THE FIRST HURDLE : UCLA’s Kevin Young Will Just Focus on His Versatility in the Pac-10 Track and Field Meet This Weekend

Kevin Young had a summer job in 1984 that demanded so much of his time, he couldn’t pay much attention to the Olympic Games.

“I saw bits and pieces of it,” he said. “But I was usually too tired to look at it on television. It never dawned on me that I would be competing in the Olympic trials four years later.”

There was really no valid reason for Young to have any Olympic aspirations in 1984. He had just completed his senior year at Jordan High School and even though he was a better than average high hurdler, having placed third in the State meet, he was a world away from being a world-class athlete.

A gangling youngster who had grown four inches in high school, Young was headed for UCLA. But he wasn’t a scholarship athlete. He was getting federal aid.

Now, Young is a world-class 400-meter intermediate hurdler, a versatile athlete who also long jumps, runs the high hurdles and contributes a leg on the 1,600-meter relay team, which set a collegiate record of 3 minutes 0.55 seconds last year.

Young, who will compete in the Pacific 10 Conference track and field meet Saturday and Sunday at Drake Stadium, is starting to focus on the most significant part of the season.

The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet will be held June 1-4 at Eugene, Ore., where Young will defend his 400-meter hurdles title and UCLA will defend its team championship. Then, the Olympic trials are set for July 15-23 at Indianapolis.

“That will be a very demanding time,” said Young, talking about the trials. “There are only three spots open to make the team, and I’m taking the positive outlook that I will have one of them.”

He realizes, though, that the competition will be fierce. Consider his opposition:

--Edwin Moses, who at 32, is already a track legend as the world record-holder at 47.02 seconds, the 1984 Olympic champion and a two-time World champion.

--Danny Harris, the silver medalist in the World Championships last September at Rome, who came ever so close to beating Moses.

--Andre Phillips, the former UCLA star, who replaced Moses as the world’s top-ranked intermediate hurdler in 1986 but was unable to compete extensively in 1987 because of an injury.

Young will also have to contend with David Patrick, among others. Patrick nudged Young off the World Championship team by placing third in The Athletics Congress qualifying meet last June in San Jose. Young was fourth.

“That was a learning experience for me,” Young said. “I had run in trial races before that, but not on that level. Mentally, I let down at the end of the race, and I should have kept up my focus.”

Patrick couldn’t beat Young again, however, in summer meets in Europe, where the Bruin hurdler wound up his season by recording a personal-best time of 48.15 seconds on Sept. 15 at Lausanne, Switzerland.

Moses, Harris, Phillips and Patrick are the only Americans ever to have run faster than Young, who is 22.

Nonetheless, Young had to watch that epic World Championship 400-meter hurdle race on television, rather than competing in it.

“It was awesome,” said Young of the tight finish that resulted in Moses’ victory with a time of 47.46. Harris and West Germany’s Harald Schmid finished a breath away with identical times of 47.48.

“I thought Harris and Schmid would beat Moses at the end because he was tying up so badly. But Edwin knows that race,” Young said.

Young is also growing more comfortable with that race, which requires a combination of hurdling skill, speed and stamina.

“I feel more in control of the race now,” he said. “I like to run a fairly even race.”

By that, he means not going out too fast but saving something for the end, when the hurdles look menacing to a tiring runner.

Young recalled a race last July in Paris, where he caused havoc for Moses and Harris with a mad sprint at the outset.

“I was in the outside lane and, in the first 200, I just blasted out, and Danny and Edwin reacted off me running so fast by going after me. I took it to 300 meters and I was flying and they were trying to catch me.

“When we got to other side of the track, I was running backwards and so were Danny and Edwin. Edwin hit the 9th hurdle, then the 10th and fell down. “Then, Amadou Ba of Senegal ran right by all of us because we went out so hard. Danny took second and I managed third and Edwin didn’t finish.”

That was another learning experience for the 6-foot 4-inch Young.

In his other events, Young has personal-best marks of 25 feet 4 inches in the long jump and 13.84 in the 110-meter high hurdles, events he does not practice regularly. Even so, he placed third in both events in last year’s Pac-10 meet and figures to score again this weekend.

“I think I could be a great long jumper if I concentrated on it,” Young said.

His coach, Bob Larsen, is inclined to agree with him, adding that Young could also be an effective triple jumper, since he can jump off either leg.

“Early in the fall of his freshman year, we saw great potential in him,” Larsen said. “He looked like a future NCAA champion in the intermediate hurdles. He had great flexibility and was just eating up the ground in the distances between the hurdles.”

Young’s flat-out speed was questionable earlier, but he has improved enough to run a 44.8-second 400 leg on the relay team.

Young grew up in Watts, an area frequently identified with gang violence.

“It’s not as bad as everyone thinks it is,” he said. “When I first moved there, they had some neighborhood basketball courts, and guys tried to bully me around. But if you’re good in some sport, they pick you to be on their teams instead of just picking on you.”

Larsen said that Young has a good sense of balance in his approach to athletics, academics and social life.

“He is ready to do well and be competitive,” Larsen said. “He’s always on to his next event and, regardless of how his last event came out, he doesn’t brood about it. He stays relaxed by doing so many events.”

The UCLA senior will be concerned with only one event in mid-July, though, and it will be a formidable hurdle.