Track and Field Roundup : Joe Dial Vaults 19-4 3/4 for World Indoor Best

Joe Dial cleared 19 feet 4 3/4 inches at Columbia, Mo., Saturday to set a world indoor best in the pole vault, surpassing by one inch the height cleared one week ago by Billy Olson at Albuquerque, N.M.

Dial, 23, who is the American record-holder outdoors, set the indoor mark on his second attempt. He was competing as an independent in a collegiate track meet at the University of Missouri’s Hearnes Center.

“A world record! Man, oh, man,” said Dial, a six-time Big Eight Conference champion in the indoor and outdoor pole vault at Oklahoma State and the NCAA’s indoor and outdoor champion last year. “This is a dream come true. All my life, I’ve wanted to break a world record.”

Dial’s American outdoor record is 19-2. The world outdoor record is 19-8, set in Paris last July by Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union.

“I definitely think 20 feet is possible. That’s what I’m looking at,” Dial said. “I think this record will be broken.”

Dial and Olson will both compete in the Times/GTE Indoor Games Feb. 21 at the Forum.

Former NCAA champion Emmitt King defeated Carl Lewis in the 60-yard dash of the Dallas Times Herald Invitational meet at Dallas, and Billy Olson failed to clear the opening height in the pole vault for the second straight night.

Lewis never seriously challenged as King won in 6.12 seconds. Lewis’ time was 6.15.

“I was surprised he didn’t come on like he usually does,” King said.

Olson failed to clear the opening height at Toronto Friday night, then couldn’t clear the opening height of 18-0 1/2 Saturday night.

Running in what she said were “the coldest conditions” she had ever experienced, South African-born Zola Budd retained her Southern English cross-country title at Peterborough, England. In her second race of the season since returning to Britain, Budd battled gale-forced winds to cover the 5.74-kilometer (about 3 1/2-mile) course in 18 minutes 9 seconds.