McKenzie Beats Ailing Joyner-Kersee

Kim McKenzie, the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist, upset ailing Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the women’s 55-meter high hurdles Friday night at the Mobil Indoor Championships in Madison Square Garden.

McKenzie was timed in 7.39 seconds, .04 ahead of Joyner-Kersee, who was suffering from a strained right hip flexor.

In another surprise, Frank O’Mara held off fellow Irishman Marcus O’Sullivan on the final lap to win the mile in 3:58.58.

It was the second straight loss for O’Sullivan, his first in the mile. Last week, he finished second to Doug Padilla in the 3,000 meters at the Times/Eagle Indoor Games.

Friday night, Padilla was beaten in the 3,000 by Steve Scott, who won in 7:53.69.

Rodion Gataullin of the Soviet Union, who twice broke the world indoor record this season in the pole vault, won at 19 feet 2 1/4 inches, then missed three times at a world-record height of 19-10 1/4.

In the 55-meter hurdles, Tonie Campbell, the 1987 world indoor champion, edged two-time Olympic champion Roger Kingdom and 1988 Olympian Arthur Blake.

Campbell, last year’s Olympic bronze medalist, got out fast and held on to win in 6.98. Kingdom was timed in 6.99 and Blake in 7.00.

Gwen Torrence, beaten only once indoors in the past three years, won the women’s 55-meter dash in 6.61.

The six-man 60-meter dash final was a blanket finish, with only one-tenth of a second separating first-place finisher Leroy Burrell (6.15) from last-place Kelly Reed (6.25). Stanley Floyd was second in 6.17.

Diane Dixon won the women’s 400 in 53.28.