World University Games : Americans Win 6 Track Finals, Finish 1st in Gold Medal Count

The United States won six track finals and swept past the Soviet Union to finish with the most gold medals at the World University Games which ended Sunday.

The comeback of the Americans, who trailed the Soviet Union through two weeks of the Games, gave them 26 gold medals to 25 for the Soviets.

It was a big swing from the Games at Kobe, Japan, two years ago when the Soviets had twice as many gold medals, 44 to 22.

Gwen Torrence of Decatur, Ga., won her third gold medal of the Games, anchoring the American women sprinters to victory in the 400-meter relay in 42.90 seconds.

The United States swept all four relays on the final day, and they won the men’s 400 meters hurdles and high jump.

The Soviet Union, which had 23 gold medals to 20 for the Americans going into the final day, settled for victories in the women’s marathon and javelin Sunday.

Romania was third in the final gold medal count with 21, Italy had 12 and China 9.

Unheralded James Lott of Austin, Tex., stunned former world record holders Igor Paklin and Rudolf Povarnitsyn of the Soviet Union and Zhu Jianhua of China in the high jump. In the 91-degree temperature at Dinamo Stadium, Lott cleared 7 feet, 6 1/2 inches, just one-quarter of an inch short of his personal best.

Povarnitsyn could do no better than 7-5 for fourth place, trailed by Zhu with the same height. Paklin was a poor ninth at 7-4.

The other American victories were by Dave Patrick, 48.76 seconds in the men’s 400-meter hurdles; the women’s 1,600-meter relay in an 3 minutes, 27.16 seconds; the men’s 400 meters, with a margin of 50 meters in 38.66; and the men’s 1,600 meters, with an even greater margin in 3:01.78.