TRACK AND FIELD : For Lewis, Powell and Bubka, 1991 an Award-Winning Year

The results are in and the athletes of the year have been announced by numerous organizations. Three track and field athletes have figured prominently in the voting--Carl Lewis, Mike Powell and Sergei Bubka.

Lewis, who broke the world record at 100 meters last season, was named the sportsman of the year by the U.S. Olympic Committee. Powell, who broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old world record in the long jump, was named the winner of the Jesse Owens International Trophy.

But Track & Field News named pole vaulter Sergei Bubka its male athlete of the year, after he had bettered his own world record eight times. It’s hard to argue with any of the choices. All are deserving, for different reasons.

Say what you will about Lewis, but give him credit for big-time performances at big events. The man is not a choker. He proved that again by beating Powell in the long jump on his last attempt at the national championships last summer.

And even though he lost to Powell in Tokyo, remember that it took a world record to beat Lewis and end his 65-meet, 10-year winning streak in the long jump. Remember, too, that Lewis’ series was his best. He jumped 29 feet for the first time in his career and did it three times and he had a wind-aided jump farther than Beamon’s record.

Lewis’ incredible 100-meter record of 9.86 seconds was also noteworthy, seeing as how he ran it against the fastest field ever assembled.

Powell quieted doubters as he left his perennial also-ran status in breaking the oldest and most revered individual record in track and field--29 feet 2 1/2 inches. Many had expected Lewis to break that record.

Instead, it was Powell at 29-4 1/2 and, as Lewis had done at the TAC meet, Powell won under tremendous pressure. And he won with a graciousness that Lewis might learn from.

Bubka’s record year of records--four indoors and four outdoors, first person over 20 feet--was all the more impressive considering the turmoil in the former Soviet Union. Bubka, a Ukrainian, was competing at Tokyo only days after the failed Soviet coup. He also vaulted with severely bruised heels that required painkilling shots.

Again, speaking of pressure, Bubka would have finished sixth had he not cleared his winning jump.

It was not a stellar year for women in 1991. No women’s world records were set, for only the second time in 71 years.

Some attribute that to the changes in Eastern Europe, a stronghold for women’s track and field. No longer are these athletes in the former Soviet Bloc supported by the state and provided with coaches and training facilities.

A more likely explanation, however, is that drug use is at an all-time low. Testing in most countries is intensified. More athletes are being caught and suspended. And anabolic steroids are thought to have a more profound effect on women athletes than on men.

So, in a mediocre year, the female athlete has to be sprinter Katrin Krabbe. Competing for the unified German team, Krabbe was impressive at the world indoor championships, where her height on the tighter indoor tracks is a disadvantage.

Outdoors Krabbe was impressive, too, and never more so than at the World Championships. Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey had a 56-race winning streak in the 100. Krabbe beat her. Ottey had a 36-race winning streak in the 200. Krabbe beat her.

Ottey also lost her 73-race winning streak in the 60 meters.

A fiery competitor, Ottey may not have lost her confidence, but her big-meet reign appears over.

Finally, how about awarding a collective performance of the year to the six men who ran 9.96 seconds or faster in the 100-meter race at the World Championships at Tokyo. It was the first time that many runners broke 10.0 in a single race.

And, making the race even more special, Ben Johnson watched it from the stands.

The news was not as surprising as the athlete’s response to it.

Norwegian shotputter Georg Andersen was banned for a year last Friday after testing positive for anabolic steroids. Andersen had won the silver medal at the World Championships last summer and has been captain of Norway’s national team since 1987.

Norway is notoriously tough on athletes who use drugs, but a Norwegian Sports Federation panel reduced the usual two-year suspension because the amount of the drug was so small and because of Andersen’s claims that he had ingested the steroids inadvertently.

The 29-year-old policeman provided three possible explanations for how the drugs got into his body:

--A pill was slipped into his water bottle.

--A chicken he had eaten shortly before the test contained steroids.

--His body produced the steroids naturally to combat an infection.

Track Notes

South African track and field officials have apparently ended months of squabbling and agreed to unite under one governing body. Their petition to be recognized by the International Amateur Athletic Federation--the next step to participation in next summer’s Barcelona Olympics--will be heard at the next IAAF meetings Thursday. Sunkist meet promoter Al Franken wants Zola Budd to run the mile in his meet Feb. 15. There are at least two hitches: South Africa must be readmitted to the IAAF, and ESPN, which is televising the meet live, must agree to give Franken the South African rights to the telecast, in order to pay for Budd.

Ben Johnson pronounced himself happy with his last-place finish in the 50-meter race at Ottawa last Saturday night. This, coupled with the news that his tendinitis-troubled knees are “100%” can only be bad news for the Canadian. If this is how he races at top speed, it doesn’t look good for his reclaiming an Olympic gold medal, as is his aim this year. . . . Kip Keino and his gifted son, Martin, will run mile races at the Sunkist. The elder Kenyan will run in the master’s mile and the younger, who attends Arizona, will run in the open mile.