Mayhew Comes Up Short in Javelin : Goodwill Games: Glendale athlete places fourth, nearly 10 feet behind Soviet winner.

Donna Mayhew’s goal Wednesday was the same as it has been in every competition for the 15 years she has thrown the javelin.

Forget the other athletes. Forget the prestigious records. Forget the medals.

It is Mayhew vs. herself. And the tape.

If Mayhew has learned anything in the decade she has been among the United States’ top throwers it is not to measure herself by other people’s standards.

She measures herself against 208 feet 10 inches. That’s her personal best.

A similar effort Wednesday would have been good enough for gold in the Goodwill Games at the University of Washington.

Instead, Mayhew’s mark of 192-4 placed her fourth. Natalya Shikolenko of the Soviet Union won the gold medal with an effort of 202-2--well within Mayhew’s reach on an average day.

An extra foot would have given her a share of the bronze medal. Karin Smith of Los Osos, Calif., was third at 193-4.

Was Mayhew frustrated? She was. But not for the expected reason.

“I know it’s there,” Mayhew said, “but I’m just missing right now. The power is all there, but I’m a little off.”

Unfortunately, in Mayhew’s event a little can mean a lot in terms of distance.

“My goal today was the same as always,” Mayhew, a Glendale resident, said by telephone afterward. “I wanted a (personal record). But I’ve been changing a few things. I just have to be patient.”

After a decade and a half of throwing the javelin, Mayhew can be considered a veteran-in-training.

She has a new personal coach, John Turek of Cal State Los Angeles, and an arsenal of new techniques.

“It’s really pretty elementary stuff,” Mayhew said. “I’m mostly just trying to get my legs in front of my upper body. It’s stuff I had to learn, I just never did. You walk before you can run, usually, but the way I learned it was the other way around.”

So, at age 30, Mayhew is undergoing basic training.

“You can still throw until the mid-30s, I guess,” she said. “I’ll stay around for the ’92 Olympics and see what happens.”

Mayhew approached her personal best with a toss of 208-1 at the United States vs. Great Britain and Kenya meet in Portsmouth, England, in June. Since then she has been “around the 190s.”

“Today was about par for me lately,” Mayhew said. “I’m looking to get the big jumps--there’s a 20-foot one in there--but to do it, it’s not just one thing that has to come together. It’s alignment, getting your arms back with a long pull and getting your legs back.

“You work on one at a time and hope it all falls into place. “

Mayhew has been in Europe most of the summer and plans to return there to compete on the Grand Prix circuit. She has participated in only three Grand Prix events so far, so she will have to place high to earn enough points to advance to the finals in Athens on Sept. 7.

She hopes to improve a little each step of the way until the elusive big one--the perfect throw--is finally turned in.

“I’ve really only been working with John since March and I know these changes don’t take place overnight,” Mayhew said. “That’s hard for people to understand. Sometimes it’s hard for me to understand.”

But even if Mayhew never sets another javelin record--the world mark, by the way, is 262-5, held by Petra Felke of East Germany--it doesn’t mean she’ll be through as a record-breaking athlete.

Upon the conclusion of her throwing career, Mayhew might well become one of the nation’s top weightlifters. She won the only competition she has entered in the 75-kilogram (165.3-pound) classification.

Mayhew lifted 72 1/2 kilograms (159.8 pounds) in the snatch and 92 1/2 kilograms (203.9 pounds) in the clean and jerk to defeat, among others, Carol Louise, a former Olympic Festival competitor.

How did she grade that performance?

“Well,” Mayhew said, “it wasn’t a record, but . . .”