The Athletics Congress USA Championships : Wysocki Raps Slaney for Skipping Meet to Seek Record in Vancouver

Mary Decker Slaney is America’s premier woman distance runner, but she is not competing in The Athletics Congress USA-Mobil National Outdoor championships.

Ruth Wysocki, who finished second in a 1,500-meter qualifying heat Friday night at Indiana Univerity Stadium, was asked to comment on Slaney’s absence.

“I think she should be here. I think everybody should be here,” Wysocki said. “I heard that she wasn’t going to race until later in the summer, but now she’s going to try to break the American mile record next Tuesday in Vancouver. If she’s in that good of a shape, she should be here.”

The national championship meet is not a big payday for some athletes. Just expenses, even if that.

“I know that,” Wysocki said, “but some things are more important than money, like reputations.”

Wysocki was speaking about athletes in general, but the question specifically concerned Slaney--and Wysocki doesn’t avoid a direct question when it concerns Slaney.

She chided Slaney last January for her conduct towards Zola Budd following their collision in the 3,000 meters at the 1984 Olympic Games.

That prompted another press conference preceding the Sunkist Invitational at which Slaney defended herself against Wysocki’s accusations.

But Wysocki respects Slaney as a competitor.

“I like Mary in a race,” she said. “You know what’s going to happen. She’s going to go for it and run as fast as she can.”

Slaney is usually the frontrunner, maintaining a fast pace, according to Wysocki.

Wysocki is a veteran runner, but she was virtually unknown until she upset Slaney to win the 1,500 in the Olympic trials last June.

Slaney’s loss influenced her to run only the 3,000 in the Olympics, the most controversial race of the Games.

Wysocki said that she’ll race against Slaney, Romania’s Maricica Puica (the gold medalist in the Olympic 3,000), and Britain’s Budd in a 3,000-meter race July 19 at London.

It will be the first meeting between Slaney and Budd since the Olympic mishap.

“I’m excited about it,” Wysocki said. “I have nothing to lose. Nobody will be expecting anything from me, and I could be a spoiler.”

Wysocki seems to compete better as a “spoiler.” She upset Slaney at the Olympic trials and then surprised Puica by beating her indoors at 3,000 meters Feb. 9 in the U.S. Olympic Invitational at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

Wysocki hasn’t returned to her outdoor form of 1984. She said she has been putting too much pressure on herself. She also broke the little toe on her left foot while water-skiing 10 days before her outdoor debut April 28 at the Mt. San Antonio Relays.

Wysocki made a dismal showing in the ARC0-Coliseum meet last Saturday, finishing last in the 800 in the slow time of 2:08.78.

“I just wasn’t mentally prepared for the race, and when it was over, I was exhausted,” Wysocki said.

She’ll try to redeem herself in Sunday’s 1,500 final. Then, it’s on to Europe, where she’ll try to sneak up on Slaney, Budd and Puica.

Controversies aren’t the exclusive domain of women distance runners. Joe Dial, the American outdoor record-holder in the pole vault, and Billy Olson, the U.S. indoor record-holder, are keeping the pot boiling.

Dial said last week that Olson berated him for not vaulting against Mike Tully and Olson in a meet at Dallas May 25. Tully and Olson specifically entered the meet to oppose Dial.

Dial said that he became so incensed with Olson’s needling that he picked up a portion of a broken pole in a threatening manner and then pushed Olson off the runway.

“He told me, ‘Get your stuff on, Dial. You’ve got a lot to prove with your bogus heights in your own backyard,’ “Dial said. “I said, ‘Billy, you better stop that, or I’m going to push this pole down your throat.’ ”

Both vaulters qualified for Sunday’s final Friday night, and now it was Olson’s turn to give his version of the incident.

“I was just trying to egg him on to get him to jump against Mike and myself,” Olson said. “He said, ‘I have nothing to prove.’ I said, ‘What matters is what you do against me and Tully.’ ”

Tully is a former American record-holder and the Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault.

Olson said that Dial didn’t push him off the runway as the Oklahoma State vaulter claimed.

“He pushed me, but he was the one that went backwards. Honest,” Olson said. “I didn’t like the whole thing at all. But I think I could handle Joe Dial in a fight.”

Dial, at 5-9 and 148, is small for a vaulter. Olson stands 6-2 and weighs 173 pounds. “I never said he had a bogus record, or anything like that,” Olson said. “Dial has always jumped six inches behind us, and I think he is bothered by not getting any publicity.”

Olson conceded that Dial, who has vaulted higher than any American at 19-2, is an exellent technician.

“He has to be because of his restricted size,” Olson said.

Stayed tuned for Sunday’s rematch.

Tonie Campbell, a 1984 Olympian, had knee surgery six weeks ago, and he said a doctor told him that he’d never run again.

But Campbell, the former USC hurdler, seemed fit as he got third in his heat Friday night to qualify for today’s final in the 110-meter event.

“It was the best birthday present I could ever get,” said Campbell, who turned 25 Friday. “I’ve only been training for two or three weeks and I didn’t run a full flight of hurdles until Thursday.”

He didn’t make it on the first flight, getting his legs tangled over the eighth hurdle and falling. So he did it again until he got it right.

In the only final event, Francie Larrieu Smith, a rejuvenated runner at 32, won the women’s 10,000 meters in the meet-record time of 32:18.29. She won by 125 meters, and her time was the third best by an American. Only Slaney and Joan Benoit have run faster.

Benoit, the Olympic marathon gold medalist, was originally scheduled to run. But she has an Achilles problem and couldn’t compete.

Track Notes

Brad Pursley, who suffered a concussion while vaulting at the Coliseum last Saturday, failed to qualify for the finals Friday night. “He still has some cobwebs,” said Billy Olson, who was Pursley’s former teammate at Abilene Christian. “His attention span is real short” . . . Rhonda Blanford of Nebraska, the NCAA champion in the 100-meter hurdles, won her opening heat in 12.95 seconds--second fastest time in the world this year . . . Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey-Page, representing the L.A. Track Club, was an easy winner of her 100 heat in 11.24 . . . Arkansas’ Roddie Haley barely qualified for the 400 semifinals, finishing fifth in his heat. Haley, a freshman, won the 400 at the NCAA meet in 44.70.