Shelia Burrell won her second national title in the heptathlon and Tom Pappas captured the decathlon title Thursday, wrapping up the two-day competition at the U.S. Championships in Berkeley, Calif.
Burrell, the bronze medalist at last year’s world championships, also won a national title in 1999 and has been a runner-up three times for the national title. She won with 6,299 points.
DeDee Nathan was second with 5,995 points, followed by Kim Schiemenz with 5,840.
In the decathlon, Pappas, who finished fifth at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, won with 8,398 points, followed by Bryan Clay with 8,230 and Phil McMullen with 7,934.
Dan O’Brien, the former Olympic champion and a three-time world champion, was hoping to make his comeback and complete his first decathlon in four years at the championships, but pulled out before the fifth event Wednesday with a sore left foot.
Still, O’Brien participated in the first three events Thursday to test his fitness.Marla Runyan, 33, the legally blind Olympian and defending U.S. champion at 5,000 meters, will make her debut in the marathon when she runs in the Nov. 3 New York Marathon.
