BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 14 : Defeat Isn’t Quite as Painful : Women’s long jump: Joyner-Kersee doesn’t enjoy losing, but it helps that the winner is her friend, Drechsler.

When Jackie Joyner-Kersee accused a German competitor of employing unsportsmanlike tactics to disrupt her concentration during the heptathlon last weekend, it was not the first time.

During the 1987 World Championships at Rome, while Joyner-Kersee was on the runway focusing on her next long jump, an East German jumper decided to practice her approach on a parallel runway by charging toward the American.

The East German abandoned the mind game when scolded by a teammate, Heike Drechsler.

“Heike told her: ‘Quit trying to intimidate Jackie,’ ” Bob Kersee, Joyner-Kersee’s coach and husband, said Friday night at Montjuic Stadium. “She said: ‘If we’re going to win, we’re going to do it fairly.’ ”

Joyner-Kersee won that long jump competition ahead of Drechsler, as she did in 1988 at the Seoul Olympics and in 1991 at the World Championships in Tokyo.

But Friday night, Drechsler’s moment finally came. She won the Olympic gold medal with a jump of 23 feet 5 1/4 inches, one inch ahead of the Commonwealth of Independent States’ Inessa Kravets. Joyner-Kersee was third at 23-2 1/2.

The first person to congratulate Drechsler was Joyner-Kersee.

“We’ve always been happy to win, but at the same time, we felt a little disappointment for Heike,” Kersee said. “Now, we’re disappointed that we didn’t win, but we’re happy for Heike.”

“I’m very happy for her,” Joyner-Kersee said. “She’s been out there as long as I have, and I’ve always been fortunate to come out on top. But today was her day. She was the best.”

Drechsler was not about to finish as the silver medalist in mutual admiration, either.

“You have to be very good to beat her,” Drechsler said of Joyner-Kersee.

Joyner-Kersee said that she and Drechsler first met at a meet at Zurich, Switzerland, in 1985 and became friends through frequent contacts on the European track and field circuit.

“With other athletes, even though you’re fierce competitors, you get a sense of them as people, whether they’re nice. You still want to beat them, but when the competition is over, you realize that there’s more to life than athletics.”

Drechsler said that she is more concerned about her family, including a 2 1/2-year-old son, than about long jumping. She always makes sure that Joyner-Kersee sees the latest baby pictures.

“I’m a mother,” Drechsler said through an interpreter Friday night. “Jackie still has to catch up to me there. I’m sure she’ll be a mother someday. Perhaps we can take a vacation together.”

Joyner-Kersee, who was sitting next to Drechsler, laughed.

Drechsler, in English, confided: “She likes babies, I know it.”

Track and Field Medalists

* WOMEN’S LONG JUMP

GOLD: Heike Drechsler (Germany)

SILVER: Inessa Kravets (CIS)

BRONZE: Jackie Joyner-Kersee (U.S.)