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Arnold finishes third in decathlon Santa Rosa native advances to World Championships in Berlin despite unimpressive numbers Eric Branch PRESS DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER Published: Friday, June 26, 2009 Jake Arnold entered the U.S. Track and Field Championships hoping for a breakthrough performance and an invitation to the IAAF World Championships. Well, he’s going to Berlin in August. And he hopes that breakthrough performance travels with him. Arnold, 25, a Santa Rosa native and a two-time NCAA champion at the University of Arizona, finished third in the decathlon Friday in Eugene, Ore., to grab the final spot on the U.S. World team, which will compete in Berlin from August 15-23. But while Arnold realized his goal, his celebration was muted. Arnold finished with 7,984 points, the seventh-best total of his career, and a mark 231 points shy of the personal-best score he posted en route to winning his second NCAA title two years ago. Trey Hardee, a 2008 Olympian, won with 8,261 points and Oregon’s Ashton Eaton, the two-time defending NCAA champion, finished second with 8,075. Chris Randolph (7,766) finished fourth. Bryan Clay, the overwhelming favorite and a gold medalist in Beijing last summer, withdrew prior to competition Thursday with a hamstring injury. “This could have gone a lot better,” said Arnold, an alternate on last year’s Olympic team. “But I competed and got it done and made the world team. You always want to do your best, but sometimes you have to let that go and make sure you do what you need to do.” Arnold’s total was his lowest in his previous four meets, dating back to the MultiStars Meet in Italy 13 months ago. Arnold’s post-college career hasn’t been without its share of highlights. He qualified for Worlds two years ago and he is the two-time U.S. indoor champion. But he is also eager to take the next step, which he hoped would come this week. After battling a series of nagging injuries, he arrived in Eugene fully healthy for the first time in recent memory. He began Thursday auspiciously. He posted a personal-best time in the 100 meters, the first event of the two-day decathlon, but it wasn’t a preview of coming attractions. Instead, he left plenty of points on the board in the high jump Thursday and in the pole vault and javelin Friday. In the high jump, he cleared 6-5, four inches off his personal-best. In the pole vault, his best event, he cleared 15-5, two feet off his top mark. And in the javelin he threw 189-8, nearly 10 feet removed from his personal-record. “He didn’t try to use technique in the high jump, the pole vault and the javelin,” said Sheldon Blockburger, Arnold’s coach. “He just tried to muscle things and you can’t muscle things in track, you have to use some technique. It might have been nerves. Some meets he does well in those events and some meets he doesn’t. This was one of those not-so-good meets ... I didn’t see it coming and he didn’t see it coming.” For his part, Arnold said his performance Friday was affected by tightness in his left hamstring, a malady he’s had in the past. His hamstring was particularly bothersome in the pole vault in which he said he tried to run easy prior to takeoff to avoid aggravating the injury. Still, Arnold moved from fifth place to third with his performance Friday and shaved 206 points off Eaton’s first-day lead over him. “I would have liked to get second and beat Ashton,” Arnold said. “But sometimes your body tells you something different.” Note: Santa Rosa’s Sara Hall, 26, finished 18th in the finals of the 5,000 meters Friday night. Hall finished in 16 minutes, 54.94 seconds. Kara Goucher won in 15:20.94. You can reach Staff Writer Eric Branch at 521-5268 or eric.branch@pressdemocrat.com.
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