SUMMER GAMES SPOTLIGHT : BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : FOURTH AND LAST: ABOUT THE SAME

What if you devoted yourself to four years of demanding training . . . ran in your first Olympics . . . ran out of gas a few strides from the finish . . . and had to stand around and wait with everybody else before knowing if you were going home with a bronze medal or empty-handed?

It happened to Janeene Vickers, 23, a former UCLA runner from Pomona, in the women’s 400-meter hurdles Wednesday.

She couldn’t have been any closer. Her time was 54.31 seconds. The time for Tatyana Ledovskaya of the Commonwealth of Independent States also was 54.31 seconds. That’s how close it was.

“And it’s not a game of horseshoes,” Vickers

said.

Her start was so fast, Vickers actually thought she might upset her personal choice to win the race, Sally Gunnell of Britain. Then Gunnell, the eventual winner, pulled away, and so did American Sandra Farmer-Patrick.

Third place looked like a lock. Yards from the finish, however, Vickers became exhausted. She crossed the finish line so dead-even with Ledovskaya that three replays, as viewed from press row, failed to be conclusive.

“It only takes a split second to win or lose in our event,” Vickers said, but in this case even the seconds weren’t split. Judges gave her the nod by reasons evident only to

them.

A sprinter from the U.S. men’s team, Michael Johnson, had said earlier in the day that fourth place at the Olympics might as well be last place. Vickers did not disagree.

“I’ve worked a lot longer than four years for this. I’ve worked since I was a little girl. I think I’ll never, ever, ever forget the agony I felt waiting for that final decision.”

Karnell T. Vickers, her father, was waiting inside the stadium, too.

“I’ve given him every medal I’ve ever won, except the very first one,” Janeene said. “So

I guess he gets this one,

too.

“But he might have to fight me for it.”

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