UC IRVINE INVITATIONAL : Brazilian Sets Meet Record for 800 Meters

Jose Luiz Barbosa of Brazil broke the meet record for 800 meters Sunday at the UC Irvine Invitational, winning the race in 1 minute 48.78 seconds.

Barbosa, who lives and trains in San Diego, broke the mark of 1:51.22 set by Canada’s Neil Chomos in 1988. Gilmar Santos, also of Brazil, finished second in 1:49.9 Sunday.

Barbosa set a fast pace from the start, finishing 400 meters in 51.8 seconds. Santos trailed him and the rest of the field was already out of contention. Barbosa easily outkicked Santos for the victory.

The race marked the first outdoor competition of the year for Barbosa, a 1988 Olympian who was ranked ninth in the world at 800 meters last year by Track and Field News.

“I went out as hard as I could,” said Barbosa, who is coached by Luiz Oliveira and competed Sunday for the Oliveira Track Club.

“It was a battle between me and the clock and basically I’m happy with the performance, especially since it is my first competition,” Barbosa said.

Oliveira said his runner’s training has gone well and the two are pointing for the upcoming World Championships in Tokyo in late August.

“We’ve been training hard and doing speed work,” Oliveira said. “But when middle-distance runners do speed work, they tend to go down in performance first, before they go up.”

Barbosa agreed, adding, “Things are going right on track now and we’re doing our best, but the World Championships are far off.”

Though some of the big-name athletes scheduled to compete at the invitational failed to show up, there were still performers of note, especially in the field events.

American Dave Johnson, who had the best score in the world last year in the decathlon (8,600) and was ranked second in the world, competed in the shotput, discus and pole vault. Johnson, who won the decathlon at the Mt. San Antonio Relays last week with 8,267 points, had a personal best in the shot Sunday with a toss of 50 feet 3/4 inches. He cleared 16-4 3/4 in the pole vault to finish in fifth and finished seventh in the discus at 158-5.

Nigeria’s Ade Olukoju won the discus at 212-3, breaking the meet record of 206-3, set by Italy’s Luciano Zebrini in 1989.

Great Britain’s Daley Thompson, two-time Olympic decathlon gold medalist, also competed, placing fifth in the open discus at 151-0.

Mike Powell, silver medalist in the long jump at the 1988 Olympics and a member of the UC Irvine and UCLA teams, finished fifth in the invitational 100 in a time of 10.68. Azusa Pacific’s Osmund Ezinwa won in 10.36.

In the triple jump, Robert Cannon won with a jump of 54-11 1/4. Conor McCullough finished first in the hammer with a throw of 215-11, and UCI’s Mike Morales was second at 205-6 mark. Mike Barnett won the javelin at 239-1.

In the invitational 800-meter relay, the Stars & Stripes team of Ray Brown, Jeff Williams, Terry Johnson and Neil Da Silva won in 1:22.98. Great Britain’s team of Michael Adams, Tony Jarrett, Clarence Calendar and Olympian John Regis finished second in 1:23.02. Regis had a five-meter lead before Da Silva edged him at the finish.