But 7,082 is not 7,200 and Mexico was still a long way off. The second-highest ranked decathlete in the world at that time was the American Bill Toomey, who was in London the following month (he married British Olympic athlete Mary Rand in 1969) and was persuaded to enter the AAA Decathlon Championship as a guest. Toomey, who had previously run 10.3s, was expected to leave Gabbett in arrears in the first event, particularly after the American got a "flying start", but Gabbett made up the handicap to share a time of 10.8s, (equalling his best). He came close to his best in the long jump, "slumped" in the shot (his weakest event), equalled his best (1.83m) in the high jump and in the chilly and damp evening of day one he held Toomey – whose best was 2 seconds better than Gabbett's – to half a yard in the 400m to record a personal best 48.5s. The first day brought 3,872 points (compared to 3,901 in his 7,082). Day two was warm and sunny and Gabbett kicked off with a best hurdles of 15.6s, "disappointed" in the discus but set a new personal best in the pole vault, "whipped out" another personal best in the javelin leaving him a target of 4:26.8 or better in the 1500 metres. Trevor Newey repeated his pacemaking from the previous month leading them through 400m in 69.6s with Gabbett on his shoulder. The 800m was passed in 2:21.4 and Gabbett took the lead at the bell. They passed 1200m in 3:33.6 and with just 200 metres to go Toomey "flashed" by in an attempt to make the 4:19.1 he needed for 8,000 points. Gabbett was not content to concede the lead and struck back in the home straight to win in a new personal best 4:20.2 having run the last lap in 64s. Toomey placed first with 7,985 points. As he was only a guest he could not be crowned the champion so Gabbett retained his AAA title, set a new AAA national record and got his Olympic qualifying mark (10.8 7.35 11.78 1.83 48.7 15.7 35.91 3.40 42.91 4:25.2) with 7,247 points. Clive Longe was selected along with Gabbett for the decathlon at the Mexico Olympics, but they didn't fly out together. James Coote said that for Gabbett, "...this was a disastrous Olympics. First he missed the plane which should have taken him out to Mexico, and then, when long jumping out on the village training track, he managed to pull a hamstring muscle. It improved to the extent that he actually entered but the muscle went again just before the start and he was forced to withdraw, leaving Longe to suffer on his own."Coote, James; Olympic Report 1968 p52
