Track : John Brenner Has a Shot at Record : Shotputter Thinks Beyer’s World Mark Will Be Broken

If there was any one event that Americans figured to dominate in the Olympic Games last summer, it was the shotput.

The U.S. was represented by three 70-foot-plus throwers--Dave Laut, Mike Carter and Augie Wolf. Two others, John Brenner, the collegiate record holder at 71-11, and Brian Oldfield, who has the unofficial world record at 75 feet, hadn’t even made the team.

Brenner was fourth in the U.S. trials and Oldfield wasn’t allowed to compete because of the stigma of once having been a professional, even though he had been reinstated as an amateur for domestic meets.

The Americans’ chances in the Olympics were further bolstered by the Eastern Bloc boycott, which removed from the competition East Germany’s Udo Beyer, the world record-holder at 72-10 3/4, and his countryman, Ulf Timmermann. The shotput loomed as a show of strength for the United States.

But Italy’s Alessandro Andrei was the surprise gold medalist, winning with a throw of 69-9. Carter and Laut had to be content with silver and bronze medals.

“The Italian is a very strong competitor,” Brenner said at a track luncheon this week. “The Americans didn’t take him seriously. He wouldn’t practice with the other throwers and he came to win.”

Brenner, who will compete Sunday in the Puma-Mt. San Antonio Relays, says he’s hungry this year.

“I didn’t have a bad year in 1984, but it wasn’t a great ending,” he said.

The former UCLA and Fullerton High School thrower said that Beyer’s record is a weak one and that he believes it will be broken this year.

Brenner has been set back in his training with a hip injury but he thinks that he can throw in the 69- to 70-foot range at Mt. SAC.

He said that most of the other American throwers aren’t in top shape yet, and added that Timmermann, who threw 72-8 indoors, is now taking over for Beyer, the world’s No. 1 ranked shotputter.

Oldfield threw 75 feet as a pro in 1975 and the mark once seemed out of sight, such as Bob Beamon’s 29-2 1/2 in the long jump.

“That’s a tough one,” Brenner said. “But it could be broken this year or next. I was looking for 74 or 75 feet at the end of the year before I was slowed up in my training by the injury.”

Andre Phillips has been locked into an event in which he couldn’t seemingly aspire to be No. 1. He’s a world-class 400-meter intermediate hurdler and Edwin Moses owns the event, having won every race he has entered since 1977.

Phillips said he will continue to challenge Moses, but he’s branching out. He’s now training for the decathlon.

The former UCLA athlete looked sharp last weekend in a meet at Westwood. On a cold day, he established a personal best time of 13.45 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles.

He still plans to compete as an intermediate hurdler but is training diligently under Bob Kersee, UCLA’s women’s coach, for the decathlon.

The U.S. hasn’t had an outstanding decathlete since Bruce Jenner won the gold medal in the 1976 Olympics.

John Crist had the best American mark of 8,130 points last year, 26th on the world list.

“It’s about time that America has another great decathlete,” Phillips said. “That’s one reason why I’m in the event. Also, I always wanted to try it.”

Phillips said his shaky events now are the discus and the pole vault, adding, “It’s hard for me to see myself upside down.”

Asked if he’ll become the world’s No. 1 ranked intermediate hurdler when Mose retires, Phillips laughed and said, “I want to get him before he retires. I’ve been chasing him for a long time.”

The 800 meters had been virtually a stagnant event for Americans until last year. Rick Wohlhuter held the record at 1:43.8 for 10 years.

Then, Earl Jones and Johnny Gray finished in a virtual dead heat in the U.S. Olympic trials, each recording a time of 1:43.74.

Gray then went to Europe after finishing seventh in the Olympics and lowered the U.S. record while chasing Brazil’s Joaquim Cruz. He had four sub-1:44 races in a 10-day period with a best time of 1:42.96.

The former Crenshaw High athlete is still sharp. He set a world indoor 880-yard record of 1:46.9 last February at San Diego. Then, in the Sun Angel meet in Tempe, Ariz., a few weeks ago, he had an 800 relay split of 1:44.3 two hours after he had run a 400-meter leg in 44.93.

“Based on what I did in Arizona, I’ll predict a new American record for me this season,” Gray said.

He also doesn’t rule out the possibility of breaking Sebastian Coe’s world record of 1:41.73. But Cruz, the Olympic champion, may beat him to it. He almost got the record in Cologne, West Germany, last August with a time of 1:41.77.

Gray will try to break his U.S. record May 18 in the Pepsi Invitational at UCLA. Cruz will be in the same meet, but he’ll be running the mile.

Track Notes USC sprinter Darwin Cook was barely beaten at the tape by Calvin Smith in a 100-meter race last Sunday at the El Paso Invitational. Both were caught in a hand-timed 10.1 seconds. . . . USC hammer thrower John Wolitarsky improved his school record to 225-5 in the same meet. He now has a nine-foot improvement on his personal best from 1984. . . . USC and UCLA athletes will be at Mt. SAC while tuning up for their dual meet May 4 at Westwood. . . . Kenya’s Billy Konchellah said he’s aiming for a time of 3:36 in the 1,500 meters at the Mt. SAC meet. Konchellah is a training under Chuck DeBus, the L.A. Track Club coach. He now specializes in the 800. He was fourth in the Olympics while running an uneven pace, 54 seconds for the first lap and 50 seconds for the last 400 meters. Konchellah said he was influenced as a teen-ager by Edwin Moses to leave Kenya and train in the United States. He attended Mission Viejo High and was at San Diego State and Wayland Baptist for a time.