A False Start Forces Jager Out as Biondi Wins

Olympian Matt Biondi and a depleted field of challengers left the starting blocks for the 50-meter freestyle Friday night to a chorus of boos--a first for Biondi after all his years of international competition.

Most of the standing-room-only crowd of 2,500 attending the Phillips 66/U.S. Swimming Long Course National Championships at USC were expressing their disappointment because the meet’s premier event was altered when Tom Jager was disqualified for a false start.

Biondi, swimming in his first major meet since winning seven medals in the 1988 Olympic Games, was disappointed, too. After winning the national title in the 50, Biondi said: “I’ve never felt so empty about a victory. I think I felt the same way most of the people felt.

“When the race was over, I think there were about four people clapping. Everybody else was sitting there thinking, ‘We got robbed.’ This was not what I came here for.”

Biondi came here to swim against Jager, the one swimmer who has beaten him often at this distance.

He came to revitalize their rivalry. He and Jager--the silver medalist at Seoul--have been trying to attract attention to their sport, and they finally had drummed up interest.

The fans were on their feet and cheering when the swimmers walked onto the deck, but silent for the start. Then, as the eight swimmers left the blocks, the starter beeped, signaling a false start.

There were groans as the swimmers made their way back to the blocks. But the groans became shouts of protest when referee Annalise Eggert walked down the line behind the swimmers, passed Jager, and then turned around and came back to tab him as the one who was disqualified.

While Jager argued, the crowd broke into a chant: “Let him swim! Let him swim! Let him swim.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Biondi said. “I thought we were going to have anarchy. It was obvious that everyone wanted him to be there. But these things happen in sport. We’re all human. We can all make mistakes.”

Eggert might have made a mistake. A TV replay showed that if anyone went early, it was Steve Crocker, in Lane 5. Jager was in Lane 4.

Crocker said he didn’t go early. He believes he just had a wonderful start.

Biondi suggested that swimming officials should consider using the instant replay as does the National Football League when a call comes into question.

Jager, who said he has not been disqualified for a false start in at least 12 years, did nothing unusual on his start. And when Jager reviewed the videotape, he thought everyone was still. The rule states there can be no movement.

By the time Jager spoke with reporters, he had cooled considerably. Jay Fitzgerald, coach of Jager’s Santa Clara Swim Team, had stopped him in the hallway to suggest using restraint.

Jager is a competitor who relies heavily on his psyche. This time, all that pent-up energy was initially unleashed in the direction of Eggert.

“I probably should apologize for some of the things I said,” Jager said. “I was pretty keyed up. I’m not proud of the things I said.

“But I wouldn’t take back anything about the way they’ve got to learn to start the race. They have eight big guys up there about to make a decision by hundredths of seconds.”

Jager said that he didn’t expect to be disqualified.

“She passed me up and I didn’t really think about it, but when she started coming back, everyone had to be scared. She was just as scared as anyone. . . . Once she made a decision, more than anything, she didn’t want to back down from her original decision.”

On the restart, Todd Pace was disqualified for a false start.

The six swimmers left were cautious during the third start. Still, Biondi was pleased with his winning time of 22.36 seconds--not bad considering that he had started serious training only six weeks ago, after leaving the national water polo team. The time was a pool record, but it fell short of his 22.14-second swim in Seoul, which broke Jager’s world record and earned the gold medal.

Crocker was second in 22.47.

Neither Biondi nor Jager will represent the United States in the 50 at the Pan Pacific Games. Biondi has scheduling conflicts and will not attend. And now Jager isn’t qualified to compete.

Jager will, however, swim the 50 in the preliminary heats in Tokyo in what the swimmers call their “money swim.” If he doesn’t keep himself ranked in the top six in the world, he loses training money.

“Just don’t break the world record,” Biondi told him.

Stay tuned. There will be other high-profile matchups of the world’s best sprinters.

As Biondi reminded everyone: “We have a special event here, probably the most exciting event in swimming. Tom and I have one of the best rivalries in all sports. Anything can happen on any day.”

Unless, of course, nothing happens, as was the case in the national final. And heavyweight boxing fans thought they got robbed when the last Mike Tyson fight was called after 93 seconds.

Jager returned later in the evening to anchor the men’s 400-meter medley relay for Santa Clara, which was fourth.

Longhorn Aquatics ran away with team honors, winning both the men’s and women’s championships.

The men’s high-point winner was Dave Wharton of USC and Team Foxcatcher. Wharton added the men’s 200-meter individual medley title Friday night to finish ahead of Dan Jorgensen of USC and the Blue Fins Swim Club. Dan was more than 11 seconds behind his brother, Lars, in the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle.

Janet Evans of the Fullerton Aquatic Sports Team won her fourth national title of the meet and broke the pool record that Tiffany Cohen set during the 1984 Olympic Games, taking the women’s 800-meter freestyle in 8:22.11.

Evans holds the world record of 8:17.12, a mark she set early in 1988 before winning the gold medal in the event.