THE 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Track : Devers Beats Williams in Women’s 100; McRae Upsets Stewart in Men’s Sprint

For the second time in less than three weeks, UCLA’s Gail Devers beat the national champion, Diane Williams, in the 100-meter dash Monday night at the Pan American Games.

Running into a head wind of two meters per second, Devers ran 11.14 to Williams’ 11.25.

The United States also won a gold medal in the men’s 100 as the University of Pittsburgh’s Lee McRae started quickly and barely held on against Jamaica’s Raymond Stewart, who stumbled out of the blocks. McRae was timed in 10.26, Stewart in 10.27.

“That’s why we have photo finish equipment,” public address announcer Bob Hersch told a crowd of 5,902 at the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis track.

Stewart, who competes for Texas Christian University, ran the fourth-fastest time ever Sunday in the semifinals with a 9.89, but it was aided by an over-the-allowable tail wind of 4.2 meters per second. They ran into a 3.4 meters per second head wind Monday night.

In the other featured event of the night, two U.S. triple jumpers, Mike Conley and Willie Banks, finished one-two. But even though they had a wind ranging from 1.5 meters per second to 3.4 at their backs, their distances were only average.

Conley won at 56-9 1/2, and Banks jumped 55-4. Banks set his world record of 58-11 1/2 here two years ago.

Devers, who will be a junior next year, also won at the U.S. Olympic Festival on July 25 in Durham, N.C., running 11.06 in a race that Williams finished in third.

But even though Devers arguably is running faster than any other U.S. sprinter, she has not been selected to run the 400-meter relay in the world championships, Aug. 29-Sept. 6, in Rome.

If the same standards applied to the women’s relay team as the men’s, she would be on the team. The men’s committee selected the first four finishers in the 100 meters from the national championships two months ago in San Jose to run the relay in Rome. The women’s committee, however, chose the four women they felt were best qualified.

So even though Devers finished fourth in San Jose, she has been named the first alternate for Rome. On the team are Williams, Alice Brown and Pam Marshall, who finished first, second and third in the 100 at San Jose, and Florence Griffith, who finished second to Marshall in the 200 at San Jose.

Devers’ coach, UCLA’s Bob Kersee, said he had no complaint with the selection of Griffith over Devers.

“Gail had a long season this year, and she’s going to have a long season next year,” he said. “Just going to Rome as an alternate will be a good experience for her. This (the Pan American Games) is the one I wanted.”

Asked if the U.S. relay would be faster with Devers, he said: “I’m not the world championship coach.”

Devers said she believes her season is complete now that she has won the Pan American Games.

“My goal this year was to win here,” she said. “The last time I was here was in 1986 at the NCAA championships, and I couldn’t run here because I was injured. I made this my goal then.

“As for the relay in Rome, I’ll be satisfied with whatever happens.”

Kersee said the women’s coaches, headed by Barbara Jacket of Prairie View A&M;, could reconsider the relay question at an Aug. 21 meeting in Berlin.

Considering how well Devers is running now, it figures that she might have done better in the nationals in June if she hadn’t run so many events during the college season. She won six events at the Pac-10 championships.

“I won’t say I was worn out at the nationals,” she said. “But I took a week off after the NCAAs and didn’t train coming into the nationals. So I felt sluggish in the first couple of rounds. It took its toll on me.

“My season started in December and won’t end until the end of September. That’s a long season.”

Kersee has said he won’t depend so much on Devers next year, hoping to have her in peak form for the Olympic trials here next summer.

“I feel I’m capable of being on the Olympic team,” she said. “That’s one of my long-term goals, but anything can happen. I pray about it every day.”