Goodwill Games : Ashford Regains Her Stride, Beats Dreschler at Tape

After taking 17 months off to start a family, Evelyn Ashford returned this year to win four of her first five races, including all three outdoors.

She looked like the same Evelyn Ashford.

She talked like the same Evelyn Ashford.

When she learned that Los Angeles promoter Al Franken was offering $10,000 to the winner of the 200 meters at the UCLA-Pepsi Invitational in May if she would run against Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Ashford said, “Tell him to write me the check.”

But she did not run like the same Evelyn Ashford.

After giving birth to a daughter, Raina Ashley, Ashford felt stronger than she did when she last competed in 1984, but she was unable to channel that strength into the same fluid motion that enabled her to win a gold medal at the L.A. Olympics and break her own world record in the 100 two weeks later in Zurich, Switzerland, with a decisive victory over East Germany’s Marlies Gohr.

Ashford knew it was only a matter of time before someone caught her, one of the reasons perhaps that she ultimately rejected Franken’s challenge.

Less than three weeks ago, at the National Championships in Eugene, Ore., she could delay the inevitable no longer. Someone passed Ashford, so did someone else. She finished third in the 100 meters behind Pam Marshall and Alice Brown.

Was that the beginning of the end for Ashford, who turned 29 last spring?

Not even she knows for sure, but she would be inclined to respond in the negative after Sunday, when she ran the fastest time in the world this year to hold off East Germany’s newest sprinting sensation, Heike Dreschler, and win the 100 meters at the Goodwill Games.

Both were timed in 10.91 but Ashford, who came from far behind in the final half of the race, took advantage of her experience to outlean Dreschler, 21, at the finish.

Presuming Dreschler won, photographers immediately followed her off the track but, moments later, Ashford was announced the winner in a photo finish that confirmed what both sprinters already suspected. Dreschler said she had no complaints. Neither, of course, did Ashford.

“This means a lot to me,” Ashford said. “This girl has been running fast and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to hit certain gears again. I was afraid I’d lost my speed. It’s good to know I still have it.”

Because of the questions surrounding Ashford and the increasing interest in Dreschler, who may achieve the same results in the 1988 Olympics as Carl Lewis did in the 1984 Games, the women’s 100 meters was the most significant event on the first full day of track and field competition at Lenin Stadium. But a crowd of about 35,000 saw other results of note.

While Lewis chose to rest his injured shoulder and knee in anticipation of the men’s 100 Wednesday, the Soviet Union’s Robert Emmiyan became the third best performer in long jump history and set a European record at 28-3. Only world record-holder Bob Beamon and Lewis have jumped farther.

Despite a near-disastrous start because of a block that slipped, Greg Foster ran the fastest time in the world this year of 13.25 in winning the 110-meter hurdles over the Soviet Union’s Andrei Prokofyev, who tied the European record at 13.28.

Of the 18 sports that will be contested during the 17 days of competition here, track and field has the names that are best known. In an effort to attract even more talent, the executive director of The Athletics Congress, Ollan Cassell, and Tom Jennings, manager of the Pacific Coast Club, were at the Grand Prix meet Saturday night in Oslo to recruit athletes.

So intent is the Soviet government on assuring the success of the Goodwill Games that it also sent a functionary to Oslo to present athletes immediate visas into the country, an extreme rarity.

By the time the charter jet that the Soviet airline, Aeroflot, provided to bring athletes from Oslo to Moscow was ready for departure, Cassell and Jennings had received commitments from seven more athletes, including one American, middle-distance runner Sue King.

But even though those seven athletes had no difficulty passing through customs at the airport, they were unable to check into their hotel rooms because the management had not been advised of their arrival. Hotel officials also claimed the visas were not valid.

After waiting in the lobby of the Rossiya Hotel for almost six hours, the athletes were informed they could have rooms for one night. Further government intervention is expected.

Also arriving in Moscow Sunday from Oslo was Dreschler, who won the 100 there with a time of 10.80, which does not count as the best in the world this year because it was wind-aided. It was only the third time she has run the 100. In her first 100 on June 7, she ran 11.02. Three days later, she broke 11 seconds with a 10.97.

Encouraged by her unexpected sprinting success, she tried the 200 for the first time on June 12 and ran 22.45. A little more than two weeks later, in only her fourth 200, she ran 21.71 to tie the world record of another East German, Marita Koch.

But while sprinting is new to Dreschler, success in track and field is not. At 19, she won the world championship at Helsinki in the long jump. She recently tied her world record of 24-5 1/2.

Even so,, Ashford said she hadn’t heard of Dreschler until last month.

“Most of the sprinters didn’t know who she was,” Ashford said.

Dreschler said she began sprinting for relaxation between long-jump competitions.

Now, while she said she will still specialize in the long jump, she also plans to run the 200 at the European Championships late this summer in Stuttgart, West Germany.

When a reporter recently mentioned to Dreschler that she might win gold medals in the 100, 200 and long jump in the World Championships next year in Rome, Dreschler became embarrassed and began fanning herself with her hand as if the subject was too hot to handle.

When it was suggested she might match Lewis’ 1984 feat by winning four gold medals in the 1988 Summer Olympics at Seoul, Dreschler began fanning herself even more rapidly.

She seems embarrassed by the attention, acting as if she were honored to be invited to run the 100 against the field that included three of the top 10 sprinters from last year and Ashford, the world-record holder. Soviet 100-meter champion Elvira Barbashina finished third in 11.12, while Brown, second in the U.S. National Championships, was fourth in 11.14.

The U.S. champion, Marshall, withdrew because of a groin pull. That left a lane open for Ashford, who was entered only in the 400-meter relay. She took advantage of the opportunity.

Her confidence restored, Ashford said: “I still love sprinting. I feel I’m still fast. I feel I have not run my best race yet.”

Asked to predict the outcome of the 100 meters in the 1988 Olympics, she said she expects 10.80 to win.

“And I feel that I will win,” she said.

She talked like Evelyn Ashford.

On this day, she also ran like the same Evelyn Ashford.