TRACK AND FIELD / JULIE CART : Hardly an Olympian Year for Cassell

Conspicuous only because of his low profile at the International Amateur Athletic Federation meetings last week in Toronto was Ollan Cassell, executive director of The Athletics Congress, which governs track and field in this country.

It appeared to be a rough few days for Cassell, on top of an already rocky year. Cassell survived a TAC vote of confidence by a single vote in April, and in Toronto he was said to be ducking into meeting rooms to avoid bumping into reporters.

His status within the IAAF, where he is a member of the council, appears to have slipped considerably. According to someone present at a closed-door meeting, IAAF President Primo Nebiolo singled out Cassell for ridicule, scolding him at one point, “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”

What’s going on? For years Cassell has used his position as an IAAF vice president as a selling point to the TAC membership, saying that, through him, the American federation has a voice in the sport internationally.

But what good is a voice if you don’t use it? Where was Cassell during the Butch Reynolds debacle? The IAAF threatened to ban everyone else in the meet if Reynolds, under international suspension for alleged drug use, competed last weekend at San Jose. Reynolds had secured a court order, saying he could compete. TAC’s own attorney has supported Reynolds’ claim, but what did TAC do to protect Reynolds’ right to compete? Reynolds was told he wasn’t welcome and did not run.

One recurring problem TAC has within the IAAF is the clash of legal systems. Clearly the international federation doesn’t grasp American law, with its due-process rights. But why is it so difficult for Cassell, who portrays himself as the ultimate IAAF insider, to explain this to the federation?

Apparently, Cassell has no clout or respect in the IAAF, and what remaining respect he has within his own federation is eroding. He is grasping for a political foothold and is of little use to TAC.

Further, as head of the American federation, in whatever way Cassell is diminished within the IAAF, so too are TAC and the interests of American athletes.

Cassell’s employment contract with TAC expires in December, at the time of the next TAC convention. Every year at the convention there is a movement within the membership to oust Cassell. Every year he survives.

Maybe not this time.

Don’t think for a minute that the IAAF didn’t gloat about forcing meet director Bert Bonanno to back down and prevent Reynolds from running in last Saturday’s Bruce Jenner Symantec Classic.

The response in Toronto, where the IAAF Council was meeting: “We won!”

That was the reaction from IAAF General Secretary Istvan Gyulai, who had spent Friday threatening both Bonanno and TAC.

The IAAF said it didn’t recognize the Ohio court that issued the injunction, allowing him to run. The IAAF said that if he did compete, it would apply sanctions against all 267 athletes in the meet, take away the meet’s Grand Prix status and negate the Grand Prix points the athletes earned.

Bonanno had little choice but to withdraw Reynolds’ invitation. But speculation among athletes was rampant Saturday. Would the IAAF really have banned 267 athletes from 22 countries?

“What do you think NBC would think about not having American stars in the Olympics?” one athlete noted.

That was one point. The other was, did the IAAF have the right to issue such a threat, and would its rules have backed up any action? The answer, as it so often is with the IAAF, is that it pretty much can do anything it wants.

The IAAF had jurisdiction over the Jenner meet because it is a part of the Mobil Grand Prix, which carries an IAAF sanction. Reynolds said he will run this Saturday at a meet in San Francisco, which is TAC sanctioned.

Reynolds has until June 13 to meet the Olympic trials qualifying standard. Even if he fails to do that, there is a provision that allows him to petition to enter the trials if he can show he was prevented from qualifying otherwise.

Reynolds said he would pursue more legal action against the IAAF, including a new charge of contempt of court for violating the order of a Federal District judge. Reynolds’ court date is Monday to extend his domestic eligibility through the Olympic trials later this month.

European journalists are at once amused and baffled by the working of the American court system and the rate at which American athletes sue both the IAAF and TAC.

The Reynolds episode had Swiss journalist Rod Ackerman musing:

“I envision a new Olympic event: Process server crisscross. You’d see process servers running around the field, waving big envelopes, injunctions, restraining orders, summonses . . . and in the stands would be only lawyers.”

PattiSue Plumer appears to be back from the debilitating injury that kept her out of most of the indoor season and the start of the outdoor season. The Stanford grad won the 3,000 meters at the Jenner meet, beating three-time world cross-country champion Lynn Jennings and steady Shelly Steely.

Plumer had an excellent 1991 in which she was world ranked at both 1,500 and 3,000 meters. But this year she’s had problems with her lower back. At first Plumer refused to have a Magnetic Resonance Imaging examination, which would scan the muscles in her lower back. Later she not only consented to the MRI, but had X-rays and bone scans, too.

The tests revealed three bulging disks that require therapy five times a week, acupuncture twice a week, a chiropractor twice a week and massage therapy.

“Watching the elections, I’m praying for national health care,” she said. “After all this, I’ll never (be able to) get insurance again.”

Track Notes

Look for a dynasty in the making at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. University of Texas women’s Coach Terry Crawford announced last week she would join Cal Poly in the fall. Former Stanford women’s coach Brooks Johnson moved to Cal Poly a few weeks ago, after 15 years in Palo Alto. Crawford, the 1988 Olympic coach, led Texas to five national titles in eight years. Johnson and Crawford will serve as co-coaches for the combined program, which is moving to Division I next season.

Zola Budd Pieterse met the national Olympic qualifying standard in the 3,000 only last week, on the last day South African officials would accept a mark. However, Pieterse is said to be in much better shape now than countrywoman Elana Meyer, who has had world-leading marks from 1,500 to 10,000 meters. But Meyer doesn’t have Pieterse’s international experience and peaked for the end of South Africa’s season in February. It may be tough for her to regain her form by the Olympics.