Track and Field Roundup : Billy Olson Lifts His World Mark Another Half-Inch

Billy Olson broke his world indoor record in the pole vault with a jump of 19 feet 4 inches on his first attempt at Saturday night’s Albuquerque Jaycee Invitational indoor track meet in Albuquerque, N.M.

“I was a little conservative to start the meet,” Olson said. “I was having some problems getting it together. Then I made some adjustments after the first jump and things just kind of fell into place.”

A week ago Friday night, he cleared 19-3 1/2 in Los Angeles, surpassing the mark of 19-3 set two days earlier by Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union.

Olympian Harvey Glance won the 60-yard dash in 6.17 seconds, beating Joe DeLoach of Houston (6.18), and Jamaica’s Albert Lawrence (6.22).

Denver high school student Yolanda Johnson defeated world record-holder Stephanie Hightower in the women’s 60-yard hurdles with a time of 7.61 seconds. Hightower, whose mark is 7.36, finished second in 7.65.

At Cosford, England, Zola Budd led from start to finish to retain her British National Indoor women’s 1,500-meter title and break a nine-year-old domestic record in her first race of 1986. The barefoot, South African-born runner sprinted away from Yvonne Murray and was timed in 4 minutes 6.88 seconds.

Mary Stewart set the old mark of 4:08 in 1977.

Britain’s Sebastian Coe was third in the 3,000 meters but said later he treated the race--his first for four months--as a training run.

Coe, 29, finished 25 meters behind the winner, countryman David Lewis, who was timed in 7:49.6.

At Fayetteville, Ark., former NCAA 1,500-meter outdoor champion Frank O’Mara ran a 3:52.30 mile in the Arkansas Invitational indoor meet. The time was the world’s fastest so far this season, topping Sydney Maree’s 3:53.5. The world mark is 3:49.78, held by Ireland’s Eamonn Coughlan.

At East Berlin, Heike Drechsler of East Germany leaped 23 feet 11 inches to set a women’s indoor world best in the long jump. Drechsler, 21, shattered the mark of 23-9 1/2 set last year by Galina Chistyakova of the Soviet Union.

The East German also holds the world outdoor record of 24-5.