Milers Steal Spotlight at UCLA : High Jump and Long Jump Records Remain Intact

The first Jack in the Box Invitational meet will be remembered by many in the crowd of 7,815 at UCLA’s Drake Stadium not for the athletes’ accomplishments but for their failures.

Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor did not clear eight feet again in the high jump. Larry Myricks and Mike Powell did not break the 21-year-old world record in the long jump. No one ran fast enough to attract more than a passing notice in the world’s track and field capitals, such as Zurich, Oslo and Cologne.

But the day was not wasted for those fans who can enjoy the simple pleasures of spending a pleasant afternoon in the sun, even if it is only to watch the likes of Claude Akins, Garrett Morris, Will Wheaton, Richard Roundtree and Sen. Alan Cranston in the Celebrity “Make a Wish” Relay.

And for some of the athletes, the results were everything they could have wished for and more.

Doug Padilla, considered better at longer distances, won the men’s mile in a personal best of 3:54.2, beating a field that included U.S. Olympians Jeff Atkinson, who was third in 3:55.3, and Steve Scott, who was fifth in 3:57.1.

Suzy Favor, three-time National Collegiate Athletic Assn. 1,500-meter champion from the University of Wisconsin, ran the fastest time of the year outdoors by an American in the women’s mile, 4:27.31, to beat PattiSue Plumer, who was second in 4:29.21.

Ray Brown won the men’s 800 meters in an unspectacular time of 1:47.50. But among those chasing him at the finish was the world’s second-ranked half-miler from last year, Johnny Gray, who finished fifth in 1:48.27.

Cuba’s Ana Quirot, ranked first in the world last year in the women’s 800 meters, ran the first half of that race in a world-record pace, came to her senses on the second lap and still set a stadium record of 1:59.54.

Among the other winners were two-time Olympic champion Roger Kingdom, whose 13.22 in the 110-meter hurdles beat Olympic bronze medalist Tonie Campbell’s 13.34, and Olympic silver medalist Randy Barnes, who put the shot 70 feet 7 inches.

None of those athletes received much pre-meet attention because of the presence of Sotomayor, the 21-year-old Cuban who only nine days ago became the first person to clear eight feet in the high jump, and also because of meet promoter Al Franken’s offer of $500,000 to the first man to break Bob Beamon’s long jump record of 29-2 1/2, which was set in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Telling it like it is, one of the long jump hopefuls, Myricks, called it “good hype.” One of those doing the hyping was Beamon, who was on the scene as an analyst for ESPN.

As for the jumps, they were not so good.

Myricks, a four-time Olympian and bronze medalist last year at Seoul, had only one legal jump, which was good enough to win at 27-11 1/2. Of his five fouls, three probably would have been measured at over 28 feet but would not have threatened Beamon’s record.

The other competitor considered most likely to challenge the record, Olympic silver medalist Mike Powell, finished second at 27-5 1/2.

The crowd helped as much as it could, clapping rythmically for Powell and Myricks before their final jumps. Both said they were pleased to be noticed in an event that usually has eyes only for two-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis, who did not compete because, quite frankly, he did not feel like it.

Over at the high jump pit, Sotomayor seemed as if he had rather been with Lewis.

In his first competition since his historic jump in a meet at San Juan, Puerto Rico, he won at 7-8 1/2 over a field that included Hollis Conway, the American record-holder who finished second at 7-6 1/2. Sotomayor then missed three times at 7-10 1/2, which would have been the highest jump ever in the United States.

So what have you done for us lately?

“I did not have my concentration today,” said Sotomayor, who seemed a little agitated at that line of questioning by some reporters after his performance. “I was not that stimulated and was not up for the meet.

“I haven’t thought about how high I can go, but I only do 7-10 1/2 about once or twice a year, and eight feet is not something I can be expected to do often.”