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Macey needs Dvorak to be out of tune - Thompson
SYDNEY, Sept 16 (AFP) - British decathlon legend and two-time Olympic champion Daley Thompson admits he would love compatriot Dean Macey to emulate his gold-medal winning exploits. But Thompson believes Macey - a shock silver medallist at the Seville World Championships last year - will need the Czech Republic's hot favourite and reigning world champion Tomas Dvorak to have an off day if he is to have any chance of success. The 28-year-old Czech, a bronze medallist in Atlanta, is carrying a knee injury but Thompson believes he is still in the box seat. "All things being equal he (Dvorak) should win," admitted Thompson, of the reigning world record holder, "and whether Dean does get a medal will depend very much on how others perform. "Obviously, I want him to win it and if he does get the gold it would be fantastic. "If Dean can perform as well as he did at the World Championships - and I think he can do better - in competition terms a score like that could win him a medal." In Seville Macey stunned his rivals when arriving almost from obscurity to steal the runner-up spot. Lying third going into the last of the 10 events after two gruelling days of sweat and toil, the 22-year-old produced the fastest 1500 metres time - 4:29.31 - of his fledgling international career. That run led to him standing on the medallist's rostrum alongside Dvorak, who amassed a score of 8744 points to defend the title he won two years previously in Athens. Macey's 8,556 points haul placed him second and, among Britons, only Thompson, with his former world record mark of 8,847 points which won him his second gold medal in Los Angeles 16 years ago, has topped that total. Thompson, also victorious in Moscow in 1980, is with American Bob Mathias one of only two men to win two Olympic Decathlon titles.
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