LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ Gunnar Nixon took the first-day lead in the decathlon Tuesday at the IAAF World Junior Championships at Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain.
Nixon, a two-time All-American for the Razorbacks as a freshman, scored 4,164 points in the first five events. He has a 10-point lead over Tim Dekker of the Netherlands going into the second day of competition.
Nixon, 19, won the U.S. Junior title with 7,660 points earlier this summer. He is 102 points ahead of the pace he set when he won the U.S. title.
“Looking forward to [today], sitting in first,” Nixon told USA Track and Field. “I just want to maximize my point differential in each event, go out there and have fun.”
Nixon began slowly in the decathlon, finishing 12th in the 100 meters with a time of 11.23 seconds. He moved into seventh after the long jump and the shot put, where he had a personal-best effort of 47 feet, 81/2 inches.
Nixon won the high jump competition by clearing 6-10 3/4 to move into third place overall. He ran 49.13 in the 400 to finish the day in the first place in the overall standings.
“I feel pretty good,” said Nixon, noting that the high jump is his best event and it was important that he do well in it. “Day 1, nothing big happened and nothing bad happened. It was all even keel. Everything went smooth but nothing spectacular.”
Nixon set the junior world record in the indoor heptathlon when he scored 6,022 points at the Razorback Invitational on Jan. 28 at the Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.
Stefan Fennell and Jarrion Lawson, who will be freshmen at Arkansas next year, advanced in their events Tuesday.
Fennell, a hurdler from Jamaica, ran the 110 hurdles in 13.81 to advance to the semifinals, which will be held today. He advanced with the 10th-best quarterfinal time.
Lawson, of Liberty-Eylau, Texas, finished sixth in the qualifying round of the long jump with a leap of 24-10 1/2. Lawson will compete in the 12-man final today and is scheduled to compete in the triple jump qualifying round that begins Thursday.
Lawson won both events at the U.S. meet.
Sports, Pages 19 on 07/11/2012