It’s 100 Straight for Moses : He Wins Budapest 400-Meter Hurdles

Edwin Moses won his 100th straight 400-meter hurdles final Monday night at the Budapest Grand Prix track and field meet.

Moses beat a strong international field in 47.76 seconds, his second-best time in 1986. Earlier this year he was clocked in 47.66.

Moses, who set the world mark of 47.02 in 1983, began his winning streak Sept. 2, 1977 in Dusseldorf, West Germany.

His last loss was on Aug. 26, 1977 in West Berlin, where he finished second to Harald Schmid of West Germany, 49.07 to 49.29.

A crowd of 35,000 enthusiastic fans at the Nep Stadium Bowl cheered the 31-year-old Californian as he outdistanced runner-up Toma Tomov of Bulgaria.

Moses’ previous best time in Budapest was 48.50.

In other action, Christo Markov of Bulgaria made the best triple jump of the year and broke his own European record Monday, clearing 58-feet-4 3/4.

Markov, favored to win the event at this month’s European Championships in West Germany, bettered his previous mark of 58-3 3/4, which he set exactly one year ago at the Nep stadium.

“Obviously the Nep stadium and Budapest is the place of my dreams,” Markov said. “I came here hoping to jump 18 meters (59-0 3/4), but I wanted it too badly.”

Yordanka Donkova won the women’s 100-meter hurdles in 12.38 seconds, just two-hundredths of a second off Grazyna Rabsztyn’s six-year-old world record. It was the second fastest time for the event.

Yuriy Sedykh of the Soviet Union, the 1976 and 1980 Olympic champion, delighted the early arrivals with the best hammer throw series ever. He missed his own world record of 284-4 by 39 inches.

“I am a bit disappointed despite these throws because everything was ideal for setting a new world record,” he said. “But I just felt too tense. The record will not survive the European championships and either Sergei Litvinov or myself will break it.”

The men’s 200 meters provided a stiff test for 1980 Olympic 100-meter champion Alan Wells. Earlier in the day, he had been named to run in both the 100 and 200 meters for Britain at the European Championships, despite missing this month’s Commonwealth Games because of injury.

Running in tight thigh-length shorts to protect a worrisome hamstring, he finished third behind American Olympic silver medalist Kirk Baptiste and Commonwealth Games champion Atlee Mayhorn of Canada. Baptiste clocked 20.25 seconds, Mayhorn 20.50 and Wells 20.53.

Although 10 past and present Olympic champions competed, the meet was hit by withdrawals by Britain’s Steve Cram, Americans Carl Lewis and Evelyn Ashford and Canadian Ben Johnson.