Witherspoon Upsets Burrell, Lewis in 100 in Italian Meet

Mark Witherspoon surprisingly beat Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell in the 100-meter dash, and Olympic gold medalists Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Roger Kingdom were beaten in the Rieti international track and field meet Sunday.

Witherspoon used a strong finish to take the 100 in 10.13 seconds, one-hundredth of a second ahead of the fast-starting Lewis, the world record-holder and two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Burrell, who had won 20 of 21 races this year, finished third in 10.25. He owns the year’s fastest times in the 100, 9.96, run at Sestriere, Italy, in August.

Joyner-Kersee, the 1988 Olympic champion in the long jump and heptathlon, lost twice.

Competing for the first time since suffering a leg injury during the Goodwill Games in July, Joyner-Kersee finished second in the long jump and third in the 100-meter high hurdles.

East German Heike Drechsler won the long jump at 23 feet 6 1/4 inches, to Joyner-Kersee’s 23-4 1/4.

In the hurdles, Gloria Siebert of West Germany won in 12.80, with Aliuska Lopez of Cuba second in 12.86 and Joyner-Kersee next in 13.03.

Kingdom, the two-time Olympic champion and world record-holder in the 110-meter hurdles, wound up fourth in 13.39, behind three other Americans. Tony Dees won in 13.29, with Tonie Campbell second in 13.31 and Courtney Hawkins third in 13.38.