Different Technique Leaves Gail Devers Sore but Hopeful

It was an early outdoor season meet, one of those that creates more sore muscles than sore losers.

UCLA’s Gail Devers was no different from most. She strapped ice bags to both calves with Ace bandages as soon as she was finished running the 100-meter hurdles at the Aztec Invitational Saturday at Balboa Stadium.

Both Devers and her coach, Bob Kersee, saw the soreness in her calves as a good sign. They took it to mean that Devers was using some muscles she had not used before, that she was beginning to use some of the new technique Kersee has been trying to teach her since October.

If that is true, then Kersee and Devers, a former Sweetwater High star, believe she may be on her way to becoming the first woman to win Olympic medals in the 100 meters and 100-meter hurdles.

Devers’ time of 13.13 seconds Saturday broke Deby LaPlante’s meet record of 13.38, though it is not nearly fast enough to win an Olympic medal--yet.

But Kersee was impressed because the time was only .05 seconds slower than Devers’ personal best, even though Devers has not yet worked on her speed.

Kersee figures that if he can teach her to hurdle properly, that speed will make Devers one of the world’s best in both events. She is the top-ranked American woman at 100 meters by Track and Field News.

“Right now, she is the fastest hurdler in the world as far as foot speed goes,” said Kersee, who also coaches world-class hurdler Greg Foster and his wife, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, one of the best hurdlers in the world. “No one can touch her. It’s simple. If you can hurdle as well mechanically as everyone else, and you are faster than they are, you are going to win.”

Devers said Kersee has been trying to get her to drive her trail leg through the hurdle, which will keep her from jumping too high.

“She started to do it the last four or five hurdles,” Kersee said. “Once she smooths that out over 10 hurdles, she has the chance to go from 13.13 (seconds) to 12.13.”

The world record is 12.26.

Devers said is concentrating on the hurdles so she can get to that point. She has not run in an open 100 meters this year and won’t for a long time. But her speed is there; she took the baton trailing by two meters and won by five as the anchor leg of UCLA’s 400-meter relay team, which finished in 45.22.

“I’m real happy with how my training is going,” she said. “But I know I have a long way to go (in the hurdles). It wasn’t everything I can do--I promise.”