BARCELONA '92 OLYMPICS / DAY 15 : New Face of Europe Means More Smiles for U.S. : Track: Breakup of the Soviet Union, reunification of Germany help produce 30 medals for Americans.

By RANDY HARVEY

Aug. 9, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BARCELONA —

There were more causes represented in track and field competition Saturday at the Summer Olympics than there were issues at the Democratic Convention.

Hassiba Boulmerka ran for Algeria, Algerian women specifically, and her country’s assassinated president. Fermin Cacho Ruiz ran for the pride of the host country. Heike Henkel jumped for her just-say-no-to-steroids campaign.

Didn’t anyone go to Montjuic Stadium simply to compete?

Actually, someone did. You can always count on the Americans, who won three of the four relays--the men’s 400- and 1,600-meter events in world-record times, and the women’s 400-meter event. In the women’s 1,600-meter relay, the United States finished second to the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Thus ended, presuming the U.S. men will not play a significant role in today’s marathon, an impressive track and field meet for the Americans. They have won 30 medals, including 12 golds. Their rivals for superiority in the sport in recent years, the former Soviets of the CIS team and the Germans, have 30 medals and 12 golds between them.

Of those, the Germans have contributed only eight overall, including four golds, to prove that the whole does not always equal the sum of the parts.

During the 1988 Summer Olympics at Seoul, the East Germans alone won 27 medals. Athletes who would have competed for East Germany here, if their nation had not united with West Germany, won a mere six medals. They won two golds, the same number as the former West Germans.

Both of the West Germans’ victories came Saturday, when Dieter Baumann pulled an upset in the 5,000 meters and Henkel, wearing an “Athletes Against Doping” T-shirt, won the women’s high jump.

When the CIS team disbands Monday, breaking up into 12 separate teams in preparation for the 1994 Winter Games at Lillehammer, Norway, and the 1996 Summer Games at Atlanta, the assumption might be that in the future, the United States will become even more successful in track and field than it was here.

But if this meet is any indication, it will not be long before the Americans will have to begin looking over their shoulders at the Africans.

The African men, particularly the Kenyans, already have passed them and everyone else in the distances. Only victories by Baumann in the 5,000 and Cacho in the 1,500 Saturday prevented the African men from sweeping every distance from 800 through 10,000 meters.

They might have won the 1,500, too, if two Kenyans hadn’t seemed more interested in keeping the favorite, Algeria’s Noureddine Morceli, in a box, rather than competing. He never got out, finishing seventh.

Their strategy was ironic considering that the Kenyans had complained about similar tactics used against them last week by Moroccans in the 10,000 meters. In the 1,500, the benefactor was Cacho, who stole the race in the stretch, winning in a slow 3:40.12. The first two laps were run at a slower pace than the women’s 1,500.

Cacho’s victory might not have been pretty, but it was popular with the crowd, including Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.

The real story here for the Africans, however, concerned their sprinters, who are beginning to push the Americans. Three Africans reached the finals of the men’s 100 and 200 meters last week, and Saturday, the Nigerians finished second in the 400-meter relay and fifth in the 1,600-meter relay.

African women also are beginning to assert themselves. The Nigerians finished third in the 400-meter relay; an Ethiopian won the 10,000 meters, and an Algerian won the 1,500.

The Algerian, Boulmerka, has had an interesting 12 months since winning the metric mile in the World Championships. Her country almost came under control last winter of fundamentalists Muslims, who have insisted that she and other Algerian women cover their bodies while training and competing, instead of baring arms and legs.

The fundamentalists’ designs on the government were thwarted by the military, which installedMohammed Boudiaf as president. But he was assassinated early last month, leaving Algeria’s future--and Boulmerka’s--in some doubt.

Boulmerka has said that she would like to become a politician in a democratic Algeria, and she proved Saturday that she can play to both sides with the best of them. As a concession to the fundamentalists, she wore baggy men’s shorts instead of the lycra tights preferred by her competitors. At the same time, she dedicated her victory to Boudiaf as “a brother, a father, an Algerian.”

Otherwise, she avoided discussion of politics, preferring to talk of sports. Only 24, she predicted that she will return in the next Olympics to repeat her title, a feat accomplished here by only one gold medalist from four years ago at Seoul, Carl Lewis in the long jump.

“Atlanta, beware,” Boulmerka said.

Track and Field Medalists

* MEN (1,500 meters)

GOLD: Fermin Cacho Ruiz (Spain)

SILVER: Rachid El-Basir (Morocco)

BRONZE: Mohamed Ahmed Sulaiman (Qatar)

(5,000 meters)

GOLD: Dieter Baumann (Germany)

SILVER: Paul Bitok (Kenya)

BRONZE: Fita Bayisa (Ethiopia)

(4x100-meter relay)

GOLD: United States (Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell, Dennis Mitchell, Carl Lewis)