Because of Dispute, Lewis May Skip Olympic Relay

Carl Lewis cast doubts Friday on whether he will run the 400-meter relay at next month’s Olympics, and Britain’s Steve Cram swept away uncertainty about his ability by running the best 1,500-meter time of the season.

Lewis, who easily won the 100 meters in 10.04 seconds, said he was barred by U.S. relay coach Russ Rogers from competing in the relay at the Van Damme Memorial track meet because “he had not proven himself.”

Asked if he would still run the anchor leg in the Olympics after Friday’s dispute, Lewis said:

“At this point, no. At this point, I am just going to focus on the three individual events, and not the relay.”

Lewis had defeated Ben Johnson of Canada Wednesday in 9.93 seconds, the best time of the season. He said that was proof enough he should be on the team.

Lewis said Rogers also told Joe DeLoach he could not run in Friday’s relays despite the assurances of U.S. Coach Stan Huntsman.

“Rogers was acting like a junior high school coach,” Lewis said.

Huntsman, reached at the U.S. Olympic training camp at UC Santa Barbara, said no final decisions about the relay team have been made.

“As far as running on the team, no one will be kicked off unless I do it. It will be up to Russ and myself, but there’s no way he can drop anyone off the team,” he said.

Lewis also had a conversation with his personal coach, Tom Tellez, who told him “not to focus on the relay anymore.”

Bypassing the relays would deny Lewis the opportunity to become the first person to win four gold medals in successive Olympics.

The U.S. relay team, without Lewis and DeLoach, won in 38.66 seconds.

Cram overcame a disappointing third place in an 800-meter race Wednesday to run the 1,500-meter in 3:30.95. Peter Elliot was second in a personal best of 3:32.94.

Said Aouita of Morocco was stiffly challenged in the 800 meters by Johnny Gray, who lost for the first time this season. Aouita had to chase Gray most of the way but kicked strongly and won by inches.

Aouita finished in 1:44.36, beating his personal best by two-hundreths of a second. Gray was timed in 1:44.43.

Butch Reynolds, who broke the 20-year-old 400-meter world record Wednesday, did not compete in the event.

Instead, Reynolds strained until the end of the rarely run 300 meters, fending off Walter McCoy, to win in 32.22 seconds.