Times/Kodak Indoor Games : Carl Lewis to Compete in Long Jump Tonight

It was once expected that the long-jump runway would catapult Carl Lewis to a fortune comparable to his fame.

It hasn’t worked out that way, but Lewis will be on the takeoff strip again tonight, headlining the Times/Kodak Indoor Games at the Forum.

This will be his first competitive appearance in Southern California since he won four gold medals in last summer’s Los Angeles Olympics.

Lewis has since traveled an unexpected route, his seemingly programmed persona having failed to generate the endorsement riches that were envisioned for him before the Olympics. Lewis responded recently by saying that the media have portrayed him, inaccurately, as selfish and shallow.

In addition, there was a disagreement with a promoter in West Berlin over his decision not to run there after the Olympics, snide references to his redesigned nose and haircut, and only a minimal number of cautiously orchestrated, non-competitive public appearances.

Otherwise, Lewis rolled on. He competed in five European meets after the Olympics and one in Japan, winning three times at 100 meters, once at 200 and once in the long jump. He has competed twice on the 1985 indoor circuit, winning the long jump at 27 feet 10 3/4 inches in the Millrose Games at New York Jan. 25, and the 60-yard dash in 6.10 seconds at the Dallas Times Herald Meet Feb. 2.

But even in victory Lewis continues to find public acceptance evasive. He passed on his final two jumps at the Millrose Games, citing an injury. The crowd booed, recalling the response of media and fans when Lewis failed to try for Bob Beamon’s world record in the Olympics after having registered what proved to be the winning distance on his first legal jump.

He will compete only in the long jump tonight, then will fly to New Jersey for a Saturday night meet at which he is scheduled to sing the national anthem and run the 60. Lewis has posted 39 straight wins in the long jump. The streak began in 1981 and is only two shy of the event record, set by two-time national champion George Brown in 1950, ’51 and ’52.

Lewis last lost in the long jump Feb. 28, 1981, when Larry Myricks won at the National Indoor Championships. Myricks will try tonight to beat Lewis.

Among other highlights tonight will be an appearance by three of Romania’s Olympic medal winners--Doine Melinte, Fita Lovin and Anisoara Cusmir-Stanciu.

Melinte, who won the women’s 800 meters and finished second in the 1,500, will compete in the 1,000-yard run tonight. Lovin, who won a bronze in the 800, will run in the 1,500. Cusmir-Stanciu, the long-jump gold medalist, will compete in her specialty.

Also competing tonight will be three Soviet athletes who were deprived of Olympic medal bids by their country’s boycott.

Irina Podyalovskaya, who had the world’s best time in the 800 last year, will run against Melinte in the 1,000.

Konstantin Volkov will pole vault. He had the world’s fifth-best vault last year at 19-2, and upset his world record-holding countryman, Sergei Bubka, in the Friendship Games, the Soviet alternative to the Olympics.

Vladimir Granenkov, who won the Friendship Games high jump at 7-7, will be in a strong field of jumpers here. Other strong threats include the Pacific Coast Club’s Jimmy Howard, who set an American indoor record of 7-8 in the Millrose Games, and Sweden’s Patrik Sjoberg, second in the Olympics at 7-7 3/4.

There will be a 60-yard dash duel between Calvin Smith, the world record-holder at 100 meters, and Mel Lattany, who registered the world’s fastest 100 last year. The dash field also includes NCAA indoor champion Rod Richardson, 1984 indoor Grand Prix champion Emmit King, and England’s Donovan Reid and Mike McFarlane, both Olympic 100 finalists.

A showdown of sorts looms in the men’s 1,000 between Don Paige, the indoor world record-holder, and Johnny Gray, U.S. record-holder in the 800.

Also competing will be Valerie Brisco-Hooks in the 500, Greg Foster in the 60-yard high hurdles, and international milers Ray Flynn of Ireland, Pierre Deleze of Switzerland and Jack Buckner of England.

The meet will open with the women’s triple jump at 6. The first running event is set for 7.