Times Indoor Track Meet, Scheduled Feb. 17 at Forum, to Have Co-Sponsor

The 30th annual Los Angeles Times indoor track and field meet Feb. 17 at the Forum will be sponsored by the Eagle Division of Chrysler Motors, meet director Will Kern said Thursday.

Kern said that The Times was able to attract a co-sponsor after The Athletics Congress, the national governing body for track and field, announced last month that the meet will be televised by the Turner Broadcasting System as part of TAC’s American Plan.

Kern: “The American Plan saved us. If you don’t get the gold, you can’t get the gold medalists.”

Although The Times was committed to sponsoring the meet this year, Kern said that the company would not have been able to guarantee a meet for next year without a co-sponsor. A long-running outdoor meet at UCLA’s Drake Stadium is in jeopardy this year after losing its sponsor, Pepsi.

Among the gold medalists expected to compete at the Times-Eagle meet are Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the high hurdles, Louise Ritter in the high jump, the Soviet Union’s Tatiana Samolenko in the 1,500 meters and Olga Bryzgina in the 400, Morocco’s Said Aouita in the 1,500 or the 3,000 and Kenya’s Julius Kariuki in the 3,000.

Proceeds from the meet go to the Times Fund, which benefits needy children in Southern California.