SLO decathletes in 12th and 14th at Olympic Trials

Posted: Jun 22, 2012 8:23 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Jun 22, 2012 11:01 PM

Six locals advance Friday at Olympic Trials

The two decathletes from San Luis Obispo have some ground to make up Saturday at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials if they want to improve their chances of gong to London. Friday, Corbin Duer and Chris Randolph competed in the first five events of the decathlon.

Duer, a 23 year old Cal Poly graduate, sits in 12th place out of 19 competitors. He was the last athlete accepted into the competition, so he has improved his standing seven spots. Duer's best effort of the day came in the high jump. He finished fifth by clearing 6 feet, 5 inches.

The 28 year old Randolph is in 14th place after five events. He finished 10th at the 2008 Olympic Trials.

Randolph tallied 3,708 points on the day. He started with a time of 11.39 seconds in the 100 meter dash, which earned him 776 points and a 17th place finish. He scored 741 points in the long jump (21-11.5), 681 points in the shot put (43-4.5) and 714 points in the high jump (6-2.75). He finished the day with a bang by winning his heat in the 400 meter dash with a time of 50.40 seconds to win 796 points.

Duer earned 3,797 points on Friday. He came in 9th in the long jump with a mark of 23-2.75, which earned him 833 points. He ran the 100 meter dash in 11.36 seconds (782 points), threw the shot put 41-5 (644 points) and finished the 400 meter dash in 50.96 seconds (771 points).

Ashton Eaton leads after the opening day with 4,728 points. He set two world decathlon records to open the competition with a 100 meter dash time of 10.21 seconds and a mark of 27 feet in the long jump.

The final five events are on Saturday. The sequence of events will be the 110 meter hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1,500 meter run.

The top three finishers, who have met the Olympic A Standard of 8,200 points, make the US Olympic Team and will compete in the London Olympics.