Prefontaine Meet : Tully Nearly Vaults to U.S. Record in the Dark

On a cold, wet Saturday night better suited for ducks than pole vaulters, Mike Tully came ever so close to breaking the American record in the event.

Tully barely missed on two of his attempts at 19 feet 2 3/4 inches after a stirring, strategic duel with France’s Pierre Quinon.

It was a rematch of the Olympic Games competition between Tully, the silver medalist, and Quinon, the gold medalist.

Only this time Quinon was passing heights because he trailed Tully, who was forced into a similar role last summer.

Tully won at 19-0 under abominable conditions at the 10th annual Prefontaine meet at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. The vaulting competition began at 5:20 p.m. and was delayed a half hour due to a persistent rain. Tully didn’t take his first vault until 8:15 p.m., coming in at 18-6 1/2 and clearing the height on his first attempt.

The rain had stopped by that time. But the runway was slick and the lighting was dim--four lights in the stands not providing much illumination for Tully and Quinon.

Joe Dial of Oklahoma State still has the U.S. record at 19-2 but Tully is confident he can break it and go even higher, perhaps surpassing Sergei Bubka’s world record of 19-5 3/4.

Many in a crowd of 12,532 lingered in semi-darkness to watch the showdown between Tully and Quinon.

The crowd was there ostensibly to cheer on two hometown favorites, Mary Decker Slaney and Joaquim Cruz, the Brazilian, who formerly competed for Oregon.

Neither disappointed their fans. Slaney, running virtually by herself, won the 5,000 meters in 15:06.53, breaking her American record of 15:08.26. But the wet track prevented Slaney from surpassing the world record of 14:58.89 held by Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen.

Cruz held off Steve Scott to win the 1,500 in 3:35.70. It was comparable to a 3:52 mile. It was Cruz’s third win over Scott this season in distances covering 1,500 meters and a mile.

Scott tried to pass Cruz, the Olympic 800-meter gold medalist, with 400 meters left. But Cruz wouldn’t let him get by. The Brazilian had about a two-meter lead coming off the final turn and then out-kicked Scott in the stretch.

Scott had to settle for third as Jim Spivey finished fast to take second by 1/100th of a second--3:35.82 to 3:35.83.

It isn’t often that Tully waits until the bar is at 18-6 1/2 to make his first vault and he almost didn’t take it.

“I was thinking of not jumping at all,” Tully said. “I didn’t want to jump in the rain and hurt myself and be out for the entire season. It’s ridiculous to come at 18-6. You only do that when all the conditions are perfect.”

The conditions were far from perfect. It was almost eerie as Tully and Quinon battled into the night.

Tully was asked if he could even see the vaulting box. He replied, smiling, “Look down there yourself. Can you see it?”

It was barely visible.

Quinon came into the competition at 18-4 1/2 and made it on his second attempt. Then, Tully, vaulting first, cleared 18-6 1/2.

The Frenchman passed the height because even if he made it he would be trailing Tully based on his previous miss.

When Tully neatly went over 18-10 1/2 on his first try, Quinon passed again. The bar went up to 19-0. Tully wasn’t even close on his first two attempts, and Quinon came ever so close on his two efforts.

Then, Tully made it cleanly on his third try. Quinon passed on his last attempt, electing to take his last jump at 19-2. But he went under the bar and was out of the competition.

Tully had the bar raised to 19-2 3/4. He barely scraped the bar on his first attempt, a close miss. He was fairly close on his second try and not as close on his third attempt.

“I’m having a few technical problems. I’m not jumping as good as I can,” said Tully, the former UCLA star. “But something is going to happen, maybe this summer. I’m not worried about winning this year. I’ve done enough winning (two World Cup titles among others). I just want to get some of those good marks for myself.”

Tully set an American record of 19-1 here last summer. But he didn’t have to wait until 9 p.m. to take his final vault as he did Saturday night.

He likes the facility--when the sun shines--and will compete in some summer meets here. But first his schedule includes the Arco-Coliseum meet next Saturday and The Athletic Congress meet June 14-16 at Indianapolis.

Slaney wasn’t available to the media after her race. But she said earlier in the week that she wanted to run 70-second laps to break Kristiansen’s record. She started out close to that pace, but couldn’t maintain it, presumably because of the wet track and virtually no competition.