Former University of Akron All-American Clayton Murphy won a bronze medal in the men’s 800 meters at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night.
Murphy, 21, was in the middle of the pack for much of the race before sprinting past Pierre-Ambroise Bosse of France to finish third in a personal-best time of 1:42.93.
David Rudisha of Kenya won gold with a time of 1:42.15, followed by Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria (1:42.61).
Murphy carried an American flag for a triumphant lap after becoming the first U.S. runner to medal in the 800 since Johnny Gray won bronze in 1992.
Another former UA All-American, Shawn Barber, missed on three attempts at 5.65 meters (18 feet, 6.5 inches) and did not earn a medal in the pole vault final.
Murphy ran a then personal-best 1:44.30, the fourth-best qualifying time, in the semifinals on Saturday night.
He earned a spot on the U.S. team by winning the Olympic Trials with a time of 1:44.76 on July 4 and became the first UA athlete to qualify for the Olympics. He was later joined by Barber, who competed for Canada, and women’s pole vaulter Annika Roloff, who competed for Germany.
While at UA, Murphy won the 2016 national championship in the 1,500 meters (3:36.38). He was third in the 800 meters at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
He won the 800-meter title with a time of 1:46.68 at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala.
He also won gold in the 800 meters at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.
Murphy followed that by winning silver in the 800 at the NACAC Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica, then, as the alternate, received a late invitation to the IAAF World Championships in Beijing in August. Murphy reached the semifinals and was the top U.S. finisher.
Barber, who won at the 2015 World Championships with a vault of 5.9 meters in Beijing, is Canada’s first world champion in the men’s pole vault and won the nation’s first gold medal in any event at the world championships since 2003.
While at UA, Barber won the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in 2015 and the indoor in 2014. He became UA’s only three-time national champion.