Bruce Jenner Invitational Track and Field Meet : Tully and Bell Have Sights Set on New Heights

Mike Tully and Earl Bell are former American record-holders in the pole vault. Bell also had the world record as far back as 1976. They’re stable veterans who seem to perform at their best in championship seasons.

Tully and Bell ought to be stimulated this year, considering that the second World Championships will be held in Rome Aug. 29-Sept. 6.

Tully, 30, and Bell, 31, were silver and bronze medalists, respectively, in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

They will probably be strong candidates for the American team in that track extravaganza and The Athletics Congress qualifying meet here next month.

Currently, they’re pursuing the American record held by Joe Dial at 19 feet 4 3/4 inches. Tully and Bell will take another shot at it today in the Bruce Jenner Invitational at San Jose City College.

They will be joined by Thierry Vigneron, a 19-foot vaulter and former world record-holder from France, and Dave Kenworthy, formerly of USC.

Other featured events:

110-meter high hurdles--Tonie Campbell has the best time in the world this year at 13.19 seconds. Roger Kingdom, the 1984 Olympic champion, will be his primary challenger.

400 meters--Antonio McKay, Jamaica’s Bert Cameron and Nigeria’s Innocent Egbunike are all sub-45-second quarter-milers.

Women’s 400-meter hurdles--Olympic champion Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco will be opposed by silver medalist Judi Brown King and LaTanya Sheffield.

Triple jump--Ray Kimble, a 34-year-old veteran, will try to repeat his recent Modesto Invitational victory over world record-holder Willie Banks.

Mile--Steve Scott, who was ranked third in the world in the 1,500 meters in 1986, will renew his rivalry with Jim Spivey. Scott beat Spivey May 16 at the Pepsi Invitational.

Women’s 800 meters--An imposing field includes Claudette Groenendaal, Joetta Clark, Kim Gallagher and Delisa Walton Floyd.

Javelin--American Tom Petranoff, top ranked in the world last year, will encounter an international field. Britain’s Roald Bradstock, Iceland’s Einar Vihjalmsson and Japan’s Kazuhiro Mizoguchi all are entered.

Sprints--Kirk Baptiste and Thomas Jefferson, 1984 Olympic silver and bronze medalists, respectively, in the 200, will be featured in men’s competition along with Wallace Spearmon. Alice Brown, Diane Dixon and Randy Givens are the class of the women’s field.

Track Notes Today’s meet is the first on the IAAF-Mobil Grand Prix schedule. Scoring events for the 1987 Grand Prix: men--200, 400, 1,500, 5,000, 110-meter hurdles, pole vault, long jump, discus throw and javelin; women--100, 800, mile, 3,000, 400-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump and shotput. . . . Pacific 10 meet wrap-up: UCLA scored in 19 of 21 events in compiling a school-record 176 points. Steve Kerho and Danny Everett had personal best times of 13.57 in the high hurdles and 20.49 in the 200, respectively. . . . USC’s George Porter, who smashed into two hurdles in a qualifying heat of the Pac-10 400-meter race, got an NCAA qualifying time of 50.44 in a recent meet in Fresno. . . . The NCAA meet will start Wednesday in Baton Rouge, La., with qualifying in all events except for the women’s 10,000 meters and heptathlon. . . . Renaldo Nehemiah, the world record-holder in the high hurdles at 12.93, has had difficulty resuming training since he had surgery in February to remove a bone spur from his left heel. “The recovery is taking much longer than the doctors thought it would,” Nehemiah told Track & Field News.