Day 8 Team USA quotes - Evening session

Men's Decathlon   Bryan Clay (Glendora, Calif.): "I've been telling people that I'm in the best shape of my life. I really am. I've been training incredibly hard. Training's been going really well. You might not be able to tell by some of the results, but when you take into account everything we've had to go through the last two days, I think I did well. I'm very pleased with my score, of course I'm pleased with the medal and the title that comes with the medal. I can't tell you how happy I am to have worked for something for so long, and finally accomplish it, and have my dreams come true. I'm hoping to continue to do this through 2012. I hopefully can get another medal. I don't know if anybody's got three medals at the Olympic Games. That's maybe another goal."   Women's Long Jump Final Britney Reese (University, Miss.): "I'm a little bit upset, but I'm also happy I had the chance to come here. Right after the second jump, I knew it wasn't going to be my day." Grace Upshaw (Los Altos Hills, Calif.): "I was having a hard time with the board. But even those jumps didn't feel really good. I was trying hard to feel as good as I possible could today. It just wasn't there for me. I got a bug right after prelims, so I don't know if that zapped my energy a little bit. I tried to do everything I possibly could to get as healthy as possible, but sometimes your energy is not where it needs to be." Funmi Jimoh (Stafford, Texas):"I did my best, but I didn't get through. I had two jumps that weren't so good and a big scratch. It was a good jump, but over the board. I'm happy I made it that far, but I didn't want it to end like that."   Men's Pole Vault Final Derek Miles (Tea, S.D.): It was a tough day. It was one of those days when I was forcing things. Nothing was clicking and falling into place. Fourth is tough enough, but to just not to be firing on all cylinders is the hard part. I'll wake up tomorrow and start enjoying the experience. It was an off day and unfortunately, it was the wrong day.   Women's 5,000m final Kara Goucher (Portland, Ore.): "I have a lot of work to do. The pace was slow, but they're amazing athletes. I maintained my composure. I know this sounds crazy, but I think I could have won that on the right night. I still have so much improvement left." Shalane Flanagan (Pittsboro, N.C.): "The Ethiopians and Kenyans like to play around with the pace. I just had to deal with it, but my legs were tired and it was hard to change gears and just drop it like that. I tried to ease into every move because I knew that lactic acid was going to kick in if I went too hard. So when they made a move with three laps to go, I couldn't get there fast enough and I think it cost me two or three spots." Jen Rhines (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.): "There was nothing I could do out there. I hurt my foot on Tuesday. I've been getting treatment and our medical staff has been taking great care of me. I couldn't run normally. From the first move, I saw it, but I couldn't go. It's been my goal since the last Olympics to come in and run in a final. I accomplished that. Everything was perfect except for hurting my foot." Women's 4x400m qualifying   Mary Wineberg (Cincinnati, Ohio): "We got the baton around the track safely. There always are good situations that come out of every circle. The important thing tomorrow is to run the best we can and win a gold medal. We missed out on a couple of gold medals. It's up to both the men and women to get the baton around the track." Monique Henderson (Chula Vista, Calif.): "It felt good. I didn't get out as well as I could have, but I finished strong."   Natasha Hastings (Clermont, Fla.): "I felt good. It was a pretty good race. We were pretty even with Jamaica. The goal was to get around the track and get into tomorrow's final. Hopefully we can just get out there tomorrow and be focused. We want to run a good, clean race." "This is my first time on the track in the two-and-a-half weeks I've been here. We had China in our heat, so we had a little extra cheering even though it wasn't really for us. It was a great feeling. I've never been to a track meet of this magnitude, so it's been an awesome experience for me." Sanya Richards (Austin, Texas): "I found out in the last five minutes that I was going to run. At the last minute, our coach called me over and asked if I was ready to go. I said, 'Absolutely.' I didn't want to take chances. I ran conservatively and made sure we qualified."   Men's 4x400m qualifying   David Neville (Los Angeles): "I was put on the leadoff leg. I knew that I had a job, which was to get the stick around and put us in a good position to qualify for the final. I was able to come out and do my job in the 400. Now I have the relay and I was just coming out to have fun. I don't have as much pressure as for an individual medal. I have teammates and we all come together and we're here to do our best and take home the gold." Reggie Witherspoon (Baltimore, Md.): "Our main focus was to take care of the baton. We can't hang our heads. Our coach said to run safely and easily and get to the next round. I never had run in front of a crowd this big. Everyone ran comfortably. The goal was to get to the next round." Kerron Clement (Los Angeles): "It went really well. I was very relaxed. We focused on good, safe baton passes today. We want to redeem ourselves." Angelo Taylor (Decatur, Ga.): "I felt all right. I knew that once they got the lead, I didn't have to run hard. I was just trying to shake off the 400m hurdle final. I just wanted to run smoothly and qualify. Our goal was to qualify. It wasn't to finish in front. These guys did a wonderful job putting us out there. We made safe baton passes."

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