Finn Slips Mickey to Ashford 100 Hopes : Track and field: An 11.20-second sprint is enough to take women’s title in national championships.

Michelle Finn may have been the only person at the USA/Mobil National Track and Field Championships Friday who wasn’t surprised when she won the women’s 100-meter dash.

A consistent 11.20-second sprinter, Finn, a gold medalist in the 55 meters at this year’s indoor championships, is a legitimate threat at almost any event she enters. But this was the 100 meters, and Evelyn Ashford--at least until Friday--practically owned the distance through the preliminaries.

That might have explained the reaction of a stunned audience when Finn won in 11.20 seconds, followed by Carlette Guidry (11.25) and Ashford (11.30).

“I’ve run this race probably 20 times through my head since yesterday (Thursday),” Finn said after the race. “Winning it was no surprise to me.”

In Thursday’s 100-meter semifinals, Finn ran a personal best of 11.13 and had hoped to better her performance Friday.

“I’m more pleased with the win than the time,” she said. “But I’ll take it.”

Finn’s next goal is to repeat her performance in the Goodwill Games next month in Seattle.

“That’s what I’ve been working for all year,” Finn said. “I wanted to win here and I wanted to run fast here. But I want to really run fast in the Goodwill Games. That’s been my goal all year long.”

Finn, who has been practicing without a coach, said this meet was rewarding.

“I really appreciate the win, because I feel it’s something that I’ve done by myself,” Finn said. “It feels good because it’s been such a long, hard road getting here. All year long, I’ve been training on my own. No one there to watch me everyday, (or to) be the eye that I can’t. That made this a little special.”

But whereas emotions ran high for Finn, Ashford showed tension.

“I am surprised (Finn won),” Ashford said. “I expected to win, and I don’t know what happened.”

Ashford ran a satisfying 11.09 last month in Japan, and said that she had envisioned Friday’s 100-meter final as a climax to an otherwise successful winter and spring.

Sitting in the press tent an hour after the race, Ashford looked beaten.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Ashford, slouching in the interview chair, with her daughter squirming on her lap. “I guess from here I go back to the drawing board. I don’t know what I did wrong, but my husband saw lots of mistakes.

“I felt sluggish coming out of the blocks too. Maybe . . . oh . . . God, I’m in better shape than I showed here today.”

It was difficult to tell from the looks of things: the child, the husband, the tough questions about losing, of all things. But Ashford thought her most distinguished career--including setting a world record 10.76 in the 100 meters in 1984 and winning gold medals in the 100 meters and 4x100 in the 1984 Olympics, and a gold medal in the 4x100 in the 1988 Olympics--was coming to full flower.

A graduate of UCLA, Ashford, 33, has also participated in three Olympics (‘76, ‘84, ‘88), a rare feat for sprinters, but Friday, none of that seemed to mean too much.

In reflection, Ashford tried to sum things up, saying, “Michelle is a consistent runner, and she ran consistently today. It was my time that was slow.”