O’Sullivan Wins Mile at Forum : Gataullin Vaults 19-2 3/4; Scott Sets Meet Record in 3,000

Irish milers such as Eamonn Coghlan and Marcus O’Sullivan are known as cagey tactical runners with terrific kicks at the finish.

O’Sullivan lived up to this expectation Friday night in The Times/GTE indoor games at the Forum before a crowd of 10,912.

He sprinted at the bell lap, closely followed by Britain’s Peter Elliott and Somalia’s Abde Bilee. But he held off both of them to win in 4 minutes 1.33 seconds.

Last Saturday, at the U.S. Olympic Invitational at the Meadowlands Arena, he ran the third fastest indoor mile of all time--3:50.94.

The suspense of the meet, though, was Rodion Gataullin’s attempt at a world-record indoor height of 19 feet 8 inches (6 meters) in the pole vault. The Soviet vaulter had one good attempt, his first, but wasn’t close on the other two. His winning height was 19-2 3/4.

Gataullin was trying to break the world record of 19-7, held by his more-famous countryman, Sergei Bubka.

Jimmy Howard tried to improve on his own U.S. record in the high jump of 7-8 3/4. He won the event at 7-7 but failed three times at 7-9.

Steve Scott, who has had just so-so indoor season as a miler, stepped up to the 3,000 meters and shook up the field with a blazing kick.

Scott, lurking in the pack, moved into the lead just before the bell lap and finished strongly to win in the meet-record time of 7:57.78.

Brian Abshire established a U.S. record of 7:41.57 last Saturday in the U.S. Olympic Invitational meet.

John Treacy of Ireland was the early leader before Wes Ashford moved into first with four laps left in the 20 1/2 lap race. Doug Padilla and UCLA’s Mark Junkermann and Kenya’s Julius Kariuki were also in contention.

But it was Scott, the U.S. indoor record-holder in the mile, who surged past all of them. Frank O’Mara of Ireland finished second with a time of 7:58.39, and Kariuki was third at 7:58.86.

“It was a performance that was perfect for me,” Scott said. “I’ve been running so gutless. I was motivated, but I also knew what my fitness was, so I surprised myself.

“I was irritated that I wasn’t included in the pre-race publicity. I wish Sebastian Coe had been here, but the boards are hard to get used to.”

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who set a U.S. record of 23 feet 1/2 inch in the U.S. Olympic Invitational meet, couldn’t improve on it Friday night. She settled for a winning jump of 22-10 1/2.

East Germany’s Heike Dreschler is the indoor world record-holder at 24-2 1/2.

Romanian’s Doina Melinte ran virtually by herself in winning the women’s 800 meters in 2:00.7. She was the Olympic gold medalist at that distance in 1984.

Greg Foster won the men’s 60-meter hurdles, as expected, in 7.54 seconds, not threatening his indoor record of 7.36. He was pushed all the way by Cletus Clark and Tonie Campbell, who finished second and third.

Just routine? On the track, perhaps, but Campbell and Foster, who had agreed to quit feuding at the start of the indoor season, are at it again.

Renaldo Nehemiah and Foster are unfriendly rivals, too. But Nehemiah wasn’t competing Friday night, so he was temporarily removed from the fraternity of bickering hurdlers.

When Campbell was asked what his relationship with Foster was like, he didn’t hesitate, saying:

“The relationship between Foster and myself has deteriorated over the last year. I don’t know what his problem is. I know what my problem is--I’m not going to take it any more.

“He’s doing ignorant things. He’s just really getting on my nerves. I guess he thinks his size is intimidating. But, hey, I came from the south side of L.A. Size doesn’t mean anything to me.

“Whoever beats him, he’s intimidated by them. It’s (motivation) what he needs to win. Fine, but don’t involve me.”

However, Foster is seldom beaten, losing only to Clark in Dallas during the indoor season.

Campbell said that Foster called him a “little punk” last year at the Pepsi Invitational at Westwood. He added there were other slights.

Later, when Foster was told of Campbell’s comments, the former UCLA star indicated that he didn’t want to discuss the matter.

Asked if he’s still feuding with Campbell, a former USC hurdler, Foster said:

“I don’t feud anymore. Who am I feuding with? Is he upset because I don’t go to the disco with him or hang out with him? Who’s feuding? I don’t say anything to him.”

When Foster was asked who was the bad guy in all of this, he said: “He’s the bad guy. I haven’t said anything to anybody. I’ve found out one thing in my life. It’s that actions speak louder than words.

“Frankly, this is the last time I’m going to talk about it. I’m going to ignore the issue.”

Foster undoubtedly meant it, but don’t hold your breath.

Then, he was gone to catch a late flight to Miami to compete in the televised Superstars competition.

Igor Paklin, the indoor world high jump champion from the Soviet Union, didn’t take his sweat clothes off. He dropped out of the competition because he reportedly didn’t like the setup of the high jump facility.

Will Kern, the meet director, said that Paklin didn’t want to approach the bar while starting from the running track.

“He said he wanted the pit moved, but we couldn’t do that,” Kern said. “Other jumpers, who take off on a different foot, would approach the bar in an area where there were no boards.”

Howard, the winner, said: “The boards really felt excellent tonight, but we’re going to have to make a decision about the left-right jumpers pretty soon.

“We sacrificed two feet of our room tonight for the great Igor Paklin, and when he decided not to jump, we were stuck with the setup. As a result, I was jumping nearly out out of the pit. Then, I moved back and it turned out I was jumping too far from the bar.”