Elton Tucker, Assistant Editor - Sport

Jamaica's Maurice Smith celebrates after a successful throw during the discus throw of the men's decathlon at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

Jamaica's Pan American decathlon gold medallist Maurice Smith will be seeking quick fixes to niggling injuries as he prepares for next month's IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

The 26-year-old national decathlon record holder at 8,349 points, complained during the gruelling 10-discipline, two-day event of problems with his knee and elbow. These injuries hurt his performances in the high jump on the first day and javelin on the second.

"I had a pain in my left knee during high jump and I had to switch sides and leap off my right leg, something which I do not normally do," Smith said at the end of the first five events on Monday.

On Tuesday he confirmed that he was also hampered by another problem.

"I have been struggling with an elbow injury. I have a partial tear in my UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) so I was prepared for that kind of performance (below par) in the javelin," he said.

ELBOW STABILISER

The UCL is the primary elbow stabiliser and plays an important role in most throwing sports including javelin and cricket, as well as racquet sports and ice hockey.

Smith, who went into the final event on Tuesday leading Cuba's Yordan Garcia by just 93 points, said he was not perturbed as he knew what he had to do.

"Actually, everyone always ask me what time do I plan to run in the 1500m but for me I only run a good one when it counts. If it will not really change my score or a record-breaking performance I will just go through the motion but I knew I had to beat one of the Cubans, or if he is going to run faster than me I had to stay within a couple seconds so I did not really have to put a lot of pressure on myself to run any faster than I did."

He placed third in the 1500m in 4:40.12, which was won by Brazil's Carlos Chinin in 4:23.99, with Cuba's Lionel Suarez second in 4:29.32.

With his job successfully completed, Smith will leave here on Sunday to return to the United States where he is based.

"I go back to the U.S.A. on the 29th as I still train in Auburn. Then I will leave in a couple of weeks for the World Championships.

"I will just go back to training and evaluate a few things. I have to work on my weak events. As far as the javelin is concerned there is not much I can do about it right now. I just have to try to stay strong and at least get a decent throw in and stay within reach of winning a medal at the World Championships as that is my goal."

In winning gold at Rio 2007 with 8,278 points, Smith broke the previous mark of 8,170 set by American Chris Huffins at the Winnipeg Games in 1999.

Great satisfaction

The national record holder admitted that Tuesday's win really gave him great satisfaction.

"I am happy with making history. Jamaica has not had a lot of multi-event people over the years. Just myself and Claston Bernard and unfortunately he is out right now. So I am the only one, so I feel good, feel good that I am able to come here, win a gold medal in a record-breaking performance. I am pretty overwhelmed with it."

The 2007 IAAF World Championships will begin on August 25 and end on September 2.

Pan American gold medal performances: 10.83 (100m), 7.27m (long jump), 16.93m (shot put), 1.97m (high jump), 47.99 (400m), 14.06 (110mh), 53.24m (discus), 4.40m (pole vault), 50.23m (javelin), 4:40.12 (1500m)

Personal best performances for each discipline: 10.69, 7.51m, 17.41m, 2.03m, 47.79secs, 13.76secs, 55.49m, 4.70m, 62.07m, 4:29.95.