THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 9 : Joyner-Kersee Turns Sights to Long Jump

Jackie Joyner-Kersee barely had time to savor her Olympic gold medal and latest heptathlon world record Saturday before her coach and husband, Bob Kersee, began pointing her toward the long-jump competition, which begins with qualifying Wednesday.

Asked if Joyner-Kersee could recover from the grueling heptathlon, as well as nagging tendinitis in her left knee, in time for the long jump, Kersee called her the Rambo of women athletes.

“I think when she gets to the track and sees them raking the pit, she’ll be ready,” he said.

Of the seven events in the heptathlon, the long jump Saturday was Joyner-Kersee’s best. She jumped 23 feet 10 inches, a heptathlon world record. It also is better than the Olympic women’s long-jump record of 23-2 set in 1980.

But she made her most impressive effort in the final event, the 800 meters. Needing to finish in 2 minutes 13.67 seconds to beat her previous world record of 7,215 points, she ran a personal best of 2:08.51 and finished with 7,291 points. Her closest rival, East Germany’s Sabine John, was 394 points behind. Another East German, Anke Behmer, took the bronze medal.

“The 800 was a chance to test my endurance, faith and confidence,” she said.

Her husband added: “She was willing to accept physical pain and mental pain to get the job done. We talked about 2:13.67, and she said that if she couldn’t get that done, she didn’t deserve the record.”