BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 12 : Decathlete Dave Johnson May Have Stress Fracture : Track and field: He says foot problem will be evaluated after first event today. He is ninth after five events.

U.S. decathlete and medal hope Dave Johnson began his day by nearly failing to get a mark in the shotput. He ended it under far worse circumstances.

Johnson is apparently suffering from a stress fracture in his right foot. He said late Wednesday night that the injury was being evaluated.

“I’ll let you know after the hurdles,” he said.

The 110-meter hurdles are the first event this morning, the first of five second-day events. After five events on the first day, Johnson was in ninth place with 4,154 points.

Johnson, the three-time national decathlon champion, had a modest first day and nursed his heavily taped right foot with an ice pack. An hour after he finished running the 400 meters, Wednesday’s last decathlon event, Johnson was limping slightly.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on that you don’t even know about,” Johnson told The Times. “It’s all about the foot. I can’t talk about it right now. I’ll tell you tomorrow. It’ll all come out.”

Asked if he had a stress fracture, Johnson responded: “Maybe.”

Johnson, who lives in Pomona, injured his foot before the U.S. Olympic trials in June and the situation worsened afterward. He underwent tests in Los Angeles, including X-rays and a magnetic resonance imaging exam that provides more extensive information about bones and tissue.

A source familiar with the situation would only say Wednesday that Johnson has been apprised of the situation and is making his own decision.

He has had ankle problems since 1987 and in 1988 underwent surgery to remove a bone spur in his right ankle.

Asked last week about a possible stress fracture, the U.S. Olympic team doctor, James Montgomery, said he had reviewed Johnson’s X-ray and seen nothing abnormal. But Montgomery also said the MRI showed a bruise in the joint in front of Johnson’s right ankle.

“Some people have called it a stress fracture, but it’s just a bruise, like a stone bruise you’d get in your heel,” he said. “If it were (a stress fracture) I would make a very strong recommendation that he consider carefully what risk he’s taking before going into competition. It could fracture the foot completely.”

Johnson and his coach, Terry Franson, have maintained that there is no problem other than a “sore foot.”

But Irv Ray, the women’s track coach at Azusa Pacific who helps coach Johnson, said Wednesday: “All I can say is that at the end of (today), we are going to know what it is and how bad it is. The thing you have to understand is that you guys are trying to find something out about an injury that Dave has decided to keep to himself.”

Johnson indicated that some sort of medical evaluation would be made after the first race today.

His continued participation in the decathlon almost became moot after the third event Wednesday.

Johnson, 29, began the shotput in 10th place and had hoped for a throw in the 47-foot range. Instead he almost had no legal throws.

Johnson fouled on the first two of his three attempts because his foot touched the top of the toeboard. When the red flag was raised after his third throw, Johnson decided to question the official.

“He looked like he wasn’t sure, so I asked him,” Johnson said. “Luckily, another official had seen the throw and overruled him.”

The problem was that when the red flag was raised to indicate a foul, officials in the field did not mark or measure Johnson’s throw.

In an unusual decision, Johnson was awarded another throw. He made the most of it, throwing a personal-record 50 feet 1 3/4 inches.

Decathlon devotees here cannot remember a multi-event thrower being awarded another chance.

“It was the shot heard ‘round the world,” Johnson said.

Immediately after Johnson was allowed his fourth throw, officials from Spain, France and Czechoslovakia protested. A jury of appeal rejected the protest and Johnson was allowed to continue.

If Johnson not been given the fourth chance, he would have been allowed to continue, but he would have received no points and dropped out of medal contention.

For a moment, Johnson knew what his friend and marketing mate, Dan O’Brien, must have felt when he failed to register a height in the pole vault at the U.S. Olympic trials.

“I thought of Dan right away,” Johnson said. “It was devastating. I was thinking if I should go on in the competition. I decided it was the Olympics and that I should.”

Johnson cleared 6 feet 6 3/4 inches in the next event, the high jump, good enough for 803 points but not good enough to get near the leaders. His 49.76 seconds in the 400 gave him 826 and left him behind Aric Long of Knoxville, Tenn., the third-place finisher at the trials. Long finished the day in eighth place with 4,189 points.

Paul Meier of Germany led after the first day with 4,510 points. Robert Zmelik of Czechoslovakia was second at 4,435, and Antonio Penalver of Spain was third at 4,357.

Johnson, who holds the world record in second-day points, said he was on a pace to score 8,600. If his foot holds up.

Times staff writers Elliott Almond in Los Angeles and Randy Harvey in Barcelona contributed to this story.