Jet-Setting Moses Touches Down in Paris : Hurdler Takes 113th Straight Victory After Night of Disappointments

Edwin Moses is a citizen of the world. He lives in Laguna Beach, Calif., trains in Finland, has a wife from West Berlin and is revered everywhere he competes, except perhaps in his own country, where he is, at the very least, respected for what he has accomplished on the track.

Even in Moscow, where athletes usually are glorified only if they have CCCP across their chests, Moses was the only winner in the track and field competition at the Goodwill Games who was allowed to take a victory lap.

Other athletes who tried, even if it was only for the purpose of warming down after their events, were whisked off the track by security guards. Moses, however, received the red carpet treatment. What other color would it be in Moscow?

But Paris, now here is a city that can relate to Moses like no other. A few years ago, when Doug Rader managed the Texas Rangers, he coined the term “winning ugly.” That would not translate into French. The French would rather lose pretty than win ugly.

Not only is Moses the most elegant athlete in track and field, as close to perfect in form as anyone has ever been, but he also wins. And wins. And wins.

In a petit but stylish stadium, Sade Jean Bouin, Tuesday night, Moses won in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles for the 113th straight time, including heats, and for the 98th straight time in a final.

He did it in the Bank of Paris International Athletics Meet, which comes at an awkward time on the summer track and field schedule and usually is not one of the more prestigious meets on the European circuit.

But the promoter, Raymond Lorre, is attempting to change that, lobbying to have his meet added to the Mobile Grand Prix schedule, and he has full support of the committee to bring the 1992 Summer Olympics to Paris. When Lorre was in the United States last month for the national championships, he dangled a tentative-start list that included such names as Carl Lewis, Zola Budd, Sergei Bubka, Said Aouita, Maricica Puica and Moses.

Lorre did admit, however, that he might have problems reaching an agreement with Lewis because, he said, Lewis also wanted a guaranteed singing engagement in Paris. Lewis said in Moscow two weeks ago that he never intended to come to Paris to run, jump or sing. But even if he had wanted to dance in the chorus line at the Moulin Rouge, no one would have counted out Lorre, who is nothing if not resourceful.

Last year, Bubka was en route to a meet in Nice, which is Paris’ arch-rival in efforts to lure athletes to France. Bubka flew to Paris, where representatives from Nice were to meet him. When Lorre found out, he also sent a party to meet Bubka in hopes he could be persuaded to compete in Paris instead of Nice.

Bubka, an innocent abroad, went with the first group to greet him, which was from Paris. A night later, Bubka became the first pole vaulter ever to clear six meters, going 19 feet 8 inches.

Later, when the Nice promoter, Robert Bertojo, was asked if he had feared that Bubka had been kidnaped by terrorists, he threw up his hands in exasperation and said: “This is worse.”

Bubka did not come to Paris this year, but Lorre had the next best thing, a Frenchman, Thierry Vigneron, attempting to break Bubka’s world record of 19-8 3/4.

With the rest of the meet long concluded and the clock nearing midnight, about half the capacity crowd of about 8,000 came onto the infield and circled the pole vault runway and pit and Vigneron, the last man other than Bubka to hold the world record, attempted to clear 6.02 meters (19-9).

He did not come close in three tries, knocking off the bar on the way up on the final chance, which disappointed the French fans, who found it ungraceful.

Aouita, the amazing Moroccan, ran the 3,000 meters, in which he said a record was possible, but he fell far short, finishing in 7 minutes 42.32 seconds, and barely held off American Terry Brahm for first place.

Puica, the Romanian, ran a courageous double, winning the mile and the 5,000. But her time in the mile, 4:20.89, was well off Mary Decker Slaney’s world record of 4:16.71, which Puica has declared that she is after, and it took so much out of her that she stumbled across the finish line in the 5,000.

The French may forgive her because she paced young women from Lyon and Nice to national records in the two events.

Shortly after Puica was helped off the track, it was Moses’ turn to run, and the crowd sensed it finally would be treated to art.

Moses did not disappoint the fans, looking in better condition than he had in his three previous races this year and ran a 47.66, the best time in the world this year.

Only two other hurdlers, Harald Schmid and Danny Harris, have ever run faster, and each has done it once. Moses has 17 times that are faster, including a world record of 47.02 that he feels he can break this year.

“I could feel my speed coming back,” said Moses, who was out last year with a knee injury. “I wanted to finish the first third of my season with a good race and, if I could, get back the best time in the world.”

Until Tuesday night, that belonged to Harris, who is from Perris, Calif., which never has been confused with Paris, France. He ran a 47.82 earlier this summer.

Moses, Harris and another man under 48 seconds this year, Andre Phillips, have not raced together since 1984, but that may change at the Olympic Festival next week in Houston.

“I think I’ve been ready for them all the time,” Moses said. “But I also knew that I wouldn’t be in my best form for three or four races. So far, my prediction has been right. This is going to be a big summer considering what I did tonight.

“I could have run an even better time, but the time is not now.”

When he crossed the finish line, he was mobbed by photographers. There was a picture of him on the front page Tuesday of L’Equipe, Paris’ sports newspaper, standing next to the original Statue of Liberty in Paris. The caption called him America’s ambassador to France.

Moses weaved his way through the photographers and started on his victory lap. In Paris, all the winners take victory laps. So do those who lost as long, as they did it with style.