21-year-old Clayton Murphy of New Madison in Darke County ran the 800 meter race in one minute, 42.93 seconds Monday night.
Advertisement
The New Paris, Ohio, native set a personal best of 1:42.93 for bronze. Taking silver was Algeria’s Taoufik Makhloufi, who finished the race in 1:42.61, with American Clayton Murphy taking bronze with a time of 1:42.93.
Clayton Murphy overtook France’s Pierre-Ambroise Bosse on his way to a long-awaited podium finish for Team USA, earning the first medal in the 800 for the US since Johnny Gray in 1992.
“King David” won in a time of 1:42.15, the fastest time in the world since he broke the world record in London.
Murphy ran in fifth and sixth place most of the race, then made his move coming off the last turn and passed two runners to get his medal.
Joining Murphy in the medalist race, in addition to Rudisha and Makhloufi, were other racers from Poland, Kenya and France as well as US teammate Boris Berian, who finished in eighth place.
Advertisement
The Kenyan won his second Olympic title in a row on Monday by swerving into the lead just after halfway and using his long strides to kick for home.
