SUMMER GAMES SPOTLIGHT : BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 14 : MOSES COMFORTABLE WITH SPOT IN HISTORY

Edwin Moses, a four-time Olympic intermediate hurdler, was not at Montjuic Stadium Thursday night when Kevin Young of Los Angeles broke Moses’ nine-year-old world record.

But the next day in Barcelona, Moses, now retired, was excited for Young.

“I feel like a father watching his sons grow up and take over the business,” said Moses, who lives in Newport Beach. “I can’t complain at all.”

Moses said he was surprised that his record of 47.02 seconds was broken so soon, but expected it to fall eventually. And he believed Young was capable of being the first runner to break the 47-second barrier because of the athlete’s strength and size.

Watching Young in his preliminary heats, Moses told the former UCLA runner: “Just smooth it out. If you run a good smooth race, you can do what you want.”

Moses first won an Olympic gold medal at the Montreal Games in 1976 and repeated his performance in Los Angeles. He did not compete in 1980 because of the American-led boycott of the Moscow Games. Moses won a bronze at Seoul in 1988 and has gradually drifted from competition.

His grip on the 400-meter hurdles first came undone June 4, 1987, in Madrid, when American Danny Harris ended Moses’ 122-race winning streak that spanned almost a decade.

“I always thought it was possible to run 46.50, but unfortunately I never had anyone pushing me after 200 meters,” Moses said.

“I was 10 years ahead of my time.”

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.