L A T A N Y A : Sheffield Hopes to Make Big Jump to Stardom, but Clearing 400-Meter Hurdles Are Her Immediate Goal

The intermediate hurdles are a 400-meter whirlwind of power and speed, frenzy and abandon.

Running them is a little bit like jumping over park benches in pursuit of a departing bus.

They’re hectic and hyperactive, which makes them synonymous with the personality of San Diego State hurdler Latanya Sheffield.

“The hurdles are like New York,” Sheffield said, “and that’s where I want to go someday. I haven’t taken acting lessons, but I’m a character. I’m fun. I love performing, and I make people smile. That’s my personality.”

If you think the junior hurdler/runner/long jumper is quick on the track, you should listen to her talk. Actually, you should see the charismatic 21-year old talk.

A dance major who hopes to someday appear in a Broadway show, Sheffield waves her hands in all directions, sways from side to side, and even throws in an occasional clap.

It’s almost as if she’s running a race against the interviewer. She’ll beat the pen every time.

“It’s like my body is humming like an engine that’s been tuned up,” Sheffield said. “I feel I have the potential to set a world record, and that nothing can stop me. “

There is just so much Sheffield wants to do, and it appears that she wishes she could do it all in 53.58 seconds. That’s the world record held by Margarita Ponomaryeva of the Soviet Union.

Sheffield’s personal best of 56.02 was set at the 1984 Pepsi track meet at UCLA. She holds the SDSU school mark with a time of 56.59, which she ran in the Sun Devil Classic at Phoenix on April 6.

Going into the Western Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships at UCLA Friday and Saturday, Sheffield’s time of 56.59 is the second best women’s collegiate time in the 400-meter hurdles this year. It easily qualified her for the NCAA championships at Austin, Tex., later this month. Piper Berssant of the University of Florida has the top mark with a time of 56.45.

Though Sheffield suffered a partial tear of the tendons in her left heel when she fell over a hurdle at a recent practice, she expects to run this weekend.

“The only thing that can hold me back (from a record) is falling over hurdles,” Sheffield said. “I’m sort of clumsy.”

That’s one of the primary reasons she feared making the transition from runner to hurdler two years ago.

“There is a nervous part of her that is always afraid she’ll mess up,” said Fred LaPlante, the former SDSU women’s track coach and current USC women’s track coach who was instrumental in turning Sheffield into a hurdler. “But she really doesn’t have to worry. She can will herself to victory. She’s that tough.”

And to think that Sheffield, a sprinter and cheerleader at Pius X High at Downey, had a time of 60 seconds in the 400-meters in high school. She wasn’t even recruited by SDSU. It wasn’t until this year, her fourth at SDSU, that she was even granted a full scholarship.

Now, she’s less than three seconds off the 400-meter hurdle world record.

“Fifty-six seconds is nothing for Latanya right now,” Rhan Sheffield said. “Pretty soon that will change to 55 or 54.”

Sheffield, Latanya’s older brother and closest friend, is her personal coach and the assistant women’s track coach at SDSU.

“I’m tougher on her than on others because I know that she is capable of so much,” Rhan said. “I push her harder than someone I don’t know as well as my sister.”

The two have been extremely close since they raced each other to a Laundromat in Long Beach years ago, and they now share an apartment together in El Cajon.

When Rhan, a former All-American hurdler at San Diego State, seriously injured his ankle three years ago and his running career ended. It was then he dedicated himself to becoming a coach. And Latanya is his prize student.

“When I was younger,” Latanya said, “I remember wanting to do everything he did, but better. Now that’s he’s my coach, sometimes it’s tough. I mean, how do you obey your brother? You just don’t do that.”

Said LaPlante: “Rhan is good at working with Latanya. He’s able to separate the fact that he’s her brother. He treats her as another great athlete.”

And he has helped her to believe in herself.

“I respect him so much because he’s helped me so much,” she said. “Rhan used to say, ‘You can do it,’ and I’d say ‘Can I do it?’ He’s everything to me now. He has a magic about what he’s doing, and he doesn’t even know what he’s doing. But it works. “

That’s a Sheffieldism that would even make Casey Stengel proud.

On the track, the Sheffield team gained a lot of momentum at the Pepsi meet last spring. Latanya redshirted her junior year in order to prepare for international races including the Olympics.

In a field filled with world-class hurdlers, Sheffield won the Pepsi race with a personal best of 56.02.

“At the 10th hurdle,” Rhan said, “you could see this little girl way in front. At that point, Latanya was a world-class hurdler.”

Sheffield: “The feeling I had at that meet was the ultimate. That race proved that what Rhan was saying was true. It proved that I can be No. 1. Before that day, I could never imagine that many people clapping for me, Latanya Sheffield.”

Vaulted into national prominence after her performance in at the Pepsi meet, Sheffield came into the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at the Coliseum very confident.

“At that point she really believed in herself,” LaPlante said. “She was always joking that she was going to be a world champion. She said it in a joking way, but I think that part of her really believed.”

That’s why the events at the trials were so devastating to Sheffield.

On the first day, Sheffield hit the second hurdle, but came back to finished second. Only Judi Brown, who holds the U.S. record of 54.93, finished ahead of her. The top three finishers qualified for the next race. “On the second day, tragedy hit,” Rhan said.

Sheffield, known more for her kick in the final 200 meters than for her start, got off to a blazing start in her second race at the trials. She got to the first hurdle in 5.9, which is roughly four-tenths of a second faster than world record pace.

“She was moving so fast that I knew she was out of control,” Rhan said.

Then came the moment that still makes Sheffield cringe. She slammed into the fourth hurdle and fell.

“But she got right up and took off,” Rhan said. “She caught everyone at the ninth hurdle. By the 10th hurdle, she was too tired. She was so tired she couldn’t even bend at the tape.”

Rhan became winded just telling the story.

Sheffield finished fifth, a hundredth of a second behind Shariffa Barksdale, who qualified for the third and final Olympic spot.

“That race was devastating,” Sheffield said, “and I went through a depression for about two months. I felt real empty. I didn’t realize it meant as much to me until I didn’t make it.”

During her period of depression and lethargy following the trials, Sheffield was not babied by Rhan. She had won a few races in impressive style, but Rhan knew she wasn’t investing the time and effort it would take to be a world-class runner.

Rhan kept telling Sheffield to go home until she was mentally ready to really start training again.

“When she started seeing people who didn’t make it at the trials running and running well,” Rhan said, “she started getting enthusiasm back. From then on, I haven’t had any problems with her.”

That was in January. Since then, she’s once again become a dynamo around the SDSU track. Once again, she is upbeat and excited. At times like this, it is hard to imagine her any other way.

LATANYA SHEFFIELD: A Model of Versatility

Event Time NCAA Qualifying Time 400 hurdles 56.59 59.24 100 hurdles 14.24 13.85 100 meters 12.00 11.50 200 meters 24.24 23.64 400 meters 53.09 53.34 Long Jump 18-4 20-4

Note: Anchor on the 1600-meter and 400-meter NCAA qualifying relay teams.