Bright Day and Night at Trials : Decathlete Nearly Qualifies for Seoul in Pole Vault, Too

More than 12 hours after he began competition Thursday at the Indiana-Purdue University Stadium, Tim Bright stood at the end of the runway with a chance to make the U.S. Olympic track and field team in the pole vault.

If he cleared his third and final attempt at 19 feet, he would finish no lower than third behind Kory Tarpenning and Earl Bell.

If he missed, he would finish fourth, and Billy Olson would be the third U.S. representative in the pole vault.

It would be Bright’s 21st vault of the day.

This is going to take some explaining. Bright took 12 jumps earlier in the day in the decathlon competition, clearing 18-4. No American decathlete ever went higher as he earned 1,100 points in that event toward his eventual total of 8,287, enough to give him second place behind Gary Kinder (8,293) of Albuquerque, N.M. Dave Johnson (8,245) of Sharon, Pa., was third.

Since Bright already had made the Olympic team in the decathlon, why did he also enter the open pole vault.

“Why not?” he said. “I don’t think anyone else has done it.”

That’s not entirely true. Bob Richards won the pole vault in the 1956 Olympics and completed the first nine events of the decathlon. Other notables who have qualified for the Olympics in the decathlon and another event include Jim Thorpe in 1912, Avery Brundage in 1924 and Rafer Johnson in 1960.

Nevertheless, there Bright was, ready to take his ninth jump in the open competition, and there was Olson, watching helplessly and wondering if his third Olympic trials, like those in 1980 and 1984, would also end in failure.

“Tim is one of my very best friends,” said Olson, who like Bright attended Abilene Christian College in Texas. “I had a funny feeling. I wouldn’t root against Timmy ever, even if he was trying to take my place on the Olympic team.

“I wasn’t going, ‘C’mon, Timmy, make it.’ But I wasn’t rooting against him.”

Olson had no reason to worry.

Not only did Bright miss, finishing fourth in the competition, he said afterward that he wouldn’t have accepted a place on the team in the pole vault, anyway. The first day of the decathlon competition in Seoul is scheduled for the same day as the pole vault final. Olson would have been given the third berth by default.

But even though he finished fourth, Bright won the respect of the other vaulters.

“It’s beyond me how he did it,” said Tarpenning, who like Bright trains in Eugene, Ore. “I had a real rough time without doing the decathlon.”

Asked if he was glad he competed in both here Thursday, Bright said, “Yes, extremely happy.”

Asked if he would ever do it again, he said, “No.”

Bright was involved in two of the three finals held on an unusually slow and unusually balmy day--80 degrees, clear and calm--at the trials. In the other final, the women’s discus, Connie Price of Savoy, Ill., finished first with a throw of 201 feet. Ramona Pagel of San Diego also threw 201 feet but was placed second because Price had a better second-best toss. Carol Cady of Stanford was third at 199 feet.

In qualifying, UCLA’s Gail Devers-Roberts set a trials record of 12.83 seconds in the second round of the 100-meter hurdles, and Mary Decker Slaney ran 4:04.27, the fastest time of the year by an American woman, in the semifinals of the 1,500 meters.

Entering the trials, Tarpenning, Bell and Mike Tully, formerly of UCLA, had jumped better than anyone else this year in the United States. But Tully recently underwent laser surgery on his calf and barely qualified Monday for the final. He missed on his only attempt Thursday night, at 18-4, and withdrew.

Tarpenning was clearly the class of the field, winning with the second best jump ever by an American outdoors (19-3 3/4). Bell, from Jonesboro, Ark., was second at 19-0.

Olson and Bright both cleared 18-8, but Olson earned third place because he had fewer misses in the competition.

Olson, who lives in Dallas, has had more success indoors, which is why many observers thought that he would have an advantage if the competition had been moved inside at the National Fitness Center Wednesday because of a steady drizzle. Instead, the event was postponed for 24 hours.

“A couple of guys were hot when they talked about moving indoors,” Olson said. “I guess they respect me indoors.

“I’m known as a choker because people say I don’t compete well in the big-pressure outdoor meets. That gets to me a little bit. I don’t know if this does anything to alleviate that label, but it has alleviated doubt in my mind.”