Grand Prix Track and Field Finals : Brisco-Hooks Halts Ashford’s Streak in 200

Olympic champion Valerie Brisco-Hooks dealt Evelyn Ashford her first defeat at 200 meters in eight years during the IAAF Mobil Grand Prix track and field finals Wednesday.

Brisco-Hooks was timed in 22.30 seconds, edging past Ashford at the tape by 1/100th of a second.

The first rain in Rome in more than seven weeks soaked spectators and competitors at Olympic Stadium.

Said Aouita of Morocco, who won the 5,000 meters in 13:13.13, topped the men’s final Grand Prix standings with 63 points and earned an additional $35,000. Jordanka Donkova of Bulgaria finished first in the women’s standings with 69 points after winning the 100-meter hurdles in 12.47 and collected the same amount.

Steve Scott ran the third fastest mile this year, 3:50.29, and Ben Johnson of Canada won the 100 meters in 10.02.

Ashford, undefeated in Europe this season, came around the turn of the women’s 200 and into the homestretch holding a clear lead but faded in the final strides. Brisco-Hooks, who lost in the women’s 400 meters an hour earlier to Marita Koch of East Germany, won in the final strides.

Scott and Jose Manuel Abascal of Spain ran side-by-side for the last lap and a half before producing their final sprint in the mile. Scott took a margin of a couple of strides coming off the last bend and went on to win. Abascal was second in 3:50.54, and New Zealand veteran John Walker was third in 3:50.93.

World record-holder Calvin Smith was eliminated in the 100 when he finished fifth in his heat in 10.46. In the final, Johnson led from start to finish. Chidi Imoh of Nigeria was second in 10.08, edging European champion Linford Christie of Britain, who was timed in 10.15.

Koch ran the women’s 400 in 49.17 seconds, far off her world record of 47.60. Brisco-Hooks was a distant second in 50.21

Soviet athletes took the first four places in the hammer. Sergei Litinov won with a throw of 278 feet 6 inches, nearly 17 feet ahead of Yuri Sedykh.

Donkova edged fellow Bulgarian Ginka Zagorcheva by 2/100ths of a second in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Donkova set a world record of 12.26 Sunday at Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.