Track and Field : Feuds Are Proving to Be Very Rewarding

When a track and field athlete sets a world record, it’s noted and then, more often than not, forgotten by all but the sport’s most faithful followers.

But when track athletes make public a feud, it’s a gift to the sport’s promoters that keeps on giving.

Ruth Wysocki’s entry in the 2,000-meter run at the Sunkist Invitational in January was of some interest because it was her first race against Mary Decker Slaney since beating Slaney at 1,500 meters in the Olympic trials.

It became of great interest, generating numerous headlines, only after she made critical remarks about Slaney during a press conference.

Wysocki was called upon in the days afterward to do so many extra interviews that the meet’s promoter, Al Franken, felt obligated to pay her more money than they originally had agreed upon for her appearance fee.

That was only fair since Franken, in part because of Wysocki’s efforts, was able to sell out the meet.

There is no question that Wysocki’s comments about Decker were sincere. She did not make them for the publicity value. In fact, she said she didn’t realize until she read the newspapers the next morning that her comments had publicity value.

But there is a suspicion that other athletes were taking notes.

The latest feud is between Valerie Brisco-Hooks and Diane Dixon, who recently were running hand-in-hand around the track at the Meadowlands after a race, but since have decided they are enemies. For a while here last week, there were daily stories about their feud.

Dixon later admitted she barely knows Brisco-Hooks and couldn’t understand why the winner of three Olympic gold medals felt the need to put her down.

Asked to explain, Brisco-Hooks said: “It’s not a rivalry. It’s just one of those things to get people to notice the people who are behind you, who are good. Most of the women in this sport have gone too long without much attention.”

Perhaps the most surprising new feud is, according to the New York Times, one between milers John Walker and Steve Scott, close friends for several years.

When Walker reached 99 in his quest to become the first man to run 100 sub-four-minute miles, Scott was at 95. Scott asked Walker to wait for him to catch up so they could run their 100th against one another. When Walker refused, Scott called Walker a coward.

When Walker ran No. 100 two weeks ago in his New Zealand hometown, he said: “Eat your heart out, Steve Scott.”

Scott then repeated his charge against Walker and challenged him to a grudge match in New Zealand in March.

Will they race for the 200 mark?

“Impossible,” said Walker, 33.

“Oh yeah?” said Scott, 28. “Two hundred, that’s a reasonable goal.”

Jimmy Howard was satisfied with his winning high jump of 7 feet 8 inches in the USA-Mobil indoor championships at Madison Square Garden last weekend. It was only half an inch short of the American record he had set a week earlier.

The next morning, he learned that it had been only the second-best jump of the day. In West Berlin, Sweden’s Patrik Sjoberg had set a world record at 7-9 3/4.

A day later, Howard’s jump ranked as only the third-best of the weekend. West Germany’s Dietmar Moegenburg, the Olympic champion, broke Sjoberg’s day-old record with a jump of 7-10 in Cologne, West Germany. That equaled Chinese high jumper Zhu Jianhua’s world outdoor record.

In an interview here last Monday, three days after the indoor championships, Howard said he expects the record to be improved to 7-10 1/2.

“Moegenburg, Sjoberg and Zhu are all capable of going 7-10 1/2 this summer,” Howard said. “I hope I have a chance.”

As for the possibility of an 8-foot jump in the near future, Howard said he believes Moegenburg will be the first to clear it.

“He’s got the perfect high-jumper build--6-8, 175,” Howard said. “Sometimes, I just know he could clear 7-10 1/2 with no problem. I’ve seen him clear 7-6 1/2 by four inches or more. One of these days, he’ll jump 8 feet if he stays healthy.”

Howard said high jumpers have improved dramatically in recent years because of the introduction of legal money to the sport, which has allowed them to compete longer.

“High jumpers used to quit when they were 22 or 23,” said Howard, an engineer in Houston. “Now, many of the best high jumpers are 25 or older.”

Howard, 25, was outstanding last year until the Olympic trials, when he failed to clear a height. But he has emerged as the United States’ best high jumper this indoor season, having cleared 7-7 in six of seven meets.

That despite predictions by Dwight Stones that Howard would be jumping no higher than 7-3 by the end of the indoor season because of his form.

“I’m not sure my form is so bad,” Howard said. “That’s Dwight’s opinion only.”

Pittsburgh’s Roger Kingdom, Olympic champion in the high hurdles, said he feels limited by competing in only one event. His solution is to become a decathlete.

“I like the sound of best athlete in the world,” said Kingdom, 22.

While in high school in Vienna, Ga., Kingdom said he was twice the state discus champion. He said he has high-jumped 7-1, put the shot 50 feet and thrown the javelin 190 feet at Pitt.

“My sprints speak for themselves,” he said.

The challenge, he said, will be overcoming his fear of the pole vault.

Two other Olympic champions who have expressed an interest in the decathlon are triple jumper Al Joyner and Moegenburg.

Track Notes Atlanta’s superstation, WTBS, televised last weekend’s USA-Mobil indoor championships after PBS, which had televised the event last year, decided not to renew its option. Mobil vice president Herb Schmertz said that PBS didn’t want the meet because “we didn’t have any British runners in it.” He said PBS would have been more interested in the meet if it was named Masterpiece Track and Field. Alistair Cooke could narrate. . . . Before going into the booth as a color analyst for the meet, Edwin Moses took a lesson from Marty Glickman. A former basketball player and 1936 Olympic track athlete, Glickman coaches NBC’s sports announcers.

Another color analyst for the indoor championships was Frank Litsky of the New York Times. He said that Valerie Brisco-Hooks’ world-record performance in the 220-yard dash was “as well run a race as I’ve ever seen indoors.” Brisco-Hooks said she had used the advice on running curves given her two days earlier by Eamonn Coghlan. “He said to lean into the curve until I think I’m going to fall,” she said. Coghlan is known as the Chairman of the Boards because of his success indoors.

Coghlan had won 16 straight indoor races before the loss in the three-mile at the indoor championships. Despite the loss, he still calls himself a three-miler. He said the reason he runs the mile so often indoors is because promoters pay him considerably more to compete at that distance. . . . The 1985 NCAA indoor championships in Syracuse may be the last. The NCAA has recommended that the meet be dropped because of the expense.

Brisco-Hooks appeared on “The Night of 100 Stars” at Radio City Music Hall and was introduced as “Valerie Bristol-Hooks.” Even though she won three gold medals, her performance in the Olympics was devalued because of her inability to beat Czechoslovakia’s Jarmila Kratochvilova and East Germany’s Marita Koch in Europe after the Games. But as Brisco-Hooks explained to Newsday’s Dave Rosner: “My whole ’84 was geared around the Olympics. Even though I was tired and I knew the East Europeans were gunning for us I wanted to go to Europe for fun. I went there more to shop. I shopped every day and I ran every other day.”

Brisco-Hooks plans to concentrate this summer on the 100 because the 200 and 400 are not official events until next year on the Mobil Grand Prix circuit, a series of 16 meets beginning May 25 at San Jose and ending with the championships Sept. 7 in Rome. . . . “The only events for me this summer are the 100 and the 800, and I’m not running the 800,” she said.

Mike Conley, who became only the third person to win both the long jump and the triple jump in the indoor championships, plans to use his final year of college eligibility at Arkansas in 1985-86 to play basketball. He played basketball for the Razorbacks for half a season when he was a freshman. . . . Conley, second in the triple jump at the Olympics after being upset by Al Joyner, wore sparkling silver shoes in the indoor championships. “I’m proud of my silver medal, and I wanted to show it,” he said. “I was picked to win the gold medal, and when I didn’t, everybody consoled me. Hey, I was so happy to win the silver that I had these shoes made special. No one remembers who gets second. So I had to remind them.”

Six months after giving birth to her first child, Coleen Summer returned to competition with a victory over favored Debbie Brill in the high jump at the indoor championships. Summer was considered a favorite to make the U.S. Olympic team before she became pregnant.

The Pathmark National Scholastic Classic, considered the national high school indoor championships, features sprinters Henry Thomas from Hawthorne High School and Dallas Roosevelt’s Roy Martin, fourth in the Olympic trials 200.