Joyner-Kersee Falls Just 30 Points Short of Heptathlon Record

There was every reason to believe that Jackie Joyner-Kersee would break her own heptathlon record Tuesday night at the World Track and Field Championships at Olympic Stadium.

As for winning the gold medal, that was a foregone conclusion. She was so far in front of the other heptathletes after the first day of competition Monday, she would have had to withdraw not to win.

Joyner-Kersee won all right, but she didn’t break the record as expected. She faltered in the final event, the 800 meters, and wound up with 7,128 points, 30 short of her own world record.

Even so, she’s still the only woman to score more than 7,000 points in a heptathlon, and she has now done it three times. She set the record at Moscow, 7,148, in 1986, then bettered it last year in Houston, accumulating 7,158 points.

“I’m not disappointed,” Joyner-Kersee said. “When I go into a competition, my first thought is to win. The world record didn’t come because all the tools in my body weren’t working.”

She was functioning efficiently, though, after six of the seven events. She had scored 6,253 points, compared to the 6,189 she had compiled at that juncture in Houston.

It was projected that she had to record a time of 2 minutes 14.09 seconds, worth 906 points, in the 800 to break her record by one point.

To reach her goal of 7,200 points, she had to finish in 2:11.24.

Neither time was unrealistic. Her 800-meter times in Moscow and Houston were 2:10.02, and 2:09.69, respectively. Even when she realized she couldn’t break her record last June in the USA/Mobil outdoor national championship meet at San Jose, she still cruised the 800 in 2:13.07.

But a slow pace, excessive heat and the possibility that perhaps she was subconsciously holding something back for the open long jump competition Thursday prevented her from getting a time in the 800 that she needed.

Joyner-Kersee faded on the backstretch of the final curve in her heat and had to settle for 2:16.29, seven seconds slower than her best performance in the race.

“They kept us in a room for 30 minutes after we had warmed up,” she said. “I had to pour mineral water on my T-shirt to keep cool. When we went out, I felt a little dizzy.

“After the 800, there were big sweat bubbles all over me.”

If Joyner-Kersee was hiding any disappointment, she didn’t show it outwardly. She said that winning the world championship had been her top priority.

Jane Frederick, a 35-year-old veteran of multi-event competition, was ecstatic by contrast. She won the bronze medal by staying doggedly on the heels of East Germany’s Anke Behmer in the 800 heat that included Joyner-Kersee.

Behmer won the heat, but she lost the bronze. She had to beat Frederick by about 7 1/2 seconds and couldn’t do it.

Frederick, who was seemingly fresh after the two-day competition, finished in 2:13.77. Behmer’s winning time was 2:09.03.

So Joyner-Kersee got the gold medal, the Soviet Union’s Larisa Nikitina the silver with 6,564 points, and Frederick the bronze with 6,502 points.

“There was no way I was going to let (Behmer) out of my sight,” Frederick said. “If she even ran her personal best time, I would be right there.”

Joyner-Kersee said that she felt more tight than tired in the 800, adding that she could have been emotionally tired.

“They took it out a little slow in the first 400 (68 seconds) and I just got caught up in that pace,” Joyner-Kersee said. “But I learned a lesson. I can’t let other people set the pace for me. I didn’t give up, but I realized with 80 meters to go that I didn’t have it and I just pushed through.”

Joyner-Kersee, co-holder of the world record in the long jump with East Germany’s Heike Drechsler at 24 feet 5 1/2 inches, opened the heptathlon competition Tuesday night with her favorite event.

She took only one jump, reaching 23-5, then passed. That’s a creditable mark in heptathlon competition, but she might have exceeded it with more jumps, padding her point total.

Joyner-Kersee said that she and her coach-husband, Bob Kersee, had planned that she would stop after one jump if her mark was 7.14 meters--23-5--or better.

Then, she moved into the javelin phase of the competition. That is not one of her strongest events. Her best throw was 149-10. She had throws of 164-5 and 163-7, respectively, in the meets at Houston and Moscow.

“I’m disappointed with her javelin,” Kersee said. “She was trying out a new run and it threw her rhythm off. That threw her confidence off. The combination of the two made the javelin a disaster.”

Even so, it was the 800 that did her in. It was just two laps too many.

In an interview room later, the 25-year-old athlete, who stands 5 feet 10 inches and weighs 165 pounds, was questioned persistently about the heat, about whether the holding room had held her up, whether it will affect her when she has her showdown with Drechsler Thursday and Friday.

Before Joyner-Kersee could answer, Frederick interrupted.

“I’m addressing the issue of Jackie not having broken the world record,” Frederick said. “I can articulate something that maybe she can’t. She does have the long jump before her and in our event if you’re not completely ready to dig as deep as you can and completely exhaust your energies, no matter how much she wants the record she still might have that little something she is holding back.”

The long jump is Joyner-Kersee’s favorite event and she and her husband have not always agreed on which event gets priority in training, the heptathlon, or long jump.

When Joyner-Kersee was finally asked if, perhaps, she had not been accorded full credit for her accomplishments, she replied:

“One thing I do know is that there is a God above and I’ve been very patient, and He has been very patient with me. I think what is due me has come and if anything is going to come it will come. So I’m not disappointed about anything I have not received, or what I’m going to receive.”