BARCELONA '92 OLYMPICS / DAY 14 : Joyner-Kersee, Bubka Join Club of Vanquished Elites : Track and field: She wins bronze in long jump, he fails in pole vault. In 33 events, only one winner from the World Championships has won a gold medal.

By JULIE CART and RANDY HARVEY

Aug. 8, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

BARCELONA —

Two of track and field’s reliables, Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the United States and Sergei Bubka of the Commonwealth of Independent States, experienced a sensation at Montjuic Stadium on Friday that they have not often felt in major competition. Exasperation.

It stemmed not only from defeat, but also from the frustration of not being able to find that little extra, one of their special talents, on a night when they most wanted to be at their best, in the Summer Olympics.

Joyner-Kersee at least was able to add a bronze medal in the long jump to the gold she had won in the heptathlon last weekend, finishing third behind Heike Drechsler of Germany and Inessa Kravets of the CIS.

But Bubka failed to clear a height on three attempts in the pole vault and left the stadium, not even staying to watch teammates Maxim Tarassov and Igor Trandenkov win the gold and silver medals. Spain’s Javier Chico Garcia was third.

The two defending champions reacted differently to their disappointments.

“That’s the pole vault,” Bubka told an official, but he declined an opportunity to further enlighten reporters.

Joyner-Kersee, as usual, was effusive, but equally resigned to her fate. “Today was Heike’s day,” she said. “I accept that. For now.”

Joyner-Kersee and Bubka are not the sport’s only prominent athletes who have had to search for explanations here. In fact, they are the rule rather than the exception. In 33 events through Friday, only one winner from last summer’s World Championships at Tokyo, France’s Marie-Jose Perec in the women’s 400 meters, has won a gold medal here.

Other 1991 world champions who failed to win Friday included Britain’s Liz McColgan in the women’s 10,000, China’s Huang Zhihong in the women’s shotput and the CIS’ Alexander Potashov in the 50-kilometer walk. Kenya’s Moses Kiptanui was not here in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, not that it mattered to his country. Kenyans finished 1-2-3 and have won 10 of 15 possible medals, including five golds, in the five Olympics they have entered since 1968.

“I think a lot of world champions forgot what got them there,” said American Michael Johnson, who excluded himself from that group because he has a virus that prevented him from winning, or even reaching the final, in the 200 meters.

“Everybody else stepped it up because this is the Olympic year, and the world champions rested.”

Said Joe Douglas, manager of the Santa Monica Track Club: “It just shows how deep the competition is in our sport.”

This meet has been so formless that experts have no better chance to predict winners than someone from off the street who favors athletes because of the colors of their uniforms. On Thursday, the colors in vogue were red, white and blue as the United States won nine medals, including four golds, in six events.

But the only other U.S. medalist besides Joyner-Kersee on Friday was Lynn Jennings of Newmarket, N.H., who was third in the women’s 10,000 behind Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu and South Africa’s Elana Meyer.

Jennings, three-time world cross-country champion, became the second U.S. woman to win a medal in the Olympics at a distance longer than 800 meters. Joan Benoit was the first when she won the marathon in 1984.

The United States is favored to win more gold today, when all four of its relay teams will be in finals.

Of the losses by Bubka and Joyner-Kersee, his was easily the most stunning. Although Joyner-Kersee has an Olympic gold medal and won two world championships in the long jump, she has spent more time this year concentrating on the heptathlon, allowing Drechsler to dominate the event.

Bubka had not lost a major international competition since 1983, and even when he failed to clear his first two jumps at 18-8 1/2, few doubted that he would prevail. He won both the Olympics at Seoul in 1988 and the World Championships last year at Tokyo on his final attempts.

But Bubka passed on his third opportunity at his initial height and waited until the bar was raised to 18-10 1/2 to re-enter the competition. Whatever the strategy, it did not work. He hit the bar on the way up and was, to the astonishment of the crowd of about 65,000, out of the competition before it really even began.

“It reminds us that he is human,” said U.S. vaulter Kory Tarpenning of Portland, Ore., who finished fourth after clearing 18-10 1/2. Garcia also cleared that height, but won the bronze medal because of fewer misses. Tarassov won the gold instead of Trandenkov for the same reason after both had cleared 19-0 1/2.

All of the vaulters complained about the swirling winds atop Montjuic, a condition that also frustrated the long jumpers. Bob Kersee, who coaches his wife, Joyner-Kersee, said that he believed it would take a jump of at least 23-11 1/2 to win.

Instead, Drechsler won at 23-5 1/4 on her fourth attempt. It erased the lead Kravets had held at 23-4 1/2 since her first jump. Joyner-Kersee also had her best effort, 23-2 1/2, on her first jump.

The victory ended a long series of frustrations for Drechsler, a former East German who lost to Joyner-Kersee at the 1988 Summer Olympics as well as at the 1987 and 1991 World Championships.

Drechsler was one of many outstanding athletes produced by a government-supported, allegedly drug-fueled sports system. East German women dominated track and field in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, but they have faltered since reunification. Drechsler’s gold medal Friday was only the second in the sport for the united German women’s team here.

Track and Field Medalists

* MEN’S 3,000 STEEPLECHASE

GOLD: Mathew Birir (Kenya)

SILVER: Patrick Sang (Kenya)

BRONZE: William Mutwol (Kenya)

* MEN’S 50-KILOMETER WALK

GOLD: Andrei Perlov (CIS)

SILVER: Carlos Mercenario Carbajal (Mexico)

BRONZE: Ronald Weigel (Germany)

* POLE VAULT

GOLD: Maxim Tarassov (CIS)

SILVER: Igor Trandenkov (CIS)