Coe to Give It a Go in the Meadowlands : He Runs Indoors in U.S. for First Time Tonight, Competing in 3,000

Sebastian Coe hasn’t competed since last May. Nor, has he ever raced indoors in the United States, where the board surfaces are foreign to him.

That’s the intriguing element of tonight’s 3,000-meter race in the U.S. Olympic Invitational meet at the Meadowlands Arena.

Even the distance is not identified with the acclaimed British runner, who is the outdoor world record-holder at 800 and 1,000 meters.

But Coe has selected that distance to test his fitness, not his speed, which he believes is more than adequate even after a 10-month layoff.

“I could step on the track and run a 1:45, or 1:46 (in the) 800, but that doesn’t tell me a great deal because I don’t have to be in fantastic shape to be able to do that except for a certain amount of leg speed that is holding up quite well,” Coe said. “It’s more important for me to have an idea of what kind of fitness level I’m at.”

Coe suffered an Achilles tendon injury in his right leg last May that canceled the summer outdoor season for him, including the World Championships in Rome.

But the 31-year-old two-time Olympic 1,500-meter champion says the tendon has healed and his 3,000-meter race tonight and again in The Times/GTE meet next Friday night at the Forum will be the preliminary steps in a long season that will conclude with the Olympic Games next October in Seoul, South Korea.

“You can run all the good workouts in the world, but they won’t give you the kind of feedback you get from 7 1/2 minutes of hard running in a race,” Coe said.

Coe’s experience in the 3,000 has been confined to a few indoor meets in Europe and on a tartan track, not the banked boards of the U.S. indoor circuit.

He has been training in Tampa, Fla., the past month in order to avoid the winter weather of his native England.

Coe doesn’t regard tonight’s race as a “do or die affair,” and he is more interested in his conditioning program than the field he’ll encounter.

His opponents are formidable, though, including:

--Doug Padilla, the American indoor record-holder in the 3,000 at 7 minutes 44.9 seconds.

--Paul Donovan, the Irish national record-holder at 7:47.95.

--Jim Spivey, the surprise bronze medalist in the 1,500 at the World Championships in Rome.

The 3,000-meter indoor world record has been an enduring one--7:39.2 by Belgium’s Emiel Puttemans in 1973.

It most likely won’t be challenged tonight, although the Meadowlands track of 10 laps to a mile is considered fast. Ireland’s Eamonn Coghlan set his indoor mile record here, 3:49.78 in 1983.

The mile is also a featured race. It brings together Ireland’s Marcus O’Sullivan, the world indoor 1,500-meter champion; Spain’s Jose Luis Gonzales, Britain’s Peter Elliott and Ireland’s Gerry O’Reilly among others.

O’Sullivan and Elliott will compete at the same distance in The Times meet, and they’ll be joined by Somalia’s Abdi Bile, the world outdoor 1,500-meter champion, and Spivey.

Other world-class athletes competing tonight include:

--Greg Foster, Tonie Campbell and Renaldo Nehemiah in the 55-meter hurdles. Nehemiah has had a faltering comeback on the indoor circuit.

The former wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, finished second to Foster in the Jan. 22 Sunkist meet at the Sports Arena, but hasn’t progressed.

He was fifth in the New York Millrose Games last Friday, and the next night in Dallas he didn’t even qualify for the 55-meter final.

--Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the world heptathlon and long jump gold medalist, will be long jumping tonight. She favors the facility here and will be trying to break the world indoor record of 24 feet inch set by East Germany’s Heike Dreschler last year.

--The women’s 400 could be the most competitive race with Lillie Leatherwood-King, Valerie Brisco and Diane Dixon challenging the Soviet Union’s Olga Bryzgina, the world outdoor champion.

Track Notes

Igor Paklin, the world indoor high jump champion, and six other athletes from the Soviet Union will be competing tonight and again in The Times meet. Paklin has blasted most indoor tracks in the United States, calling them “awful and dangerous.” He won the world indoor title last March in Indianapolis, where he jumped off a synthetic surface, but hasn’t fared particularly well on the boarded arenas. . . . For anyone who is curious, 3,000 meters is roughly 240 yards short of two miles.