Posted: August 27, 2004

Athletics: Clausen, Dunn place 32nd and 35th in 50 km race walk

ATHENS - Curt Clausen (Chula Vista, Calif.) and Philip Dunn (San Diego, Calif.) finished 32nd and 35th, respectively, in the men's 50 km race walk Friday morning.

The grueling race in the vicinity of Olympic Stadium took place under mostly sunny skies. The heat and sun didn't affect Robert Korzeniowski of Poland, who won in 3 hours, 38 minutes and 46 seconds to nearly break the Olympic record (3:38.29). Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia was second in 3:42:50, and Aleksey Voyevodin of Russia placed third in 3:43:34.

Clausen, who received two warnings at approximately the 20 km mark, was 32nd in 4:11:31 and Dunn was 35th in 4:12:49. Athlete quotes are below.

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ATHLETE QUOTES

Curt Clausen: "I finished strong. I walked the last 5K as fast as the first 5K."

On the warnings: "It threw me off. I had flashbacks to Paris [2003 world championships]. I thought, 'They're not going to let me finish the Olympics.' I backed off a little. It was tough. Physiologically, I was ready. But psychologically, I'm just tired of suffering. I didn't push as hard as I should have. I know I'm capable of it. But I'm really happy to finish the thing. I did my best to upgrade my place in the last 5K. Philip kind of woke me up there."

On his future: "I'm looking forward to changing from full-time athlete to full-time law student. There's a lot of pain in my legs."

Philip Dunn: "It went a lot better than I had hoped for, considering my conditioning. I had a pretty serious knee injury (torn meniscus) and I haven't been regular for about four months. I felt remarkably good on it today. I was able to go faster than I have been able to in training the last few weeks. I started out pretty conservatively."

On the conditions/heat: "It wasn't that bad. It's been a lot worse than other mornings I've been out training."