Joyner-Kersee Pushes Too Hard, Pulls Up : World Track: After suffering an ankle injury while winning the long jump, her hamstring gives out in the heptathlon.

After years of pushing her body to the limit, Jackie Joyner-Kersee went too far this week at the World Championships.

On Sunday night, while winning the long jump competition, she suffered an injury to her right ankle that she feared at first might be career threatening.

Even so, she taped the ankle--expensive treatment considering that she had to use a 5,000-yen note ($37.45) to protect her skin from the adhesive--and carried on, taking one last jump.

Less than 12 hours later, she returned to the National Stadium for the start of the heptathlon competition. Through the first three events Monday, the ankle injury was no more than a nuisance. Entering the final event of the day, the 200 meters, she was only 11 points behind her world-record pace.

But 90 meters into the race, as she was coming off the curve, her face suddenly became contorted with pain. She began hobbling on her left leg, taking about 10 more steps before collapsing on the track. Minutes later, with coach-husband Bob Kersee and brother Al Joyner at her side, she was carried to the medical center on a stretcher.

Her attempt to win a second consecutive heptathlon title at the World Championships was finished, as was a 12-meet winning streak that began in 1985. During that streak, she set a world record four times. The last time she did not win was at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where she finished second after being hampered by a sore left hamstring that was injured the year before in the World Championships at Helsinki, Finland.

This time, said her physical therapist, Bob Forster, the injury was to her right hamstring. He said that it was strained, that she could begin working out again in six weeks and that it should only be a painful memory by the time she reaches Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Still, the injury, which Forster speculated was related to the one she suffered Sunday night, raised questions about whether Joyner-Kersee, 29, should have been jumping after she twisted the ankle so badly that her foot was turned parallel to the take-off board. It was a gruesome sight on television replays.

Asked about that Monday morning, she said she took the last jump because Kersee said she should. But Kersee said he only wanted her to test the ankle and run through the long-jump pit if she felt pain, a version that Al Joyner verified.

“That was her idea to jump,” he said. “It’s like Bobby says, the only one who can stop Jackie is Jackie. She has only one gear, and that’s all out.”

Her zealousness in the long jump appeared irrelevant when she arrived at the track Monday, ready to compete in the first four of seven events in the heptathlon.

She was tentative in the morning, running the 100-meter hurdles in 12.96 seconds, substandard for her. But she surged ahead of her world-record pace with a 6-foot-3 1/4 high jump and had a decent enough shotput, 50-2 1/2, to begin thinking about another world record. Winning the event was a foregone conclusion as she already had a 165-point lead over Germany’s Sabine Braun.

Until she broke down, her 200 appeared to be a fast one. She said she was looking for a time of 22.80, more than a second faster than any of the other competitors actually ran. The leader entering today’s final three events, China’s Yuqing Zhu, had the second-fastest time in the 200 with a 23.86.

“She ran the curve like I’ve never seen her run it before,” Joyner said of his sister, who at that point in the race looked more like his wife, Florence Griffith Joyner, who holds the world record in the 200. “I thought she was going to break Florence’s record. She was moving.”

Said Kersee: “That’s as great as I’ve seen her run since Seoul. Unfortunately, her ankle couldn’t take the pronation of the curve. You have to be willing to go after the world record. You have to be willing to pull every muscle in your body, and she pulled one.”

When reporters approached her, Joyner-Kersee was near tears, but quickly regained her composure.

“I’m very disappointed,” she said. “It’s sad to say, but this is probably a blessing in disguise. I don’t leave here with the gold medal, but I can start over again at next year’s Olympic Games. I’m not a new kid on the block, but I’ll have some incentive.”

U.S. heptathlete Cindy Greiner, who is in sixth place, said she will miss Joyner-Kersee today.

“This stinks,” she said. “Everything is up for grabs, but it takes a lot of luster out of the event. It’s no fun to compete without her there.”