Harris on Upswing, Searching for No. 1 : Track and field: Hurdler faded out of the 400-meter picture three years ago after ending Edwin Moses’ winning streak at 107. Now, he is undefeated and has the world’s best time this year.

The scene at UC Irvine’s track stadium last week was as it usually is each summer morning--tranquil, serene, unhurried, and amid these quiet surroundings world-class hurdler Danny Harris focuses on his world-class intentions.

“I want to be ranked No. 1 in the world this year,” said Harris, 24. “And I want it bad.”

Six years ago at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Harris became an Olympic silver medalist at 18 when he finished second to Edwin Moses in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. Three years later, Harris gained more notoriety when he ended Moses’ decade-long, 107-race winning streak at a meet in Madrid, Spain.

But since, Harris, who had once been described as the heir apparent to Moses’ impressive legacy, has met disappointment.

At the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials, Harris finished fifth in the 400 hurdles--missing the U.S. team by two places. And in 1989, after moving from Ames, Iowa, to Santa Monica, Harris had his worst season.

But now, Harris, a three-time NCAA champion from Iowa State who moved to Irvine last fall, is on an upswing.

With a 48.3-second victory at Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 20; a 47.62 at Seville, Spain, May 30; and a 47.77 at Madrid, June 6, Harris is undefeated and leads the world with the three fastest times of 1990.

“I think it’s remarkable for anybody--even Edwin Moses--to run this fast and this consistently this early,” said Jon Hendershott of Track & Field News.

Harris, a former state hurdles champion from Perris High School, is not quite as surprised. Last fall, with a push from his girlfriend, Swedish 800-meter runner Maria Akraka, he began a strenuous training program that included 30-minute runs in the morning and longer-distance track workouts in the afternoon.

For Harris, who usually wouldn’t train the last three months of the year, this was a significant and successful change.

But perhaps more significant was Harris’ decision to adjust his attitude after the disappointments of ’88 and ’89.

“(Not making the 1988 Olympic team,) It was trauma of the worst kind,” said Harris, who re-injured a hamstring in a tuneup race a week before the trials.

“You know, after you’ve been on an Olympic team--at 18--you know what it was like. You know what it’s like to get the accolades from the crowd, you know what it’s like when they announce your name as being an (Olympic) team member, you know the process the people go through after you make the team, getting their uniforms and getting their gear . . . it’s just like (being part of) a special little family.

“I was quite depressed after the trials. I thought I had done everything I could to prepare myself. . . . For the rest of ‘88, I ran OK. I ended up the season with a 48.04 in Greece. I felt pretty good about that, but the season was over. Everybody else was in Seoul and I was in Ames, watching it on TV.”

A few months later, Harris decided to leave Ames--where, competing for Iowa State he had been undefeated in collegiate competition from 1984-86--to Santa Monica, hoping new surroundings might be stimulating. But, away from his coach, Steve Lynn, and a structured environment, Harris got worse.

“1989 was a terrible year--my worst year I ever had,” he said. “Not being focused, not having a coach, or a set plan . . . I mean, I would go to practice some days and some days I would choose not to.”

It showed. Harris was ranked only fourth in the world by Track & Field News last year, his lowest since 1984.

“You know when it comes time to race, and you know how many days you’ve put into practice, well, when you go out there on the track, confidence is something that you need in abundance,” he said. “You don’t need to be second-guessing yourself.

“Well, I found myself many times on the line getting ready to start a race . . . thinking back to that Thursday, those 300s that you missed, wishing you had got them down because you know that you’ll be needing them here in the next 48 seconds.

“Last year I lost some races that there was no way I should have lost. I’d never run a 50 (second) race in Europe in my life and I’d never run, I don’t think, more than three 49s. So to have a season like I had last year, it was . . . terrible.

“But I think that was a really big growth period for me. I did a lot of growing up as a person, and as an athlete. Because when you have something that’s taken away from you, I mean you’ll do either one of two things. You’ll either lie down and let it happen to you, or you’ll get back up and start fighting back.

“And this is my get-up-and-fight-back year right here.”

Harris considers his top threats to be Andre Phillips, 1988 Olympic gold medalist who is currently injured, former UCLA star Kevin Young, the world’s top-ranked intermediate hurdler in 1989, and Jamaica’s Winthrop Graham, who won the NCAA title last year for Texas.

“That’s it,” Harris said.

But what of the legendary Moses, 34, who still holds the world record at 47.02?

“Edwin? . . . I think for one race, he can still be as good as anyone in the world,” said Harris, who ran his career-best of 47.48 in finishing second to Moses at the 1987 World Championships at Rome.

“In a three-series race, I think (Moses) might have a little bit of tougher time, uh, because it’s more taxing,” Harris said. “But I’d like to see him out on the track again. . . . “You know, I never even took a victory lap when I beat Edwin. I think from the moment I crossed the finish line, it was like a dream. Although I realized what I had done, it wasn’t really until the next day, flying back, where it really sunk in. I read the paper on the plane, saw myself in the paper, but it wasn’t really until then that I said, ‘Hey you’ve done something good , Danny.’ ”