Quick hello from Eugene!

Greetings!

paulmerca.blogspot.com is now here in Eugene for the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships!

Some quick news here at the track: Olympic champion Bryan Clay is unable to go in the decathlon, as he tweaked his left hamstring in Tuesday's practice.

"I hurt my leg a little less than 48 hours ago," said Clay. "I had two little pops in my (left) hamstring. It didn't feel like anything too serious. I got back on the runway and tried to do another stride and I realized it was a little worse than I thought. We've been doing as much as we can the last two days. I've been in hyperbaric chambers, I've been getting acupuncture, massage, I've been taking ibuprofen, and doing everything we could do to get my leg felling better, but it's still feeling pretty bad."

Although Clay will not be eligible to compete at the 2009 World Outdoor Championships this summer in Berlin, Germany, he has his sights set on other goals. "After I sulk for a little bit, my coaches and I will get together and figure out what I'm going to do for the rest of the year," he said.

"We have our ultimate goal of coming out in the next three years and going after the world indoor record, the world outdoor record, and then of course, making another Olympic team. My goal is to be the only American to ever win three (decathlon) medals at three Olympics, so we're starting to look forward at this point."

En route to the track, we were also informed that seven-time world cross country champion Paul Tergat of Kenya has withdrawn from Saturday's Rock n Roll Seattle Half-Marathon.

"Paul was out jogging the morning before his flight and felt some pain in his lower back. With the length of the flight from Nairobi to Seattle, and the race itself, he decided it was best to pull out," said Matthew Turnbull, the Elite Athlete Coordinator for the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series. "It's a blow to lose any athlete so close to a race. Everyone associated with Rock 'n' Roll Seattle was looking forward to welcoming Paul to the inaugural event in what is going to be an exciting and long standing relationship here in the Pacific Northwest."

Meanwhile, hope you follow our tweets through our Twitter page (twitter.com/paulmerca70601) during today's competition. There's also a Twitter feed on the right hand side of this blog.

We'll post after each day's competition.

Don't forget that you can watch streaming video of the meet through our media partner, Flotrack.org.