Texas A&M; Freshman Upset Winner in 200; Lewis Finishes Fourth

Carl Lewis was upset in the 200 meters Saturday at the USA/Mobil national outdoor track and field championships by one of those younger guys he is always talking about.

But Lewis had already re-established his credentials by winning the 100 meters and the long jump Friday night.

Lewis is reasonably satisfied, even though he finished fourth in the 200 meters as Floyd Heard, a Texas A & M freshman, won the event in the fast, wind-aided time of 20.03 seconds.

It would be understandable, though, if Mike Conley is talking to himself long into the night.

Conley had the best long jump/triple jump double of all time under any conditions, but he still finished second in each event.

He leaped 28 feet 3 3/4 on his last jump Friday in the long jump, but Lewis was just a little bit better at 28-5 1/2.

Conley saved his best for last Saturday by triple jumping 58-6 1/2, a mark that is guaranteed to win any competition 99% of the time.

Nevertheless, Conley lost again--this time to Charlie Simpkins, who soared 58-9 on his last jump, preceding Conley, with the benefit of a 3.15-meters-per-second assisting wind. The allowable wind for record purposes is 2 m.p.s.

Still, it was the second-best triple jump of all time under any conditions. Only Willie Banks has jumped farther, his 58-11 1/2 world record at last year’s national meet.

Banks had the crowd clapping for him as usual Saturday, but the best he could do in such fierce competition was 57-5 3/4 for third place. Banks’ and Conley’s jumps were also wind aided.

There were some outstanding performances on the last day of competition. A sampling:

--Darrell Robinson ran down front-running Roddie Haley in the 400 to barely win in the meet-record time of 44.47 seconds.

--Pole vaulter Mike Tully and high jumpers Doug Nordquist and Jimmy Howard all attempted American record heights but didn’t quite clear them. Tully won the vault at 19-0 before he missed three times at 19-4 3/4. Nordquist and Howard each came close to clearing 7-8 3/4 but had to settle for 7-7 3/4.

--Pam Marshall, who upset Evelyn Ashford in the 100 Friday night, came back as a strong winner in the 200 with a wind-aided time of 22.4.

--Bill Green, who formerly competed for Cal State Long Beach, upset American record-holder Jud Logan in the hammer throw. Green’s winning effort was 250 feet.

--Danny Harris and David Patrick finished in a virtual dead heat in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles and had the same time, 48.90. But Harris got the win on the lean at the tape. UCLA’s Kevin Young was a solid third in 49.38.

In the 200, Lewis was attempting to become a triple winner, as he was in the 1983 championships. But he didn’t look sharp in the qualifying heats and that was an omen.

In the final, Heard, 20, ran a strong curve, had the lead when the field straightened out and held off Dwayne Evans and Kirk Baptiste in the last 50 meters. Lewis closed a bit, but he had lost too much ground on the curve and was timed in 20.30.

“I just didn’t run well,” Lewis said. “I wasn’t tired, but I had lost some of my sharpness. Heard is a very good talent.”

Lewis said he was more geared to win the 100 and long jump in this meet, especially the 100, because he had been beaten twice in the short sprint earlier in the season. But he said that wasn’t any excuse for losing.

“I came out of the blocks well, but I didn’t apply any pressure on the turn. I just backed off,” he said. “I was in lane three, and the turns are tight here. I seem to run better on bigger curves from lanes six through eight.”

Lewis said he didn’t decide until Tuesday to run the 200 as his focus was on the 100 and long jump.

Asked if he was depressed by his defeat, Lewis said: “Not at all. Remember, this is an off-year.”

He was referring to more important meets in the future, the world championships in 1987 in Rome and the Olympic Games in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea.

Heard, the NCAA 200 champion, was regarded as one of the nation’s best prep sprinters coming out of John Marshall High in Milwaukee last year.

But Henry Thomas and Roy Martin, freshmen at UCLA and SMU, respectively, and Joe DeLoach, who will run for Houston next year, were more acclaimed.

Thomas, from Hawthorne High, and Martin, from Dallas, come from warm weather, sprint-oriented areas.

Heard said he couldn’t train properly in Wisconsin because the weather doesn’t get warm until June.

“I wanted to go a school that was south of Milwaukee,” he said, explaining why he chose Texas A&M.;

Heard said he admires Lewis and said that the veteran sprinter probably wasn’t sharp because he had competed in so many events, including trials, and hadn’t run many 200s this season.

Fair enough, but how did it feel to beat Lewis?

“Just great,” Heard said while failing to conceal a smile.

Tully, 29, who always seems to perform at his best in big meets, beat a field that included Joe Dial, who set an American record of 19-4 earlier in the season.

“This is only the sixth time I’ve jumped all year and that includes meets and practice,” Tully said.

Tully had minor groin surgery last June and didn’t compete indoors. Then, while surfing last month in Mexico, he brought home an unwanted sea urchin.

“My right leg was bothering me and I didn’t know what was wrong,” he said. “Then, I discovered that a sea urchin had lodged in my right toe.”

Tully said he had the tailwind he wanted Saturday while attempting to break the American record, but he had to make an adjustment to a stiffer pole that he wasn’t familiar with.

“This is a transition year,” said Tully, a former UCLA star. “But I’m still the best American vaulter. I’m the best out of the country and I was the silver medalist in the Olympic Games. And I compete in doping-controlled meets. You can take that for what it’s worth.”

He didn’t elaborate.

Track Notes

First- and second-place finishers in the national meet qualified to compete in the Goodwill Games at Moscow July 6-9. With few exceptions, the qualifiers intend to go to the Soviet Union. There’s some incentive, $3,000 along with a round-trip air ticket . . . UCLA’s Danny Everett finished fifth in the 400 with a time of 45.29, beating Olympic bronze medalist Antonio McKay . . . Steve Scott won his sixth national 1,500 title in a tactical race. His winning time of 3:42.41 was 13 seconds slower than the world record. Scott, who has been bothered by a virus that has been difficult to diagnose, said that he was lucky that Jim Spivey, the defending champion, got caught in a box. He said his tactics worked, getting away from a bunched field with 200 meters left. Scott said he hasn’t been able to train extensively because of the virus that has taken some spring out of his legs. “But a national title is still a feather in your cap,” he said.

The 400 meters has been a hot event this season and Darrell Robinson said Lee Evans’ world record of 43.86 seconds could be in jeopardy in a meet in which runners aren’t obliged to run two qualifying races and a final. He said he likes the idea of the Goodwill Games because “it’s athlete against athlete, not country against country without any political stuff.” . . . Sharieffa Barksdale had a seven-meter lead in the women’s 400 hurdles when she tripped over the last hurdle and sprawled on the track. She got up to finish eighth. Judi Brown-King was the winner in 55.46.