EUGENE, Ore. » The nation’s best decathletes let their performances do all the talking on Friday.

Castle High alum Bryan Clay, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist and the ’04 silver medalist, ended Day 1 at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in third place but was unavailable afterward to talk about the 4,252 points he scored.

At the halfway point, Clay trails leader Ashton Eaton, who set two decathlon event world records on the way to 4,728 points, and Trey Hardee, who is second with 4,406.

Eaton, the crowd favorite at Hayward Field, where he starred for the University of Oregon, gave only a short statement after winning the 400 meters in 46.70 to finish up his day with a big lead.

"What you’re seeing is a culmination of everyone who supported me. I just do not want to let anyone down," he said.

Hardee didn’t reveal much more than that, noting that "I’m in one piece. I’m not hurt, just a little tired."

This tight-lipped trio might just be too focused on making the Olympic team to spend much time chattering; Eaton, Hardee and Clay are considered the favorites to finish in the top three and represent the U.S. this summer in London.

After his two event world records on Friday, Eaton is on pace not only to top Clay’s 2008 Olympic Trials record of 8,832 points, but Roman Sebrle’s world record of 9,026, as well.

It would take a huge Day 2 from someone to knock Eaton off the top in these Trials, but for Clay, getting to London only requires a top-three score.

Through five events, he’s in good shape to get there, with a 168-point lead on fourth-place Gray Horn and a 219-point edge on fifth-place Edward Broadbent. Clay has two of his stronger events on the schedule today, as the decathlon’s final day kicks off with the 110-meter hurdles, followed by the discus, another strength of Clay’s.

However, Clay struggled Friday in the other two events in which he typically excels, finishing sixth in the long jump with a mark of 24-3½, and ending the day with a 14th-place finish in the 400, at 51.21 seconds.

On his third and final attempt in the long jump — the day’s second event — Clay scratched, then limped out of the pit, appearing to be in pain. He came back strong in the next event, however, finishing second in the shot put with a mark of 51 feet, 3½ inches. That was his second runner-up finish of the day, after he opened with a 10.45 in the 100.

Clay was seventh in the high jump with a clearance of 6-5.

The day’s big star was Eaton, who started off with a decathlon world record of 10.21 in the 100, then set a second world record with a 27-0 mark in the long jump. Eaton also won the high jump, with a clearance of 6-83⁄4. Hardee won the shot put with a mark of 51-7.