U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL ROUNDUP : Injured Olympians Joyner-Kersee, Stulce Out

On the eve of opening events of one of its more prominent sports, the U.S. Olympic Festival track and field competition lost two of its biggest names when Olympic gold medalists Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Mike Stulce withdrew Thursday because of injuries.

Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic heptathlon champion in 1988 and ‘92, pulled out to recover from a slight thigh strain.

Stulce, the ’92 Olympic champion in the shotput, has an acute stomach disorder.

“It’s been like Murphy’s Law for me this season,” he said. “I think I can get over this physical problem, but it’s just going to take time.”

Track and field runs today through Sunday. The meet still has some big names, most notably Olympic 100-meter champion Gail Devers, hurdler Greg Foster and decathlete Dave Johnson.

Devers is scheduled to run in the 100, the 100 high hurdles and anchor the 400-meter relay. Johnson plans to compete only in the javelin.

“I’ve been here all week goofing off,” Johnson said. “I played some golf. It’s been fun.”

It was no fun for some U.S. boxing champions.

Abayomi Miller of Toledo, Ohio, and Hector Colon of Milwaukee--national champions at 132 and 147 pounds, respectively--lost semifinal bouts.

Miller lost to national Golden Gloves champion Danny Rios of San Antonio, 33-30. Colon lost to another Golden Gloves champion, David Reid of Philadelphia, 33-20.

One U.S. champion who won was 119-pounder Aristead Clayton of Baker, La., who beat Eddie Hall of the U.S. Army, 37-20.

Two-time national heavyweight champion Javier Alvarez of San Antonio saw his 20-year amateur career end with a 21-15 loss to Damon Saulberry of St. Louis in the 201-pound class.

At 31, Alvarez was the oldest boxer at the festival with more than 400 victories and 30 losses.

In diving, Mark Lenzi of Ann Arbor, Mich., was first in the preliminaries of the three-meter springboard, which he won at the Barcelona Games.

Lenzi earned 624.87 points to finish ahead of Scott Donie of Houston, who had 612.12.

The leader after the preliminaries was Patty Armstrong of the Woodlands, Tex., with 365.97 points. Mary Ellen Clark of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., silver medalist in the event in 1990, was second and former gymnast Phoebe Mills of Evanston, Ill., third.

Men’s gymnastics opened with Richard Grace of the University of Nebraska winning the all-around gold medal with a score of 53.450.

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Alex Rodriguez’s broken cheek, which he sustained Wednesday when he was hit by a ball while sitting in the dugout at the festival, will have no impact on his career in baseball, his adviser, Scott Boras, said.

In remains unclear whether Rodriguez, drafted No. 1 pick by the Seattle Mariners, will sign a professional contract or play for the University of Miami this year.