BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 10 : SUMMER GAMES SPOTLIGHT : SEND NO FLOWERS, MAKE IT JEWELRY

Any competition involving Jackie Joyner-Kersee inevitably will provide lively by-play between her and husband/coach Bob Kersee.

Kersee usually can be seen during the competition urging on his wife, sometimes arguing with her. But Kersee was subdued during the two-day heptathlon. He said he has been wrestling with a new concept: having fun.

After Joyner-Kersee’s disastrous shot put on Saturday, the Olympic champion was disconsolate, knowing that she had blown her chance to better her world record. After the event, Kersee gave an uncharacteristic pep talk.

“I told her to go out and have fun, to enjoy herself,” he said.

The next day, Joyner-Kersee performed poorly in the javelin and, again, she was upset with herself.

“I told Jackie, ‘It’s not worth it. Don’t worry about it. Nobody can do what you can do. You deserve this.’ This is the first time in 12 years of coaching her that I’ve actually gotten to enjoy her.”

When Kersee isn’t critical of his wife, he’s her biggest booster.

“I’ve said it over and over,” Kersee said. “Jackie’s worst day is better than everyone else’s best day. She can do what no one has done.”

After Joyner-Kersee won the event Sunday night with 7,044 points, Kersee met her at the edge of the track and tried to give her an armload of red roses. Joyner-Kersee refused to take them, saying she didn’t like roses.

“Good thing that I do,” he said.

Actually, Joyner-Kersee suffers from asthma and, after running 800 meters, the last thing she needed was roses.

However, the heptathlon was rosy for Joyner-Kersee, who won her second consecutive gold medal. She came into the competition hoping to score 7,300 points. Her world record is 7,291, and 7,300 remains a significant number for her.

For her 30th birthday in March, Kersee bought his wife two gold bands. Seven diamonds were mounted on one, three birthstones on the other.

“Seven diamonds, can you afford that?” Kersee was asked.

“No,” he said, pointing to the new gold medalist, “but she can.”

This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant, all Times-Mirror newspapers.