Disputed Finish : Runner-Up Torrence Believes She Deserves at Least a Dead-Heat Verdict in 60

Gwen Torrence was far from finished when she finished her 60-meter sprint Friday night in The Times/Eagle Indoor Games at the Forum.

She wouldn’t let the finish-line official, Heman Reininga, out of her sight.

Torrence thought that she had won her race against Dawn Sowell, a Louisiana State senior, and wasn’t going to let the matter drop.

Torrence isn’t used to losing indoors. She came into the 60-meter final with an unbeaten record through 49 races dating back to 1986.

Only Evelyn Ashford had tainted her record with a disputed dead heat last year in The Athletics Congress meet in New York.

However, Sowell was declared the winner Friday night after an official studied the photo. Sowell was timed in 7.15 seconds, breaking the American record of 7.18 set by Alice Brown in 1986.

Torrence was in Lane 2, while Sowell was in Lane 1.

“I was not behind her (at the finish),” Torrence said. “Her shadow was blocking me out. You can’t see me in the picture. It’s not right.”

Would Torrence settle for a dead heat again?

“It may have been even,” she said. “It depends on the camera angle.”

After looking at the photo, Sowell tended to agree, saying, “It looked like a tie to me.”

Torrence and her agent, Brad Hunt, protested the result, but not officially. An official protest is expected to be filed Tuesday.

“I don’t feel in my heart it was right,” Torrence said. “I wasn’t a step behind her. It happened last year at the TAC meet. I went home thinking I had won and didn’t find out until later it was a dead heat.”

That decision was made hours after the race, with Ashford protesting successfully. Now Torrence is lobbying for, at the least, a dead heat.

Al Minturn, who evaluates the photos, was certain he made the right call.

“I’ve done this hundreds of times, seen thousands of photos,” he said. “Lane 1 was definitely the winner.”

A Times reporter, who looked at the photo, couldn’t separate the sprinters at the finish. A dead heat might mollify Torrence but would spoil Sowell’s big upset.

For Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the indoor season has been sort of a vacation.

She’s not concerned with the heptathlon, in which she’s the world record-holder and Olympic gold medalist.

Nor is she long-jumping, her specialty and the single event that brought her another gold medal last September at Seoul.

Joyner-Kersee is hurdling during the indoor circuit and, as usual, is excelling.

She won her fifth straight hurdles race Friday night.

After what she said was a hesitant start, Joyner-Kersee exploded and easily won the 60-meter hurdles race in the meet-record time of 7.87 seconds.

She is the American record-holder at that distance in 7.81 and co-world record-holder at 55 meters with a time of 7.37.

“Going into the race, I wanted to concentrate getting out well. I had trouble in warm-ups getting to the first hurdle,” Joyner-Kersee said. “After the second hurdle, I started accelerating. But while accelerating I dragged my trail knee and just nicked the last hurdle.”

However, Joyner-Kersee is very encouraged about her hurdling, even though she has a strained muscle in her right leg.

She said that she was sprinting and long-jumping last year at this time. And now she’s just concentrating on the hurdles during the indoor circuit.

“I’d give myself a C-plus tonight,” said Joyner-Kersee, smiling. “I did about as well as I’d expected to do.”

Joyner-Kersee gave her husband-coach, Bob, a 35th-birthday present with her victory. And she said there’s a cake waiting for him at home.

A for her outdoor schedule, Joyner-Kersee said she’ll compete in only one heptathlon in Europe and will do some more hurdling, at 100 meters and 400 meters. And, of course, her busy schedule will always include the long jump.