TRACK AND FIELD TAC OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS : County Decathletes Finish Third, Fourth

Orange County decathletes Sheldon Blockburger and Jay Thorson finished third and fourth, respectively, at USA/Mobil Track and Field Championships Wednesday night at Cerritos College.

The top four finishers in the decathlon qualified to represent the United States at the Goodwill Games next month in Seattle, making Blockburger and Thorson understandably ecstatic.

“I’m real happy. It’s the happiest day of my track career,” said Blockburger, 25, a former track and field standout at Newport Harbor High School, Orange Coast College and Louisiana State.

Blockburger, who lives and trains in Eugene, Ore., scored 8,301 points, an impressive improvement over his previous best, 8,248, which he totaled in placing second in this competition last year.

“I got personal records in the pole vault, discus and long jump,” Blockburger said. “I have no complaints about any events.”

Thorson, who competed at Laguna Beach High and Stanford, improved his previous best of 7,946 points by 300 points to finish with 8,246.

Dave Johnson, the defending champion and American-record holder, won with 8,600. Dan O’Brien was second with 8,483.

After Tuesday’s half of the 10-event competition, Blockburger had 4,359 points--tying him for second with Johnson--and Thorson was in sixth place with 4,137.

Blockburger and Thorson were especially impressive considering they have had to deal with setbacks in the past year.

Blockburger, who won the state community college decathlon for Orange Coast in 1985, suffered an adductor strain last year that kept him from training through most of last fall and winter. He started training again in mid-March, but worked only on the basics, such as starts, holding off on the more technical events such as the pole vault.

The lack of practice certainly did not show Wednesday as Blockburger bettered his personal best of 15 feet 9 inches in the event with a leap of 16-0.

Blockburger also had set personal records in the discus (141-10) and long jump (25-9 1/4w), which were contested Tuesday.

Thorson, who has competed in the decathlon for nine years, finally reached the heyday he has been seeking for many years.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Thorson, 27, who lives in Laguna Beach and trains at UC Irvine. “I’ve been training with Daley Thompson (world-record holder and two-time Olympic champion) for two to three months out of the year. Obviously training with someone who’s done those things is inspiring.”

A year ago, Thorson hit a low in his athletic career. After finishing seventh in the U.S. Olympic trials in 1988, he spent most of 1989 living and training in Milan, Italy.

“I trained with a track club there in a stadium built by Napoleon,” Thorson said. “But I trained half-heartedly, just to keep the cobwebs out. I did some modeling for money.”

Thorson returned to the United States seven weeks before The Athletics Congress championships at Houston. He finished ninth with 7,722 points. After the meet he contracted viral meningitis. “I got it from a mosquito bite in Houston,” he said.

Blockburger and Thorson agreed that making the Goodwill Games team was one of the top accomplishments of their career.

“To make the Goodwill team is fantastic,” Thorson said. “I was planning on breaking (8,000 points). In April, I wrote down my goals and I came up with 8,281. That’s what I thought would be feasible. I wrote it down, circled it, dated it and put ‘1990 TAC Nationals,’ by it. And then I put a big ‘YES!’ under it.”