TRACK AND FIELD / U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS : Young, Watts Shine for Smith

In 1971 at Hayward Field, site of this week’s USA/Mobil Track and Field Championships, John Smith ran the fastest time ever for 440 yards. The record still stands, not so much because it was a race for the ages but because it was not. The event no longer is run in major meets.

Even though he said it seems like yesterday that he ran that race, he has been visiting the track before competition each day to refresh his memory.

“I go out and jog in Lane 2 every day,” he said. “I get my fix.”

But Smith has not spent all week living in the past. Again, the athletes who train under him at Westwood have proved that he is as capable as a coach as he was as a runner.

In the only two Summer Olympics since he started coaching, he has had three gold medalists, quarter-milers Steve Lewis and Quincy Watts and 400-meter intermediate hurdler Kevin Young.

On Friday at Hayward Field, before a crowd of 9,305, Young extended his winning streak in finals to 22. He won in 47.69 seconds, a full second ahead of runner-up Derrick Adkins.

Watts, meanwhile, qualified for today’s 400-meter final by finishing fourth in his semifinal heat. Even if he had been trying to win, his placement would have been no embarrassment considering that the three runners who finished ahead of him were world record-holder Butch Reynolds, two-time world No. 1-ranked Michael Johnson and 1991 world champion Antonio Pettigrew.

Lewis withdrew from his semifinal because of a sore hamstring.

For various reasons, Smith has lost more talented athletes than most coaches ever will have. Lewis left along with fellow quarter-miler Danny Everett to join the Santa Monica Track Club. Both have since been hampered by injuries, one of which forced Everett out of this meet.

Sprinter Michael Marsh, however, has improved significantly since transferring to Santa Monica, winning the Olympic 200 meters last summer. He won his semifinal heat Friday in 20.04.

The latest sprinter to leave Smith is Andre Cason, whose world-class speed became obvious Thursday, when he won the 100 meters. Neither he nor Smith would discuss reasons for their split.

But it did not take long for Smith to attract another sprinter, Jon Drummond. In Thursday’s 100-meter final, he finished fourth to earn a berth at the World Championships in August at Stuttgart, Germany as a member of the U.S. sprint relay team.

Another newcomer to Smith’s camp, Mark Crear, also is going to Germany after finishing third Friday in the 110-meter hurdles in 13.33. Olympic bronze medalist Jack Pierce won in 13.19. Two-time Olympic champion Roger Kingdom finished seventh.

The most prominent hurdler who trains at Westwood, not for Smith but for Bob Kersee, is Gail Devers. After winning the 100 meters Thursday, she had an opportunity Friday to become the first sprint champion also to win the high hurdles in the national championships. But she fell short by one-hundredth of a second, finishing second to Lynda Tolbert’s 12.72.

In a meeting of shotput giants, Randy Barnes, the world record-holder, beat the Olympic champion, Mike Stulce, with a best of 69 feet 9 3/4 inches.