Joyner-Kersee Is Setting a Record Pace

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, applauded in Moscow last year, has Rome in the palm of her hand, and the Orient is waiting for her.

After the first day of heptathlon competition of track and field’s World Championships, Joyner-Kersee is on a whirlwind, world-record pace.

She is, of course, the world record-holder, having first broken it in the Moscow Goodwill Games in July of 1986 with 7,148 points, then improving on it by 10 points a month later at the Olympic Festival in Houston.

The ultimate goal, though, is the gold medal next year in the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.

On a warm Monday at Olympic Stadium, she compiled 4,256 points after four of the seven events, breaking the first-day record of 4,151 that she established at Moscow.

She set a U.S. high jump record for a heptathlete with a leap of 6 feet 2 3/4 inches and recorded a personal best mark of 52-6 in the shotput.

Joyner-Kersee was also timed in 12.91 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, and early in the evening of day-long competition, she blazed around a turn to win her heat of the 200 meters in 22.95 seconds.

She is 111 points ahead of her first-day performance in Moscow, and 105 on the plus side compared to Houston.

Joyner-Kersee will come back today to wrap it up in the long jump, javelin and 800 meters. She shares the world record in the long jump, 24-5 1/2 with East Germany’s Heike Dreschler. That will be another challenge for her when they meet in direct competition starting Thursday with trials.

She has struggled some in the javelin in the past but seems more confident now. If she is almost assured of taking her own record up to another plateau after the long jump and javelin, she will probably be content to just run comfortably in the 800, the concluding event.

Barring injury, Joyner-Kersee already has the gold medal here. Her closest pursuer is Larisa Nikitina of the Soviet Union, who trails the leader by 338 points.

Any gold would be appreciated by the U.S. men and women. After three days of competition, the United States has only three medals, none of them gold.

John Brenner got a bronze in the shotput Saturday, Carl Lewis got a silver in the 100 meters Sunday and Mike Conley added another silver Monday in the triple jump.

By comparison, the American team had 10 medals in the first three days in the inaugural World Championships in 1983 at Helsinki, Finland.

It isn’t all that bleak, though, because Edwin Moses will be favored today to get a gold medal in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles along with Joyner-Kersee.

Conley had to settle for a silver medal because Bulgaria’s Khristo Markov soared 58-9 1/2 in the triple jump, the second longest jump of all time. Only Willie Banks, at 58-11 1/2, has jumped farther. Conley, who usually saves his best jumps for last, couldn’t catch up this time, although his second-place effort of 57-11 3/4 was hardly shabby.

When Joyner-Kersee was finally finished in a day that began at 9:30 a.m. with the 100-meter hurdles and ended at 7 p.m. with the 200 meters, she was asked to sum up her performance.

“Hard work,” she said, smiling.

Joyner-Kersee has been frustrated with some her of shotput efforts in heptathlons. She knew what she had to do but couldn’t put it together in competition.

She had planned to make only one attempt. However, when she opened up with 51-6, she stayed in the competition until she nailed 52-6.

“I understand now that I have to go across the ring slowly,” she said. “There were times when I would think that I had to go across fast and I ended up not getting any height or using my legs and that’s where all the strength comes from.”

Joyner-Kersee works with Art Venegas, UCLA’s weight coach.

“I’m very pleased with the shot today,” she said. “Art worked a lot with me. I’d hit 50 feet in practice and then I’d go into a meet and throw 48 or 49.

“He got on my back and said I’d have to concentrate and understand what I’m doing there. He told me but I wasn’t seeing it. And today I reached my goal of 16 meters.”

She also worked recently with Brenner while training at Lake Como, Italy, and realized that the more deliberate approach across the ring was the best.

But even Joyner-Kersee has lapses. She said that she had one in the high jump Monday.

“I was just out there, but I wasn’t competing at first,” she said. “When I missed at 1.84 meters (6-0 1/2), I really got upset at myself. At that point it really motivated me and then I focused on what I had to do.”

Joyner-Kersee is trying to absorb seven events like a sponge. She writes notes to herself so that she’ll remember certain techniques.

“I also write down that anything is possible if you believe in yourself,” she said. “I know when I get into competition, I can’t talk to my coach.”

Her coach is her husband, Bob Kersee, who also coaches the UCLA women’s track team.

Joyner-Kersee has specific goals and she said that she came into the World Championship meet with the thought of scoring anywhere from 7,161 points to 7,200.

“But I had to come into the competition thinking about winning first,” she said. “If a record was going to come, it would be secondary. My first goal is to come out as a champion.” Kersee can be a hard task-master, but he couldn’t find much fault with his pupil-wife’s performance Monday.

“I hoped that she would be under 13 seconds in the hurdles, go at least 6 feet in the high jump, 51 feet in the shot and under 23 seconds in the 200.

“I only thing I was upset about was the high jump. She didn’t go into the first part of the high jump fired up. It took awhile to get herself together.”

Joyner-Kersee has had minimal heptathlon competition this season and hasn’t concentrated on the hurdles, or short sprints. Still, she performed superbly, surprising even her husband.

“For her to run 12.91 (in the hurdles) and 22.95 (in the 200) for the work she has done is totally amazing,” he said.

As for today’s plan, Kersee said: “She’s ready for the javelin. She’s been training and she’s smoothed out her run, although her arm has been a little bit sore.

“I think she wants to get a good long jump in, throw the javelin and and take it easy in the 800 meters. Just go around fast enough to get a world record and get that gold medal for the United States.”

Joyner-Kersee will be listening to her coach. She’ll also be taking advice from herself with her ever-present notebook.

And the book on her is that she’s incomparable.

Track Notes

It was a gold medal day for Eastern Bloc countries. Bulgaria’s Khristo Markov won the triple jump, the East German women accounted for two with Sigrun Wodars in the 800 in the time of 1:55.26 and Martina Hellman in the discus with a throw of 235 feet, and the Soviet Union’s Olga Bryzgina won the 400 in 49.38. That was comparatively slow time for a championship meet. Lillie Leatherwood King, who was expected to be among the top three, finished only fifth in 50.82, while her teammate Diane Dixon was seventh. Valerie Brisco must be gnashing her teeth. She’s the defending Olympic champion, but she didn’t qualify for the meet in the 400. She went out too fast in the national meet and finished fourth. She’s on the 1,600-meter relay team, though.

Edwin Moses, the defending world champion, easily won his semifinal heat of the 400-intermediate hurdles in 48.38. West Germany’s Harald Schmid and American Danny Harris finished in a virtual dead heat in the other semifinal race, 48.23 and 48.24. . . . Kenya’s Billy Konchellah loped to an easy win in his 800 semifinal with a time of 1:44.11. David Mack failed to make the final, finishing seventh, so the Americans are shut out of this race. Johnny Gray, one of the favorites, was eliminated earlier. Gray said he was held in a holding room for 30 minutes and didn’t have sufficient time to warm up. Other runners in his heat had the same problem.