Hamstring injury could keep Clay out of championships

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) - Olympic decathlon gold medallist Bryan Clay has a hamstring injury that could keep him out of the U.S. and world athletics championships, he said on Wednesday.

"I am going to wake up (on Thursday) and see how it feels," Clay told a news conference on the eve of the U.S. championships, which serve as the American trials for August's world championships in Berlin.

"If I can go, I am going to go," he said. "If I can't, we'll start planning for the rest of the summer, to see if there is something else I can do later in the summer."

Unlike defending world champions, Olympic winners in the cut-throat U.S. championships do not have a wild-card bye into the world championships.

"It's one of the breaks of being part of trying to make the USA team," Clay said. "You have to show up on that day and be ready to go that day."

He said he had injured his left hamstring while working out Tuesday. "It was like a cramp. I stretched a little bit and the leg just started tightening up."

(Reporting by Gene Cherry)