TRACK AND FIELD : Key for Kingdom Is More Olympic Gold

A two-time gold medalist and world record-holder in the high hurdles, Roger Kingdom says his goal is to win again in the 110-meter event at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

If he does, he would become the first high hurdler to win three Olympic titles.

Only Kingdom (1984, 1988) and Lee Calhoun (1956, 1960) have won consecutive gold medals in the technical and demanding event.

Kingdom, 27, has talked about concentrating on the decathlon, but has revised his priorities.

“I’m backing off that now,” he said. “People have helped me to realize what goals I would be sacrificing financially and the pride of achieving something historically.”

Kingdom, who will compete in the Jack in the Box Invitational track meet Sunday at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, had an exceptional season last year. He broke Renaldo Nehemiah’s world record of 12.93 seconds with a time of 12.92 in Zurich, Switzerland, and was recognized by Track & Field News as the 1989 male athlete of the year.

“I want to retain my position as the top-ranked hurdler through 1993,” Kingdom said. “I’m not trying to boast, but anyone coming after me better be ready to run in the high 12s or 13 zeroes.”

Kingdom will be confronted with a relatively new challenger this year--Tony Dees.

Dees, 26, is a late bloomer who has divided his time between sprinting and hurdling. He was unranked in the hurdles in 1989, but is coming on with a 13.09-second wind-aided performance in the recent Modesto Invitational.

“That 13.09 inspired me,” Kingdom said. “Now we have some more competition in the U.S. So let’s go.”

Kingdom, 6 feet and 200 pounds, attacks the hurdles, in contrast to smooth stylists such as Tonie Campbell and Nehemiah.

“I would describe my style as being very unique and aggressive,” Kingdom said. “It’s not the textbook style of hurdling. I started playing with the hurdles, trying to get over them the quickest, most relaxed and comfortable way as possible.

“So I put my lead leg down off the hurdle quickly while pulling my trail leg through. Sometimes it looks as if I’m twisted sideways, but I keep my hip rotation all the way down the track, and that makes it easier for my legs to go properly over the hurdles.

“Sometimes when you’re square going over the hurdles, you have to work your trail leg extra hard. If you’re already rotating, it’s something you don’t have to think about.”

Kingdom said that Nehemiah was his idol when he was a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh in 1982.

Then, Nehemiah left track to pursue a brief career with the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL.

He has returned to track and has had some creditable performances. But he doesn’t dominate the event as he once did.

“I talk with him a lot, try to boost him up,” Kingdom said, “and he gives me some pointers.

“I really admire him. He’s a helluva athlete. If he stays motivated, he’ll be back to the 13.1s. You can bet I’ll be talking trash to him to get him motivated.”

Kingdom, who will be making his 1990 outdoor debut Sunday, is bothered by allergies.

“As I’m talking to you now, I can hardly breathe and my eyes are watering,” he said. “With my colleagues, Larry Myricks and Greg Foster, being suspended, I have to suffer now because there isn’t a thing in the world I can take now.”

Myricks was suspended for three months by The Athletics Congress for taking a cold medicine containing a banned substance. Foster has a similar suspension because of a banned substance contained in some vitamins.

“Taking a cold medicine as a stimulant is ridiculous because you’d have to (overdose) to get enough in your system,” Kingdom said. “If you take that much, it will work against you because you don’t have control over your body.

“I remember that I once OD’d on cough syrup. I had no control over my body. The problem is that a lot of stuff that TAC suggests you take just doesn’t work because they don’t have anything (relieving medication) in them.”

For TAC, it’s now the Cold War.

Scott Huffman is the latest member of the United States’ 19-foot club in the pole vault. He cleared that height in the Modesto Invitational.

It was an orthodox vault for Huffman, a former Kansas vaulter, meaning that both legs went over the bar at the same time. But that isn’t the way he usually clears heights.

Huffman squirms over the bar with what he calls the Western roll, an old high-jumping technique.

“I call it ‘Huffing the bar,’ ” he said. “What triggers it is to get any part of your body over as possible.

“Normally, a vaulter goes up to the bar with with both feet straight up. Only my right foot goes straight up. I drop my left leg until it’s almost vertical.

“My right leg goes entirely over the bar, and my left leg is completely under and behind the bar. If I were to keep going that way, I would take the bar off between my legs.

“My left leg is the last thing to clear the bar. I’m now straddling the bar at which time I’m doing a roll, and then I do a 360-degree spin on the way down.”

The decision as to whether to “Huff” the bar or cross it more conventionally is made as he goes up.

Huffman, who won the pole vault with a then career-best jump of 18-8 1/4 last February at the Times/Eagle Indoor Games at the Forum, said his high-jump form while pole vaulting developed naturally for him.

“The first time I did it was in my freshman year at the Big Eight outdoor meet,” said Huffman, who will compete Sunday at Drake Stadium. “I made 18-5 1/2, which was a national freshman record. And I said to myself, ‘My goodness. What did I just do?’

“Other vaulters have said they’ve tried it and don’t see how I do it. I don’t think it’s anything you can work on.”

Track Notes

The Pacific 10 track and field meet begins Saturday at the University of Washington. At the outset of the season, the UCLA men’s team, which has won the Pac-10 title the past three years, was favored to win again. However, numerous injuries have reduced the Bruins to underdogs. In a poll of conference track coaches, Oregon was the favored team. . . . The UCLA’s women’s team is favored to win its fourth consecutive Pac-10 title.

Two-time Olympian Diana Richburg will not run her 800-meter specialty in the Jack in the Box meet because she suffered bruises when she was struck by a truck after a workout at the University of Florida Thursday. Correction from April 30 column: It was Jim Bailey, not Jim Beatty, who ran the first sub-4-minute mile in the United States.