Joyner-Kersee, Lewis Off to Scorching Starts : Heptathlon Star Posts Record First-Day Total; Sprinter Runs Pair of 9.96s in Olympic Trials

It was too sultry Friday afternoon to walk. So how the athletes were able to run, nobody knew. But the United States’ pre-eminent track and field stars, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Carl Lewis, went about their business as usual, or actually even better than usual. Some apparently do like it hot.

According to National Weather Service reports, the high temperature here on the opening day of the Olympic trials was 103 degrees. Keeping the good news coming, they continued to say that the heat index, which is the summer equivalent of the wind-chill factor, reached 115 degrees. That’s how hot it felt on the track at the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis Stadium.

There was more than a little complaining about that among athletes and spectators alike. But because of Joyner-Kersee and Lewis, those numbers did not necessarily dominate every conversation.

We’ll start with Lewis because it’s tidier.

He ran the seventh-fastest 100 meters of all time, 9.96 seconds, in the first heat Friday morning and then came back in the afternoon to run 9.96 in the second heat.

Lewis liked the second one better, the difference being that he ran the first with a wind at his back of 1.9 meters per second, just under the 2.0 allowed to make it a legal time, while he ran later with a 0.4 wind in his face.

“It scares you if you run so fast,” said Lewis, who must return today for the semifinals and presumably the final. “But when it comes so easy, it feels so great that there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

As for the incomparable Joyner-Kersee, she again proved why she deserves that adjective. She broke three heptathlon records, two U.S. and one world, on her way to a total of 4,367 points through four of the seven events, the most ever scored on the first day. With the final three events scheduled for today, she is 222 points ahead of her world-record pace.

She opened Friday with a 12.71 in the 100-meter hurdles and then cleared 6 feet 4 inches in the high jump, both American heptathlon records, and finished by running 22.30 in the 200 meters, a world heptathlon record.

There were more points to be had, but her best in the third event, the shotput, was 51-4, only a U.S. Olympic trials record. She had a valid excuse. The competition in that event began at about the same time as a mid-afternoon thunderstorm, which made the shotput ring slippery.

That was the only purpose the one-hour storm served. It cooled the temperature to a hardly more bearable 94 degrees, which caused The Athletics Congress officials, who govern the sport in the United States, to postpone a women’s invitational 10,000-meter walk from 4:55 p.m. until 9:45 p.m.

TAC Coordinator Berny Wagner had a news conference to explain a gauge known as the Heat Stress Monitor, which measures humidity, ambient temperature and radiation energy from the sun to determine the WBGT Index that lets officials know whether the conditions are dangerous for the athletes.

Called upon to defend TAC’s choice of Indianapolis as the site for its most important meet, Wagner said, “The weather isn’t always like this in July, believe it or not.”

That, however, did not prevent one entrepreneur from selling T-shirts that recommended: “Next Time . . . Eugene . . . 1992.”

Meantime, the business continues of selecting the 1988 Olympic team. Everyone who finishes in the top three of his or her event is guaranteed a trip to Seoul. Others will be chosen for relays.

The only three team members selected Friday were in the men’s shotput, in which favorite Randy Barnes, who lives in College Station, Tex., won with a meet-record throw of 71-9 1/2. The runnerup was Greg Tafralis of San Bruno, Calif. with a throw of 68-6, while Jim Doehring of Fallbrook, Calif., which is in San Diego County, finished third with a throw of 67-8.

Doehring, who was severly injured in a 1981 motorcycle accident in Newport Beach, took his best shot on the fifth of six throws, beating fourth-place Ron Backes for a place on the Olympic team by one centimeter.

The meet continues through Saturday, July 23, but there is heavy activity this weekend as the team will be determined in nine other events. A number of the sport’s most celebrated athletes--Edwin Moses in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, Mary Decker Slaney in the 3,000 and Valerie Brisco in the 400--ran in heats Friday, and all easily advanced to their next rounds today.

While Slaney was unquestionably the queen of U.S. track and field until 1986, she since has been displaced by Joyner-Kersee, who appears on the verge of setting her third world heptathlon record.

She never ceases to amaze her competitors.

Asked if she was surprised that Joyner-Kersee appeared oblivious to the heat Friday, Cindy Greiner, who is in second place, said: “Jackie’s on a different plane. She doesn’t deal with those kinds of things. She refuses to let anything bother her.”

Joyner-Kersee didn’t even cringe when her husband/coach, UCLA’s Bob Kersee, predicted she could surpass 7,300 points today. Still the only woman to go over 7,000 points, her world record is 7,158.

She starts today with her best event, the long jump, and then proceeds to her worst, the javelin, and finishes with her least-favorite, the 800 meters.

Speaking with the media while her physical therapist, Bob Forster, rubbed ice packs on her legs, Joyner-Kersee said, “I think 7,300 is possible. This year, I’m more confident with the javelin. I feel deep down inside that I have something to prove to myself. I’m a much better javelin thrower than I was last year. I was out of synch last year.”

She said she also is more comfortable in the 800 since working out this year with Brooks Johnson, the Stanford women’s coach.

“I don’t think 7,300 is my limit,” Joyner-Kersee said. “I know that the East Germans and Russians are going to be in Seoul, and that makes me hungry. When they go to an international competition against the Americans, they’ll be at their best. I’m pushing pretty hard now, but I think I can do better later.

“God willing, this year is going to be my year. I don’t know what it is. I just feel it. I feel like it’s going to be a very special year.”