TRACK AND FIELD / MILLROSE GAMES : Reynolds a Runaway Winner in 400

Butch Reynolds, one of sport’s most famous litigants, blew away a tough 400-meter field at the Millrose Games on Friday night in Madison Square Garden.

Reynolds, the outdoor 400 world record-holder at 43.29 seconds, led all the way, routing Olympic 400 hurdles champion and world record-holder Kevin Young by eight meters in 47.16.

The meet’s other featured race, the Masters Mile, was also one-sided as Ireland’s Eamonn Coghlan won by a quarter-lap and finished in a record for 40-year-olds, 4:05.95.

Coghlan, extremely popular in New York, finished to a standing ovation of cheers and many in the crowd of 18,176 waved Irish flags. He grabbed his heart seconds after the finish, pretending to faint.

Reynolds described his race as “a practice run, a training run.”

“The outdoor season, that’s when it gets real,” he said. “This spring, you could see a 400 run in the 42s.”

Reynolds had a three-meter lead after each of the first two laps of the 2 3/4-lap race but widened his lead in the stretch. Young ran 48.13, third-place Antonio Pettigrew 48.16.

Said Young: “I ran a good race, but I was shocked by what Butch did.”

Reynolds, who has battled track and field’s governing body, the IAAF, afterward talked about support from other athletes. Reynolds was awarded $27.3 million in damages by a federal judge in Columbus, Ohio, in a suit against the IAAF. The organization banned him for two years in 1990 for testing positive for a banned substance, nandrolone.

He professed innocence, but the case kept him out of the Barcelona Olympics.

Support for him isn’t unanimous in the athletes’ ranks, however. Young, for example, said this week he was “tired of the whole thing. It’s like beating a dead horse.”

“The people who don’t support me don’t understand the issue,” Reynolds said.

“The issue isn’t me. It’s athletes’ rights. I’ve paid a heavy price for what I’ve gone through. I don’t want any other athlete to go through what I have.”

Reynolds’ dream is to win the gold medal at the world indoor championships next month at Toronto.

“Toronto is important,” he said. “I’m looking forward to winning the gold and meeting (IAAF President) Primo Nebiolo and see if he puts that medal around my neck or if he does an Adolf Hitler refusing to shake Jesse Owens’ hand.”

The Wanamaker mile, expected to be a showdown between 1,500-meter world record-holder Noureddine Morceli of Algeria and Olympic champion Fermin Cacho of Spain, turned out differently. Morceli held off Marcus O’Sullivan of Ireland on the last lap and won in 3:55.06. Cacho was a badly beaten fifth, in 4:01.75.

Coghlan followed outdoor masters mile record-holder (4:05.39) Wilson Waigwa of Kenya and a 26-year-old rabbit, Frank Conway, through the early running.

Waigwa had a 12-meter lead over Coghlan after four laps, but the Irishman, who turned 40 last Nov. 21, reeled him in and pulled away.

Coghlan’s time broke his pending masters indoor record of 4:08.49, set last Sunday in Gainesville, Fla. He had hoped to break four minutes but predicted he would soon.

“Four is in me, but I need a few more races,” said Coghlan, the indoor mile record-holder at 3:49.78. “Four wasn’t realistic tonight--I missed most of December with injuries.”

Foster tied Harrison Dillard with his ninth 60-meter Millrose hurdles victory, this one in 7.81.

Also Friday:

--Olympic 100-meter women’s champion Gail Devers was fourth out of the blocks in the women’s 60, but won going away, in 7.31.

--Jackie Joyner-Kersee, two-time Olympic heptathlon winner, had a poor start in the women’s 60 hurdles and finished a distant third, in 8.33, behind Lavonna Martin-Flor (8.15) and Michelle Freeman (8.19).

--The meet’s only world record occurred at Manhattan College in mid-afternoon, when Lance Deal of the New York A.C. broke his own world mark in the 35-pound weight throw, 81-5 1/4.