National Sports Festival : Andre Phillips Wins Both Hurdle Races

The man in the crowd was only teasing, but his words rang true.

“Why don’t you pull a hamstring or something Andre? Man you are killing the South all by yourself.”

Indeed, Andre Phillips, the former UCLA star, put on a brilliant performance Sunday night, winning two individual gold medals to lead the West to a convincing team victory in the closing night of track competition at A.W. Mumford Stadium on the campus of Southern University.

Phillips won the 110-meter hurdles in 13.25 and then came back an hour later to win the 400-meter hurdles in 48.03, perhaps one of the most difficult and unusual doubles in track and field.

Minutes after the second race, a winded Phillips talked to reporters while flat on his back. It has been a year of vindication for the 25-year-old sprinter-hurdler, who failed to qualify for the Olympic team in Los Angeles, when an illness slowed him down.

“A lot of my critics thought I’d hang it up when I didn’t make it,” said Phillips, who tied a black ribbon to his jersey to express sympathy for hurdler Greg Foster, whose mother died Saturday night, losing a struggle to survive a traffic accident in which four other members of Foster’s family were also killed. “But it turned out just the opposite. I’m really enjoying a lot of success after a bad year.”

Phillips lay on the track and wept after he failed to make the team and his tears didn’t subside for nearly two weeks.

“It was terrible, like they gave a party at your house and you weren’t invited,” he said. “That was tough to take. So I kind of decided to experiment. I’ve always been fast, so I thought I’d give the shorter hurdle race a try. I guess I’ve been surprising people on how well I’ve done. The longer race demands strength.

“Whatever happens now, at least I have the option going into Seoul in ’88. Plus, I’ve even been contemplating the decathlon. If I do it, and I’m going to definitely do one, it will be in March or April.”

While Phillips is thinking in multiples of 10, another UCLA star, Jackie Joyner, was hoping to get a little magic out of the number seven, but her bid for an American record in the heptathlon came up short. She finished with 6,718 points, falling short of the mark of 6,803 set by Jane Frederick.

If the numbers look a little different than Saturday’s totals, it’s because meet officials realized their conversion table on Frederick wasn’t up to date and rather than being ahead of a record pace, Joyner was slightly behind.

But had she aired out a good javelin throw or not fouled on a long jump that appeared to be near 23 feet, the record would have been hers.

“I knew that if I got a good jump, I could get it,” she said. “So, when I didn’t get that big jump, I was kind of disappointed. Then my javelin throw wasn’t that good and that really hurt. But I still had a chance in the 800. But I needed someone to push me and I didn’t get the pace. However, I’m pleased with my efforts. I’m not disappointed at all.”

Neither was Charlie Simpkins of Charleston, S.C., who upset world record-holder Willie Banks in the triple jump with a leap of 56-11. Banks was second in 56-1 3/4, well below his best of 58-11 1/2. In fact, Simpkins was elated.

“I’ve never beaten Willie before,” Simpkins said. “You know one time I jumped great and he set an American record. The next time, I had the best day in triple jump history with five jumps over 57 feet and he sets the world record. This is great. I figure, if he’s going to beat me, he’s going to have to go for a world record.

“But one of these days I’m going get out there 60 feet and he’ll have to go some to catch me.”

Banks had an excuse because of a tender knee and a month of hard traveling, including a late arrival from Finland Friday night. But he gave credit to Simpkins.

“I’m tired but I’m glad I came,” he said. “I like it here. In fact, if they didn’t have so many mosquitoes, I’d love this place. But there’s so many bugs and I think my poor milk chocolate skin is so-o-o delectable for these insects. I’m looking forward to getting back to L.A.”

Brian Boitano of Sunnyvale took home the gold in men’s figure skating as expected, but it was Van Nuys’ Chris Bowman, who drew a standing ovation from a crowd of nearly 7,000 at the Centroplex.

Bowman, skating a daring, acrobatic routine, said he is definitely out to supplant the U.S.’s No. 1 skater.

“You’ve got to go after Brian now,” Bowman said. “I can’t wait until he’s a three or four time national champion, you’re chances will be a lot longer. I was relaxed out there and was really enjoying myself.

“Brian’s technique is exceptional and right now he’s the only one attempting a triple axel. I’ve completed one in practice, but I’m still working on it.

“But I plan to be around for a while. Im looking forward to the Olympics and the World Championships.’

At one point in his performance, he was startled by a camera.

“ESPN has a revolutionary way of covering skating . . . on the ice,” he said. “I almost hit one of the cameras after a move. I saw it coming when I turned and thought I was going to to hit it for a second. I ended up waving and giving it the ‘Hi, Mom’ routine.”

Greg Louganis, to no one’s surprise, won the platform diving competition. He scored 675 points, his third highest total ever. Except for a poor score on his next-to-last dive, he could have gone over the 700-point mark for the first time.

Former Crenshaw High School star John Williams drew raves from New York Times reporter Bill Rhoden, who watched the South edge the East, 75-71, Sunday, in basketball.

“One time the East threw the ball in casually after a South basket,” Rhoden said. “Boom. Williams comes out of nowhere, steals the ball and tries to lay it in. He missed, but got the rebound against three guys and then put it up again. He missed it, but was fouled. And he had four fouls at the time. Then he made the free throws.

“He can play.” Unfortunately for the West men, they went south again, this time losing to the North, 79-74.

Even a phenom has a bad day at the office.

“I should have stayed home,” said high school sprinting sensation Roy Martin from Roosevelt High of Dallas after finishing third in the 200 meters to Dwayne Evans Saturday night.

“I just never got going,” he said. “As soon as I came off the turn, I knew I wasn’t going to win. I sure wasn’t going to catch anyone going that slow.”

Being behind is an unusual feeling for SMU’s prize catch. He, along with Henry Thomas of Hawthorne and Joe DeLoach of Bay City, Tex., are regarded as three of the finest prep sprinters to come along in eons.

Surprisingly, the three sprinters have never met each other on the track. All that will change according to Martin.

“I want to run against Henry and Joe,” he said. “We couldn’t get it together in high school, but in college you know we’re going to get down to it. It’s destiny.”

Martin, who had planned to take the rest of the summer off after The Athletics Congress meet in Indianapolis, came to Baton Rouge for the fun of it and a chance to get some gold.

Unfortunately, the favored South 400-meter relay team dropped the baton, well before it reached his hands.

“My girlfriend said I hadn’t been spending enough time with her and I’ve been running since November,” he said. “So I was going to take off. But I thought I should come to a national meet. But this is terrible, finishing third and then not even getting a chance to run in the relay.

“I’m going to go home, shake it off and do some fishing and spend some time with my girl. No more running.”

When asked about by a reporter from Dallas if he could have won on another night, Martin proved he hadn’t lost his sense of humor.

“Well, maybe if they had a 200 for fat men.”

According to East archery Coach Darwin Kyle, the reason for Darrell Pace’s success is his assembly line technique.

“Look at his repetition of form,” said Kyle of the two-time Olympic gold medal winner. “He turns himself into a machine. Watch him. Bang, bang, bang and three arrows are gone. It’s always the same. Three gone in three to seven seconds. Never a wasted motion. He’s amazing.”

Pace and Rick McKinney are tied after two days of competition with scores of 1263. Jerry Pylypchuk of Broooklyn is third, while his wife, Eileen is second in the women’s competition behind Melanie Skillman of Lauderdale, Pa.

That’s right, it’s Pylypchuk. Eight consonants and one vowel. If there was any symmetry in the world they would live on Zyzxx road on the way to Las Vegas.

Sean O’Neill, the defending men’s singles champion, is toying with the opposition in table tennis.

The 17-year-old right-hander from Vienna, Va., has a powerful European-style game, which is based on a Blitzkrieg formula.

“I’m constantly attacking, whether it’s my short or long game,” said O’Neill, who upset Swedish star Erik Lindh, one of the top singles players in the world, during the recent U.S Open. “You have to attack, so the other person can’t attack you. I try to finish off a point as quickly as I can.

“I went to Sweden for three months because you have to go abroad to become a world-class player. The U.S. is only about the 13th best country, so you have to go outside to raise the level of your game.

“This will be cakewalk for me, just because at the level I’m at right now, there’s just no one here who can beat me. But there are some good players, here.”