Aug. 23, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Tiger sophomore and Norwegian Hans Uldal stands in 30th place of 39 competitors after day one in the decathlon at the Olympic Games in Greece. Uldal has 3,762 points and is just under 100 points off of his personal-best, school-record pace. The more telling statistic is that Uldal is the only American collegian in the two-day event. Uldal (ew-doll) started the day with a good 100-meter dash, timing in at 11.23 seconds, just 17 hundredths of a second off his personal-best that he set two weeks ago at the Norwegian Championships. In the long jump, Uldal was 16 inches off his best, leaping at 22 feet, 11¼ inches (6.99m), an average jump for the 21-year old. For the third event, the shot put, Uldal had a fairly good mark, hitting 44 feet, 4¾ inches (13.53m). Uldal was just over six feet in the high jump, another average score for the sophomore. And for the final event of the day, the 400-meter dash, Uldal undoubtedly held his own, clocking in at 50.95 seconds, only 15 hundredths of his personal best. While the goal in the decathlon is to try to achieve a personal best in each event to help drive up the score. It is also good to be consistent. Today Uldal did not achieve any personal bests, but he was consistent, setting himself for a good day two in which he can possibly gain more ground to the top 20 or 25. His score of 3,762 points is also only 60 points from where he was after day one at the NCAA Championships, where he moved from 16th to finish fifth by the end of the second day. Tomorrow's events get underway at 1:00 a.m., central time, with the sixth event, the 110-meter hurdles. NBC will have tape-delay coverage of the decathlon this evening and tomorrow. For more information, including a meet-by-meet narrative for Uldal, visit mutigers.com.