition here this weekend for the fifth year in a row. The Pico Rivera school comes from one of the decathlon's most competitive areas: Combined, the Los Angeles County and L.A. Unified regions have 18 teams.

They won nationals. Then they won it again, setting record scores. And on Friday, the winning streak in the Los Angeles Unified School District's Academic Decathlon continued for Granada Hills Charter High School. The school beat out dozens of Los Angeles campuses in the district-wide competition, it was announced Friday evening at an awards ceremony. In the 10-subject battle of wits, the competitors - from 58 L.A. Unified schools - faced such subjects as math and science, literature, music and art, as well as gave speeches and were interviewed by judges.

There will be pain, quite a lot of it, but Matt Farmer will grit his teeth and complete the decathlon anyway. The bone spur in his left ankle has kept him from jumping for five weeks, but Farmer won't let it stop him this weekend in the Big West Conference Championships at UC Irvine. "I'm going to finish," Farmer said. "For sure." It is not so much defending his Big West title that drives him, but qualifying for the NCAA championships. Last year, Farmer's best point total was 7,322.

Accompanied by thunder and lightning, two athletes completed a two-day struggle for a gold medal that is as well remembered for the athletes' unique relationship as it is for their magnificent struggle. It was the decathlon at the Rome Olympics, Sept. 5-6, 1960. Thirty years ago today. Two athletes, two countries . . . but the same university, the same coach. Rafer Johnson, a UCLA graduate, was the heavy favorite. He was 25 and just off a world record-breaking performance at the U.S.

A triumphal march blared and the crowd roared Saturday afternoon as hundreds of competitors filed into the massive gymnasium at the Roybal Learning Center. The high school students were pumped - some teams danced a little to get warmed up, and at least one team had their school mascot there to root them on - and they were prepared, having spent months training for this moment. Some of the students carried themselves with the intensity of gladiators stepping into the ring. The challenge before them was a purely intellectual one, but it was still daunting: The last leg of Los Angeles Unified's regional Academic Decathlon was about to begin.

Milt Campbell, a versatile athlete who became the first African American to win a gold medal in the Olympic decathlon, besting then-world record holder Rafer Johnson at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games, has died. He was 78. Campbell, who went on to play professional football before spending the rest of his career as a motivational speaker, died Friday at his home in Gainesville, Ga., his family said. He had been battling cancer and diabetes. A three-sport standout in football, swimming and track at Plainfield High School in New Jersey, Campbell had already established himself as a world-class high hurdler when he arrived in Los Angeles for the 1952 U.S. Olympic track and field trials at the Coliseum.