400/800 VISION : Sherri Howard Eyes Challenging Double in Barcelona Olympics

Sherri Howard has seen a lot of athletes come and go since she burst onto the United States track and field scene 11 years ago, but it takes her only seconds to name the ones who have made the biggest impression on her.

Cubans Alberto Juantorena and Ana Quirot and Czechoslovakian Jarmila Kratochvilova have left an indelible mark on Howard because they won the 400 and 800 meters in major championships.

Juantorena won both events in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. And Kratochvilova won the women’s 400 and 800 in the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, and Quirot, a Juantorena protege, matched Kratochvilova’s feat in the World Cup in Barcelona last year.

So why have they made a bigger impression on Howard--a veteran in the 400--than compatriots Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses and Evelyn Ashford?

Because she wants to follow in their footsteps.

Despite her lack of 800 experience, Howard insists that a 400/800 double in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona is an attainable goal.

“No American (woman) has ever done what those three have,” said Howard, a 1980 graduate of Kennedy High and three-time U. S. Olympian. “But I think I can accomplish what they have.”

Some skeptics might dismiss that statement as idle talk, but Howard has carefully analyzed the proposition.

“This is not something that is done overnight,” she said. “This is something that you have to develop into. I’ve thought very heavily about it. . . . But I see no reason why I cannot do it. (Quirot) and I are basically one and the same athlete. She’s 27, I’m 28. She’s about 130 pounds, I’m 125.

“We are basically the same size as far as muscle density and mass. I cannot see why I cannot do what she is doing.”

Still, Howard has never run a competitive 800. Her personal best of 2 minutes 9.6 seconds, set in a workout more than five years ago, is well off the qualifying mark of 1:59.40 for the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo.

Eugene Howard, Sherri’s father and longtime coach, figures that his daughter’s training regimen isn’t that different from other 800 runners. He concedes, however, that she has a lot to learn about racing tactics.

“She’s been running 800s in workouts for a long time,” Eugene said. “So that won’t be new to her, but it will be a learning process. We’ll experiment with the 800 in 1991, then take what we learn and apply it to the Olympic Trials in 1992.”

Howard tentatively plans to run some 800-meter races early next season, hoping to qualify for The Athletics Congress Championships in June, then attempt the 400/800 double at the TAC meet, which acts as the U. S. trials for the World Championships.

“Next year will no doubt be an experience,” said Howard, who lives with her parents in Sylmar. “It will be a time for me to learn about the (800) and to become more knowledgeable about it.”

Howard’s sister Denean, a three-time Olympian, is not surprised that Sherri is contemplating a 400/800 double.

“Sherri has always been a very competitive and hard-working person,” said Denean, 25, who ranks fourth on the all-time U. S. list in the 400 (49.87). “She loves to challenge herself and a double will definitely do that.”

Despite their physical similarities, Howard and Quirot have vastly different backgrounds when it comes to injuries.

While the Cuban has had a relatively injury-free career, Howard has been hampered by numerous physical ailments, including stress fractures, bone spurs and chronic problems with her Achilles’ tendons.

On three occasions, the injuries have required surgery. Yet Howard has persevered.

In 1980, shortly after graduating from Kennedy, Howard won the 400 in the U. S. Olympic Trials despite a fractured bone in her left foot, which eventually led to bone spurs. She missed the Olympics, however, a victim of then-President Carter’s boycott of the Moscow Games.

In 1984, Howard ran the second leg of the 1,600 relay in the Los Angeles Olympics. Despite a stress fracture in her right foot, she blew the race open with a 48.83 split, the fastest of the Games by a woman.

Four years later, Howard, suffering from tendinitis in both of her Achilles’ tendons, ran the second leg in the 1,600 relay heats of the Seoul Olympics to help the U. S. team reach the final. She took home a silver medal for her efforts.

“It got to the point (in 1988) where I felt that if I didn’t run with an injury, I wouldn’t be that sharp,” Howard said. “But then I thought, ‘Just think how much faster I could run if I were healthy.’

“I know what I can do when I’m injured. I’d like to see what I could do if I were completely healthy.”

Her father, a retired Air Force sergeant, figures she can post some extraordinary times if she is physically unencumbered.

“I feel she can run a world-record time (47.60) in the 400,” he said. “Both she and Denean are capable of doing that. Sherri’s 48.83 in 1984 with a stress fracture showed me how much potential she has.”

No one has doubted Sherri’s potential, not since she and three of her five sisters rewrote the national high school record books in 1979.

As a junior at San Gorgonio High in San Bernardino, Sherri and her sisters Artra (then a senior); Tina (a sophomore); and Denean (a freshman), lowered the national high school record in the mile relay four times that season en route to a best of 3:44.05 in the state championships.

“That one race stands out the most in my mind because it was with my family,” Sherri said. “The other races have been great for me, but it’s nothing like that bond.

“Setting that record with my sisters was, and still is, very special. . . . The Olympics can always be repeated, but that point in time cannot.”

Later that summer, the Howards moved from San Bernardino to Granada Hills, and the record-setting continued at Kennedy.

Artra had graduated, but with senior Sheryl Thompson replacing her on the 400 relay and sophomore Kelley Cook taking her place in the 1,600 relay, the Golden Cougars lowered the national record to 45.81 in the shorter relay and to 3:37.98 in the longer race and won both events in the 1980 state championships.

With Sherri winning the 200 and placing second in the 100, and Denean taking the 400 title, Kennedy also won the team title.

The best was yet to come, however, as Sherri and Denean placed first (51.48) and third (51.70) in the 400 in the Olympic Trials in late June, the first time that two sisters had qualified for the U. S. team in the same event.

“That was very special,” Sherri recalled. “Not because I won, but because we both made the team. After winning the TAC title, everyone expected me to make the team, but Denean was a dark horse.”

Denean went on to win an unprecedented three consecutive TAC 400 titles from 1981-83, but Sherri missed almost all of the ’81 and ’83 seasons--and she ran only 52.06 in ’82.

Sherri regained her health as 1984 began but injured her right foot when she stopped abruptly during a workout to avoid running into someone. She still finished fourth in the 400 (in a personal-best 50.40) in the Olympic Trials, then, at the Games, she popped the big second leg in the finals of the 1,600 relay to help the U. S. team to then-Olympic-record time of 3:18.29.

After recovering from the double stress fracture, Howard started 1985 in good health, and although she won the NCAA 400 title for Cal State Los Angeles that year, she injured her left knee and underwent arthroscopic surgery after the season.

After injury-hampered seasons in 1986 and ‘87, Howard placed fifth in the 400 in the 1988 Olympic Trials--making her third U. S. team as a relay member--but she never got into a racing groove that year.

“I had a lot of things going on in my life besides track,” Howard said. “I was working toward my degree in electrical engineering and that put a lot of stress on me.”

The pressure from school adversely affected the stressed Achilles’ tendons, according to her father.

“Most people don’t realize it, but intense studying takes nearly as much out of a person as a hard workout,” he said. “So in 1988, Sherri was really putting herself through a lot. . . . And it showed in her injuries.”

Sherri has kept a low athletic profile since 1988, giving her Achilles’ tendons time to heal while she pursued other interests such as modeling and acting. But now that she is healthy, Denean and Sherri are intent on making the 1992 Olympic team.

While Sherri is anticipating the 400/800 double, Denean, who placed sixth in the 400 in the 1988 Olympics and ran the first leg on the 1,600 relay, has her sights set on a gold medal in the 400.

“Both of them have at least six good years left in them,” Eugene said. “They’re both out of school, so they can channel their energy into track and field. And that will make a huge difference in their performances.”

Denean, the mother of a year-old son, is hesitant to predict how long she will compete. “It’s hard to say what I’ll do after ‘92,” but Sherri figures running in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta would be a perfect way to cap her career.

“Until I get comfortable with what I’ve done in this sport, I will never quit altogether,” Sherri said. “But if I accomplish what I think I can in the next few years, that might be easier to do.”

SHERRI HOWARD’S CAREER

Year Age Team/Club Best Time USR WL USL 1978 16 Eielson High 25.05 (200m) -- -- -- (Alaska) 59.0 (400m) -- -- -- 1979 17 San Gorgonio High 23.43 -- -- 11 51.09 2 11 1 1980 18 Kennedy High 23.19 10 42 5 51.48 1 25 1 1981 19 Did not run Injured -- -- -- 1982 20 L.A. Naturite 23.7 -- -- 46t 52.06 7 46 6 1983 21 Did not run Injured -- -- -- 1984 22 CS Los Angeles 22.97 9 -- 8 50.40 4 17 4 1985 23 CS Los Angeles 23.76 -- -- 37t 50.95 4 17 5 1986 24 CS Los Angeles 23.19 -- -- 21 52.55 -- -- 23 1987 25 Stars & Stripes TC 23.42 -- -- 32 52.69 -- -- 23t 1988 26 Tyson TC 23.2 -- -- 27t 51.63 6 43 10 1989 27 Did not run Injured -- -- -- 1990 28 Did not run Injured -- -- --

USR (United States ranking); WL (Place on world performer list); USL (Place on the U. S. performer list). FINISHES IN MAJOR MEETS: 1979: The Athletics Congress 400, 3rd; Olympic Festival 400, 1st; TAC Jr. 400, 1st 1980: Olympic Trials 400, 1st; TAC 400, 1st 1982: TAC 400, 6th in semifinal; Olympic Festival 400, 2nd 1984: Olympic Trials 400, 4th; NCAA 100, 6th, 200, 4th 1985: TAC 400, 8th; NCAA 400, 1st; NCAA 200, 3rd 1986: NCAA 400, 9th; NCAA 200, disqualified for false start in heats 1987: TAC 400, 6th in semifinal 1988: Olympic Trials 400, 5th