BEIJING — After a record-breaking morning session today, Bryan Clay was two events away from winning a decathlon gold medal at the Beijing Summer Olympics.

After the pole vault, the eighth of 10 events, Clay leads with 7,365 points, 316 points ahead of Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus.

The leader after yesterday's five events, Clay expanded his lead today by running the second-fastest time in the 110-meter hurdles and throwing the discus a decathlon Olympic record of 176 feet, 5 1/2 inches. He added to it with a strong showing in the pole vault.

"When he's out there having fun, it's scary for everybody else," said Kevin Reid, one of Clay's four coaches. "That's when he really relaxes and taps into his God-given abilities, which are amazing. That's what he did on that throw. He really put some pressure on the competition. Now we can relax and have some lunch while they've got the pressure on them."

Reid was sitting near the discus pad at Beijing's National Stadium when Clay flung the discus out and over the heads of the three measurement judges stationed in the landing field.

"He was just relieved that it went down the middle," Reid said, "It was a fair throw, and it was a great throw."

In the pole vault, Clay cleared 5.0 meters, equaling a season best, to earn 910 points.

Clay, a Castle High graduate who was the 2005 world outdoor champion and world indoor champion this season, still had to perform well enough in the javelin later today, followed by the 1,500-meter run, to secure gold. The 1,500 meters — the last event — could make for some anxious moments if the contest is close.

"Everyone talks about his 1,500 struggles the past few years, but he's done the training to do what he needs to do in that," Reid said.

After experiencing injury-related disappointment at major meets in 2007, including the world championships, the 28-year-old Clay is putting together one of the best meets of his career in Beijing. He has led since the first event when he won the 100 meters yesterday and followed it by out-jumping the other athletes in the second event, the long jump.

Clay briefly lost momentum in yesterday's high jump when he cleared just 6-6 1/4, significantly below what he was expecting. Nevertheless, he finished the first day in the lead with 4,521 points.