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August 23, 2004 6:41 pm

Pappas behind in bid for decathlon

By ELLIOTT DENMAN

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - World decathlon champion Tom Pappas' bid to add the Olympic gold medal to his array of major honors is in trouble.

The 27-year-old University of Tennessee grad, who scored 8,750 points to take top honors at the 2003 Worlds in Paris, ran into roadblock after roadblock Monday at Olympic Stadium.

His opening-day performances of 10.80 seconds in the 100-meter dash, 24 feet, 2 1/4 inches in the long jump, 53 feet, 1/4-inch in the shot put, and 6 feet, 8 inches in the high jump were not up to par, before he began showing more familiar form with a 47.97 400 meters.

All that added to a 4,415-point score and ranked him fifth in the 39-man field with everything now on the line in Tuesday's concluding 110-meter high hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1,500-meter run.Pappas was hard-pressed to explain his situation.

``Obviously, my marks have me disappointed,'' he said. ``The last two weeks of training, I've been in the best shape of my life. But that's the way it goes sometimes.

``It's hard to put together. For some reason, I've been struggling, and it's hard to put together an answer.''

With his Greek heritage, Pappas would surely be treated as a conquering hero here if he were to rally and win.

Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Karpov, 23, leads at the midway point with a 4,689-point total, an edge of 95 on the Czech Republic's second-placer, Roman Sebrle.

In turn, Sebrle, the only man ever to break 9,000 points with his world-record score of 9,026 in 2002, has 4,594 thus far, and that's 40 better than U.S. Trials champion Bryan Clay in third place, 141 ahead of fourth-placer Dean Macey of Great Britain, and 179 in front of fifth-place Pappas.Greece's own top entry, Prodromos Korkizoglou, is in 26th place.

In competition that began at 9 a.m. and spread out for another 12 hours, Pappas never looked sharp until the 400.

Typical was Pappas' high jump. A seven-foot-plus leaper in the past, Pappas went 6-8 on second attempt, then missed all three cracks at 6-9.

``Let's just hope for the best tomorrow, keep my head in it, maybe get some some PRs (personal records) and see what happens,'' he said.

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