Bubka Says He’ll Vault Today, After Threat to Pull Out

Another day, another world record, another melodrama. This time, the characters were working overtime, continuing into the early-morning hours Saturday after Soviet pole vaulter Sergei Bubka said he might not compete today in the Michelob Invitational at San Diego’s Sports Arena.

But after a hastily called summit meeting in the Los Angeles Airport Park Hotel with the leader of the Soviet delegation, Eduard Gustchin, the relieved San Diego meet director, Al Franken, returned to the lobby at 1:30 a.m. and reported that Bubka indeed will compete.

“There is no doubt Sergei is going to jump,” Franken said. “If this were an American we were dealing with, I wouldn’t be so sure because he could make his own decisions.

“But in their system, the leader speaks for the group. He told me, ‘Don’t worry about it. When we have a commitment, we always honor it.’ ”

Bubka made his equivocal statement late Friday night after regaining the world indoor record with a vault of 19-5 3/4 in the Times/GTE Indoor Games at the Forum.

It was the eighth time since Dec. 28 that the world indoor record had been broken, the third time by Bubka. The previous record was 19-5 1/2 by American Billy Olson, who was second Friday night at 18-10. Olson has broken the record four times this winter and American Joe Dial once.

Olson and Dial also have entered today’s pole vault competition, scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m.

For the second time in a week, a duel between Bubka and Olson ended in something less than harmony, the Soviet again charging that American officials were favoring their own. But that apparently had nothing to do with Bubka’s desire not to compete in San Diego.

Lane Maestretti, a technical representative for a leading pole manufacturer, AMF Pacer, said Bubka told him week before last in New York that he wanted to take a break after the Times Indoor Games. He is scheduled to make his final U.S. appearance this year in the Mobil/TAC Indoor championships next Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

“If he jumps in San Diego, that will give him four meets in two weekends,” Maestretti said of Bubka, who competed last weekend in the Millrose Games at New York and in the Bally Invitational at Rosemont, Ill. “I think he felt that was too much.”

Asked Friday night if he thought that Bubka’s threat not to compete in San Diego was a negotiating ploy in order to extract a larger appearance fee from Franken, another AMF Pacer official, Steve Chappell, said: “Money is not his priority. What’s important to him is the sport. If he feels he’s not at his best, he doesn’t want to jump.”

Franken said Gustchin, a bronze medalist in the shotput at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, did not ask for more money for Bubka during their meeting Saturday morning. The Soviet group of five athletes and three officials reportedly is receiving about $8,000 per U.S. meet.

Bubka, however, has asked meet directors for cash bonuses for setting world records, a practice common among Western athletes. One source said Bubka received $3,000 for setting the record Friday night, but meet director Will Kern could not be reached to confirm the report.

As for the controversy, it is part of an ongoing saga. After Millrose Games officials allowed Olson and Dial extra jumps because of interference from photographers last Friday night but did not give the same consideration to Sergei’s brother, Vasily, Sergei accused the officials of “subterfuge.”

The dispute Friday night was more technical in nature, but again there might have been some of that involved, at least initially.

After Bubka raised the world record to 19-5 3/4 on his second attempt at that height, Olson, who still had one jump remaining, asked that the bar be raised to 19-6 1/2. In metric terms, the international measurement of track and field, he wanted the bar raised from 5.94 to 5.96 meters, or two centimeters.

When the officials complied, Bubka went into a rage, complaining to Kern that international rules were being subverted. As far as he knew, he was correct. International rules state that the bar must be raised by at least five centimeters on each progression if there is more than one vaulter remaining in the competition.

This meet, however, was conducted under the rules of The Athletic Congress, the national governing body. Its rules state that the games committee should establish the progression before the meet. In this case, the games committee decided that the bar would be raised by five centimeters up to the height of 5.90. But it did not establish a progression beyond that. As a result, there was mass confusion.

As the meet referee, Herman Reininga, pointed out, Bubka did not complain before his world-record attempt, even though the bar had been raised only four centimeters to 5.94 instead of five as specified by international rules.

But when Olson asked that the bar be raised only two centimeters, and it appeared as if the officials would allow it, Bubka protested. Through the better part of the next half-hour, Soviet officials and Olson and meet officials exchanged opinions, some heated.

All of this could have been avoided if U.S. indoor meets complied with international rules.

“The officials during the indoor season have created an atmosphere where they have allowed the athletes to take advantage of the rules,” said Chappell, a former British pole vaulter. “We saw that in New York.

“Ultimately, that creates a disadvantage for the American athletes when they compete internationally because they don’t know the rules. It’s hard for the Russians to understand when they come over here and international rules aren’t followed.”

Once Reininga established that the bar would have to go up higher than two centimeters, the next question was how high is up.

Bubka, in perfect English, was yelling “5.99, 5.99.”

“Screw it,” Olson said, “I’m going to miss, anyway.”

The bar was raised four centimeters, to 5.98, or 19-7 1/2, because that is how high the bar had been raised on the previous progression.

Olson was right. He missed.

Bubka then decided not to attempt a higher height. He had gotten what he came for, the world record.