U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Notebook : Fluorescent Flo Also Scores in Fashion Parade

No track and field story seems complete these days without a description of Florence Griffith-Joyner’s outfits.

In the first round of the 200 meters Friday morning, she wore a shocking pink one-legger that covers one leg and leaves the other bare.

In the second round Friday night, she wore a standard two-legger in canary yellow that she called “fluorescent gold.”

That is six different outfits in six appearances on the track since she ran her first race last Saturday. Even with two more races today, she will not have to duplicate. She said she has 14 outfits with her.

Asked if there was any room for her husband’s clothes, she said, “We brought 10 bags.”

The daily manicure news: Griffith-Joyner had Hawaiian scenes--palm trees, the beach and the moon--painted on the fingernails of her left hand and varieties of rhinestones painted on the fingernails of her right hand.

In the first heat of the 200 meters, Griffith-Joyner’s teammate, Valerie Brisco, was comfortably in second place when she lost her left shoe.

She lost her momentum but still finished fourth to advance to the next round Friday night.

“It was a new pair of shoes,” she said. “Coming off the curve, it was slipping off. I finally just kicked it off.”

If Griffith-Joyner can run with one leg bare, Brisco can run with one shoe.

After UCLA’s Gail Devers-Roberts finished second in the 100-meter hurdles Friday night to make the Olympic team, it appeared as if the decision of her coach, Bob Kersee, to pull her from the 100-meter final last Saturday paid off. He said at the time he was afraid she would injure herself and not be able to compete in the hurdles, her better event.

Devers-Roberts said Friday night it was a joint decision.

“He said you can’t run it,” she said, “and I said OK.”

In more exact language, Kersee told her: “Whether you like it or not, you’re not running. You’ll get over it.”

In a rare news conference appearance, Ollan Cassell, executive director of The Athletics Congress, announced a plan that he said will give track and field in the United States the same status that it enjoys in Europe.

Central to the plan, he said, would be the organiziation of indoor and outdoor meets into a circuit that would be televised weekly from January through June in the United States.

He said the indoor meets would be held on Friday nights between Jan. 13 and March 10 and that the outdoor meets would be held on Saturday nights between April 29 and the national championships, usually held in June.

Forecasting 26 to 29 telecasts a year, he said programs later in the summer would include highlights from meets on the European circuit.

He said The Athletics Congress (TAC), the governing body of the sport in the United States, would organize the circuit, which he said could begin as early as next winter.

He said he believes top U.S. athletes might be persuaded to participate in the early outdoor meets, instead of going to Europe for higher appearance fees, if they were involved in a “profit-sharing situation” with TAC.

Cassell, however, said he could not be more specific because TAC has not met with U.S. meet promoters or sponsors and has had only preliminary contacts with television representatives.

As those who know track and field are aware, Carl Lewis was right when he took only two jumps during the long jump competition at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

He still had two events remaining before the end of the Games and needed to conserve his energy, as well as decrease the risk of injury, once he was assured of winning the long jump.

But many spectators didn’t understand and booed him. He also was criticized in the media.

Four years later, in the long jump final here Monday night, Lewis took all six jumps, even though he was assured of winning after the fifth one. On his last jump, he injured his left ankle.

That might have been one reason he finished second two nights later in the final of the 200 meters, although he didn’t mention it at a press conference afterward.

His manager, Joe Douglas, revealed the injury Friday.

“He hurt his left ankle trying to please the crowd,” Douglas said. “If I had been down there, I would have said, ‘Carl, don’t do it.’ He’s trying to accommodate everyone. I think he’s going to have to go back and concentrate on what’s the wisest thing to do in order for him to win. Because of the misunderstanding in 1984, he’s very sensitive to the demands of the crowd. I think what he did in 1984 was the right decision.”

Sandra Farmer-Patrick, who has dual citizenship in the United States and Jamaica, decided two weeks before the trials to attempt to make the U.S. team in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles.

Fourth in the World Championships last year while running for Jamaica, she immediately went to the head of the class in that event in the United States.

But because she inadvertently ran out of her lane in the semifinals, she was disqualified from Wednesday night’s final.

Now she is appealing to Jamaica to give her an opportunity to wear its colors in Seoul. Under international rules, she is still eligible because she has not competed internationally within the last year for the United States.

“My reputation is pretty bad down there right now,” she said Friday before returning to her home in Austin, Tex. “But I’m going to go down there and explain it. It wasn’t anything personal when I decided to run for the United States. I was just taking care of Sandra.”

She said she is not optimistic.

“It would take a miracle for them to let me run for them,” she said. “I don’t think going down there is going to help, but maybe it will help my reputation if I apologize.”