Knee Injury Keeps Lewis Out of the Long Jump : Campbell Wins 110-Meter Hurdles; Foster Fails to Finish, Kingdom Places 5th

If Ralph Nader ever finds out what’s happening in track and field, he’ll proclaim the sport a consumer ripoff and shut the whole thing down.

You really know you’re at a world-class track competition when world-class athletes start pulling out of the meet. Why should the U.S. Olympic Festival be any different?

It wasn’t. Sunday night, 17,200 fans at Robertson Stadium at the University of Houston got to gnaw on their $8 tickets while local hero Carl Lewis pulled out of the long jump and Greg Foster ran over one hurdle and around the other nine in the 110-meter hurdles.

And those were the glamour events.

Both Lewis and Foster complained of injuries. Lewis, the quadruple gold medalist in the L.A. Olympics, had run the anchor leg of the 400-meter relay Saturday night and indicated then that his left knee was bothering him.

“There is a 1% chance that I won’t jump tomorrow night,” Lewis said. The law of averages caught up with him when he was warming up Sunday.

“Driving over here, my knee was 50-50,” Lewis said. “Warming up, it didn’t get any better. I did some run-throughs, but it wasn’t any better. It never really loosened up.

“My status for (meets in) Europe is extremely bleak right now. I’m not saying I’m done for the season, but we’ll have to see. I’m going to see the doctor first thing in the morning. I don’t think it’s the kind of injury that they’ll have to go in to take a look at. I think I’ll have to take a month off. I’m very disappointed that I didn’t get to jump here, but nothing is as important as being healthy.”

If some of the unhappy fans in the stadium Sunday night get a hold of Lewis, his health will be of real concern. Lewis’ appearance here, in his adopted home, unquestionably helped sell tickets. Lewis has jumped in Houston twice in five years.

He has carefully picked the spots where he long jumps. He is protecting a 48-meet winning streak in the event--a streak that began March 13, 1981.

In his absence, Larry Myricks won with a strong jump of 27-10.

The fans were especially chagrined with the loss of Lewis as it came on the heels of Greg Foster’s failure to finish and Roger Kingdom’s dismal showing in the 110-meter hurdles.

Both Foster and Kingdom, the Olympic champion, were involved in the pre-meet intrigue concerning who was actually in the race. Kingdom was entered but injured. Foster was not entered but said he was going to run. The third player in the drama was world record-holder Renaldo Nehemiah, who was recently reinstated as an amateur after a four-year career as a wide receiver with the San Francisco 49ers. Nehemiah’s record is 12.93.

This was to be Nehemiah’s first meet. Last week, Nehemiah’s agent, Ron Stenko, said, at various times, that Nehemiah would definitely run and that Nehemiah was sorry, but he could not run.

If you ask Foster, the only thing running was Stenko’s mouth.

“Right now, I’m fighting with his agent, who is doing all the talking,” Foster said. “I never thought he would show up. I never did. I’m more capable of running 12.8 than he is of running 13.0.

“I don’t think he’s going to return to his former form. Frankly, I don’t think he’s scaring anybody. I’m a hurdler, I’ve been in this event for 15 years. You just can’t take off like that and come back. I’m not going to let him beat me. The day he beats me is the day I don’t finish a race.”

Oops, Freudian slip. Foster got over one hurdle Sunday night, then stopped running. He said his calves cramped.

Kingdom finished, but in his worst time in more than two years. Kingdom placed fifth in 13.93 but said he was satisfied with the effort.

“It’s good to be back in competition,” Kingdom said. He has completed one hurdle race this season, seven weeks ago. “I ran a very, very poor race. But I’m not feeling bad at all because I made it back. I just wanted to finish the race.”

Toni Campbell of Carson won the event in 13.57.

In other highlights on a humid night: Evelyn Ashford won the women’s 100 in 11.09. “For me, this was a sharpening-up meet before Europe,” Ashford said. “I wanted to come here to find out if I am on schedule, and I am glad to say that I am.”

Harvey Glance won the men’s 100 in 10.27, Sydney Maree raced down the last straight to win the 1,500 in 3:39.05, and Doug Nordquist won the high jump at 7-7, after failing at three attempts at an American record of 7-8 3/4.