Seoul ’88 : Griffith-Joyner’s Times Sunday Make Record Look Better

You run 10.49 in the 100 meters, a time that no one envisioned for a woman before the 21st Century, and you think you might get some respect.

Instead, all Florence Griffith-Joyner heard for 24 hours after she demolished the previous world record by almost three-tenths of a second was that there must have been a hurricane at her back. Finally, she decided that was just so much hot air.

“I don’t need the wind,” she said. “I can run fast.”

No one can argue with that.

In the semifinals of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials here early Sunday afternoon, she jumped the gun and was charged with a false start. Sitting back in the blocks so as not to risk a second foul and a disqualification in the re-start, she still ran 10.70 with a prevailing wind of 1.6 meters per second. Anything under 2.0 is allowable for world-record purposes.

Two hours later in the final, with a prevailing wind of 1.2 m.p.s., she ran 10.61 and won easily over runner-up Evelyn Ashford (10.85). Before Saturday, Ashford had the world record of 10.76. Now her 10.76 is the fourth-best legal time in history.

Griffith-Joyner had three legal times better than that in one weekend. She also had a 10.60 in the first round Saturday that was not allowable because of a 3.2 wind at her back.

Suddenly, the skeptics began to reconsider. Maybe she did run 10.49 the day before with no wind, just like the Swiss-made Omega gauge recorded.

There were a number of reasons for suspicion.

Foremost among them was the time. No woman had ever broken the 100 world record by more than one-tenth of a second. After East Germany’s Marlies Gohr ran the first fully automatic-timed 100 under 11 seconds in 1977, the record went from 10.88 to 10.87 to 10.83 to 10.81 to 10.79 to 10.76. Then, to see a 10.49, well, it’s possible, but how do you explain it?

Well, it was an extremely windy day. That could explain it. Moments before Griffith-Joyner’s heat, the wind gauge for the triple jump, in which the runway is parallel to the track, read 4.3. Moments after her heat, it read 2.9.

But during the race, the wind gauge on the track recorded no wind. It was the same for the next heat, which Sheila Echols won in 10.83. Those were the only two races Saturday that were not wind-aided.

For the third and final heat, won by Gwen Torrence in 10.78, the wind was 5.0.

“I felt the wind,” Torrence said later. “It’s hard to believe there was no wind for the first two races, and then there was wind for the last one. There didn’t seem to be that much difference.”

Asked if she believed there was no wind at Griffith-Joyner’s back, Ashford, who also ran in the third heat, paused and said, “I’d rather reserve comment on that.”

Bob Kersee, who has coached Griffith-Joyner since she started at UCLA in 1981, said he told her Sunday morning that there were questions about her 10.49. But he added that even if it was not certified as a world record by the International Amateur Athletic Federation, she still had two chances that afternoon to beat Ashford’s 10.76.

Kersee knew she could do it. He told her before they left Los Angeles last week that he believed she could run four times under 10.76 on the fast track at Indiana-Purdue University.

But even he admitted he did not expect a 10.49.

“I was stunned,” he said.

He said he videotaped the race but lost her because she made a move at 70 meters that he did not have fast enough reflexes to follow. It was as if she were one of those spaceships in “Star Wars,” turning on the turbochargers and suddenly disappearing out of the line of fire.

“I saw Florence do something I’ve never seen another woman do before--go into a sixth gear,” he said.

He said there was no doubt in his mind that the time was legitimate. After Sunday, he said he believes everyone should be convinced.

“She ran 10.61 and 10.70 with legal winds, and there’s not much difference in that and 10.49,” he said. “I can look at the videotape and find the 12-hundredths difference in the 10.49 and the 10.61. In the race today, she didn’t get as good a start as she did yesterday, and she didn’t go into that other gear near the finish. That race was better.”

Inclined to agree, or at least not argue, was Bob Hersh, chairman of the records committee for The Athletics Congress, which governs track and field in the United States, and a member of the records committee for the IAAF.

“I don’t believe we should be in the position to deny someone a world record because I don’t believe it really happened,” he said Sunday. “I’m not saying I don’t believe it. Please don’t misunderstand.

“I believe it’s entirely possible that it did happen. Increasingly, I’m beginning to believe it really did happen. If she hadn’t run what she did yesterday, we’d be standing here today talking about how she had just run the two most amazing times in history. Today’s performances support her time of yesterday.”

Asked if he believes the world will ever be convinced she ran the 10.49, he said: “That’s up to you. Everybody has to make up his own mind as to what he believes. My opinion is no different than anyone else’s. But I can’t let the record process be influenced by what I think a given athlete is capable of doing.”

He said TAC will submit the record to the IAAF President Primo Nebiolo and General Secretary John Holt. If they have reasons to believe it should not be certified, the IAAF Council will listen to their reservations and vote.

But Hersh said he has seen no evidence to suggest that the time should not be certified.

“No one has shown me any basis for saying that what we saw happen didn’t happen,” he said.

“If the Omega people take their equipment back to Switzerland, test it and say that there was a malfunction, we will all shrug our shoulders and say that explains it. But I don’t expect that to happen. They have continued to insist that everything was in order.”

No track and field official in the world questions the credibility of Omega technicians, who have provided equipment for numerous major competitions throughout the world. Swiss born, they sit in the stands and speak French to each other. They couldn’t care less whether an American breaks or doesn’t break the world record.

If the Swiss can make cuckoo clocks, they can certainly measure the wind at a track meet.

FASTEST WOMEN’S 100 METERS IN HISTORY

TIME NAME DATE SITE 10.49 Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA) July 16, 1988 Indianapolis 10.61 Griffith-Joyner July 16, 1988 Indianapolis 10.70 Griffith-Joyner July 16, 1988 Indianapolis 10.76 Evelyn Ashford (USA) Aug. 22, 1984 Zurich 10.79 Evelyn Ashford (USA) July 3, 1983 Colorado Springs 10.81 Ashford July 17, 1988 Indianapolis 10.81 Marlies Oelsner-Gohr (E. Germany) June 8, 1983 East Berlin 10.83 Sheila Echols (USA) July 16, 1988 Indianapolis 10.83 Marita Koch (E. Germany) June 8, 1983 East Berlin 10.84 Gohr Aug. 22, 1984 Zurich 10.85 Ashford July 17,1988 Indianapolis

Note: Six of 11 fastest times, not aided by wind, were run during the weekend at the U.S. Olympic trials.