U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : TRACK AND FIELD : Young Makes Himself at Home in 400 Hurdles

All things considered, Kevin Young of the Santa Monica Track Club was glad he chose to compete in--and win--the 400-meter intermediate hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Festival at UCLA’s Drake Stadium on Sunday, and not at the New York Games on Saturday.

Young would have liked to have had another shot at countryman Danny Harris, The Athletics Congress champion who won the New York Games, but after coming back from a disappointing opening swing on the European circuit, Young, a Los Angeles native and former Bruin, was content to stay at home and train.

“I would like to have been back there and run against that competition,” said Young, who also ran the first leg for the victorious West 1,600-meter relay team that was timed in 3 minutes 4.42 seconds.

“But I’m basically tired of traveling. I went over to Europe and was supposed to run four races, and instead I only ended up running two and sitting around a lot. After that, I just wanted to come back here and train.”

One of the races Young ran in Europe was in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 10, when Harris ran a personal best and year’s best time of 47.38 seconds. Young finished a well-beaten third in 48.45, but he learned a lesson from his defeat.

“I’ve been a little too concerned with what I’m doing in races, instead of just going out and running like I did in college,” Young said. “Danny has just been running extremely fast. His attitude right now is to be competitive in races and just run.

“That’s what I’m working toward. I just want to run as comfortably as possible and let it happen.”

He accomplished his mission Sunday, running a very controlled race to win in 48.43 before an announced crowd of 4,728.

Torrance Zellner led the field through the first four flights of hurdles, but Young took over at the midway point and defeated runner-up Nat Page (49.30) by almost a second.

“This race was an improvement (mentally) over the previous ones,” said Young, the runner-up at TAC. “It was slightly windy on the backstretch, but I’m so used to this track that it didn’t bother me. I’m happy with the way I ran between the eighth and 10th hurdles. That part of the race has been giving me problems.”

Leo Williams, who won the men’s high jump for the Naval Academy at the 1981 NCAA championships, cleared 7 feet 5 1/4 inches to win the event for the North. Doug Nordquist cleared the same height for the West, but finished second on the tiebreaker.

In women’s events, Donna Mayhew threw a season-best 200-3 to win the javelin, Cindy Greiner won the long jump in 21-2 3/4, and Ramona Pagel won the shotput in 58-9 1/4.