No Decker-Budd Race Because of ‘Loophole’

Zola Budd will run in the Continental Homes 10-kilometer race through the streets of Phoenix March 2, but, to the consternation of the promoters, Mary Decker will not.

Decker, despite a five-year contract to compete in the race, has yet to run a step in Phoenix.

The controversy surrounding Budd’s signing and Decker’s subsequent withdrawal is another chapter in the continuing Budd-Decker story that began last summer at the Los Angeles Olympics.

In one of the most anticipated races of the Games, the women’s 3,000-meter run, Decker tangled legs with the barefoot Budd, regarded as one of Decker’s strongest opponents, and fell. Decker was injured in the spill and could not continue. The South African-born Budd, competing for Britain, ran poorly the rest of the way and finished seventh.

Decker blamed Budd for the incident, touching off a controversy that was revived earlier this week when American runners Ruth Wysocki and Steve Scott publicly criticized Decker for her behavior during the Games. Wysocki also suggested that Decker had pulled out of the Phoenix race to avoid a rematch with Budd.

Dick Brown, Decker’s coach, denies this. “Mary did not leave the Phoenix race because Budd is in it,” he said. “Mary pulled out of that race well before it was known Zola was running. There is some contractual thing that Continental Homes failed to do. I don’t know what it was. Perhaps IMG (the management group that serves as Decker’s agent) used that as a loophole.”

That’s exactly what the people at Continental Homes believe, and they are wondering if Decker ever will run in their race.

According to race director Fred Moore, Decker is in the third year of a five-year contract with Continental Homes. Decker flew to last year’s race only to fire the starter’s pistol. Alberto Salazar has a similar contract, and has run for the last two years.

“There are ethical things at stake in this,” Moore said. “Mary has a contract for five years to run this and she hasn’t run a step. My personal feeling is that she has an obligation to fulfill the contract. She got out of it because of a loophole.”

Tim Westfall, an attorney representing Continental Homes, did not return repeated phone calls Thursday. Efforts to reach IMG’s attorney in London, where he is negotiating another contract for Decker, also were unsuccessful.

Moore and Brown said they do not know what the supposed loophole is, but Moore described it as a clerical error that Continental Homes had sought to correct. According to Moore, when IMG told Continental that Decker was taking advantage of the loophole and had decided not to run, race organizers offered to renegotiate Decker’s contract. Moore said that the new offer was more than double Decker’s previous fee.

Brown emphasized that Decker is not avoiding Budd. He said Decker had been offered $400,000 for a match race in South Africa and $100,000 to race Budd in Portland. He said that when the two do run against one another, it will be in a legitimate meet.

Budd is being paid a six-figure sum to race at Phoenix, and both CBS and ABC are negotiating for the television rights.

Moore said he was surprised when Decker decided not to run this year. He said all indications he had received from Brown were that Decker would run.

“I’ve been on the phone with Dick Brown since September,” Moore said. “He assured me she would run in the race. He had never said that the first two years of the race. He said it was in their plans--barring injury.

“Dick has always been straight with me. Never once did he con me or give me a snow job. The door is not closed from our end. But my feeling is that we’ll never see her again. For some reason, she did not want to run here.”

Brown said that once IMG informed him and Decker that she was not obligated to run in Phoenix, Decker decided to schedule something else.

“It ended up working well for us,” Brown said. “Mary was going to go to England to have another wedding ceremony for Richard’s family. (Decker married British discus thrower Richard Slaney this month in Oregon.) On the way, Mary will run in a road race in Japan.”

That Japanese race, the Ekiden Women’s International road race, is scheduled for Feb. 24. According to a liaison for Nihon Television, the race’s main sponsor and a major Japanese network, Decker and Joan Benoit were in much demand for the race. When Benoit decided not to run, Decker was offered an invitation and a substantial fee.

Contrary to a published report, Brown never suggested to Budd’s representatives that Decker and Budd walk hand-in-hand into the Olympic closing ceremonies, according to one of those representatives.

The report, published in USA Today last fall, said that Brown had suggested that Decker and Budd join hands as a gesture of reconciliation.

In the story, Brown was quoted as saying he had approached Budd’s representatives at the Games to arrange the appearance, hoping to show the world that Decker harbored no malice toward Budd.

But John Bryant of the London Daily Mail, one of three of Budd’s current managers, said he doesn’t remember Brown suggesting any such thing.

“I met with Dick, but I don’t recall that he ever mentioned it to me,” Bryant said. “He came to us with another man, who I believe was a psychologist for Mary’s club, and they talked about going on television together.

“That was the only proposal Dick made. We had some talk about that. But, to be honest with you, Zola just wasn’t ready to do that.

“That was as far as it went. Dick was very cordial, but I don’t know anything about the story he’s telling and what’s been in the papers in the United States.”

Brown apparently told the story to a USA Today reporter, then later told a Times reporter there had been a misunderstanding. Brown told The Times that he and another Athletics West representative had come up with the plan, but figured it wouldn’t work and dropped the idea before presenting it to Decker or Budd.

In a another interview with a Times reporter this week, however, Brown said Decker had known of his suggestion.