Former University of Akron All-American Clayton Murphy won a bronze medal in the men’s 800 meters at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night.
Murphy, 21, was in the middle of the pack for much of the race before sprinting past Pierre-Ambroise Bosse of France to finish third in a personal-best time of 1:42.93.
“It’s hard not to be happy,” Murphy said in a news release. “I didn’t go into the race caring about time; I was racing the people. I told my coach that I didn’t care what I went out in. I was going to go out there and I got to the rail early like I wanted to, stayed there and kept hanging there. I was just racing the people.
“When I came around the corner, I saw three guys in front of me. I kept wanting to push. At that point, I knew I was top five and that was exciting. I kept turning over and turning over and my legs were there. When I saw I could get bronze, I just kept pushing. I wasn’t sure if I could get silver or not, but I was super excited to have that little last gear the last 50 meters.”
David Rudisha of Kenya won gold with a time of 1:42.15, followed by Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria (1:42.61).
Murphy carried an American flag for a triumphant lap after becoming the first U.S. runner to medal in the 800 since Johnny Gray won bronze in 1992.
Murphy became the third-fastest American ever. Johnny Gray owns the top-three times of 1:42.60 (Aug. 28, 1985), 1:42.65 (Aug. 17, 1988) and 1:42.80 (June 24, 1992) in American history, followed by Duane Solomon, 1:42.82 (Aug. 9, 2012) and Murphy.
“Absolutely superb performance,” said Murphy’s coach and UA distance coach Lee LaBadie in the release. “He was focused and executed his race plan. I’m so thrilled and proud of Clayton.”
“How sweet it was for Clayton,” UAkron coach Dennis Mitchell said. “That classic kick came through again. It looked like he was way out of the medals around the last turn. Then, there goes Clayton again. What a crazy time he ran as well. He is the classic example that you “never give up” and you go all the way hard through the finish line. What a sweet moment for the Zips. Akron now has a world champion and an Olympic medalist, who would have thought of that two years ago?”
Another former UA All-American, Shawn Barber, missed on three attempts at 5.65 meters (18 feet, 6.5 inches) and finished 10th in the pole vault final.
The start of the final was delayed more than an hour by rain. The event was also plagued by a delay due to issues with the motorized mechanism that automatically raises the bar to the selected height.
Barber missed the opening height of 18-feet, one half inch (5.50 meters) on his initial jump of the evening, but was successful on his second attempt.
Barber missed on all three attempts at 5.65 meters.
Thiago Braz da Silva of Brazil won the gold medal with an Olympic record jump of 19-9¼ (6.03m). Renaud Lavillenie of France and Sam Kendricks of the United States took the silver and bronze medals with marks of 19-7½ (5.98m) and 19-2¼ (5.85m), respectively.
“It’s just a matter of trying to get everything to line up on the right jump at the right time and I just couldn’t find that rhythm today,” Barber said. “You saw a lot of great athletes out there that didn’t make the bars they were hoping to. I tried a couple things, they didn’t pan out the way I wanted them to and that’s how it goes. You get three attempts and you try to make it work in those three.”
Mitchell said it has been a “hard, long, tough year” for Barber.
“Lots of little adversity,” Mitchell said in a news release. “He looked good early in the warm-ups. However, we just could not get on that last pole. It kicked him hard. We just have to regroup and be ready to defend his world title at next year’s world championship in London.”
Murphy ran a then personal-best 1:44.30, the fourth-best qualifying time, in the semifinals on Saturday night.
He earned a spot on the U.S. team by winning the Olympic Trials with a time of 1:44.76 on July 4 and became the first UA athlete to qualify for the Olympics. He was later joined by Barber, who competed for Canada, and women’s pole vaulter Annika Roloff, who competed for Germany.
While at UA, Murphy won the 2016 national championship in the 1,500 meters (3:36.38). He was third in the 800 meters at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
He won the 800-meter title with a time of 1:46.68 at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala.
He also won gold in the 800 meters at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.
Murphy followed that by winning silver in the 800 at the NACAC Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica, then, as the alternate, received a late invitation to the IAAF World Championships in Beijing in August. Murphy reached the semifinals and was the top U.S. finisher.
Barber, who won at the 2015 World Championships with a vault of 5.9 meters in Beijing, is Canada’s first world champion in the men’s pole vault and won the nation’s first gold medal in any event at the world championships since 2003.
While at UA, Barber won the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in 2015 and the indoor in 2014. He became UA’s only three-time national champion.