Devers Awarded Victory : Track and field: Officials take nearly two hours to decide that she edged Ottey to win the women’s 100 meters.

Olympic champion Gail Devers became the world champion in the 100 meters Monday night, but she might have been one of the last persons in Stuttgart to know it.

The former UCLA sprinter and hurdler, who lives in Palmdale, left Gottlieb Daimler Stadium 1 hour 10 minutes after crossing the finish line, while officials of track and field’s fourth World Championships were still attempting to determine the outcome of a race that takes fewer than 11 seconds to run.

When they reached a decision another half-hour later, the result was the same as the one announced to the crowd of about 50,000 five minutes after the race, following an initial look at the official finish photos.

While Devers, who stood anxiously on the track and watched replay after replay on the stadium scoreboard, reacted by starting her victory lap, Jamaican officials went immediately to the three-member jury appointed by the International Amateur Athletic Federation to file a protest on behalf of runner-up Merlene Ottey.

The photo taken from the outside of the track, the one shown on the scoreboard, seemed to be all the evidence they needed. Although Devers’ head clearly crossed the finish line before Ottey’s, the photo appeared to show that the Jamaican had gotten there first with her torso. In track, a tie goes to the torso.

Even if Devers was the winner, however, it did not seem possible that there was a difference in their times. But Devers was declared first in 10.81 seconds, Ottey second in 10.82 and the United States’ Gwen Torrence third in 10.89.

“I won, everyone knows I won,” Ottey said angrily as she left the track. “It’s absurd to have a different time in that race. The only reason they’ve given me a different time is because they don’t want to give me the gold medal.”

Close behind was Jamaican official Herb McKenley, a former world-class runner who said: “From time immemorial, the one whose torso crosses the finish line first wins. There was no way her torso didn’t cross the finish line first.”

But after reviewing another photo, one taken from the infield side of the track and not shown on the scoreboard, the members of the jury voted unanimously that Devers was the winner.

However, they remained undecided about the official times and will resume their discussion today. If Devers’ 10.81 stands, she will move into a tie with Germany’s Marlies Gohr as the fifth-fastest performer ever.

Appearing at a news conference with Ottey before learning of the jury’s decision, Devers was noncommittal when asked whether she believed she had won.

“When I’m in a race, I don’t know who’s on my left or who’s on my right,” she said. “I’m totally focused on Gail. I never know until someone calls, ‘Gail Devers, you won,’ or ‘Gail Devers, you lost.’ ”

In this case, someone had to call her on the telephone because she returned to her hotel before learning the final outcome.

Devers, 26, struggled for two years with the effects of Graves’ disease before re-emerging on the international scene in 1991, when she set the American record in the 100-meter high hurdles and finished second in that event in the World Championships at Tokyo.

Last year, she was declared the winner of the Olympic 100 meters at Barcelona after a few similarly tense moments, when officials studied the official photos before determining that she had beaten another Jamaican, Juliet Cuthbert.

Devers had a seemingly insurmountable lead later that week in the 100-meter high hurdles final before colliding with the final barrier and stumbling across the finish line in fifth place.

Having learned a lesson, she said Monday night that she would not allow herself to get too high or too low no matter the result of the jury’s deliberations because she still must compete in the hurdles and the 400-meter relay before the championships end Sunday.

“I ran this race, and now this race is over,” she said. “Now, my focus has to be on the 100 hurdles so that I don’t have what happened to me in the Olympic Games happen here.”

Ottey, 33, figures to have a more difficult time putting this race behind her, even though she also is entered in other events, the 200 meters and the 400-meter relay.

Dating to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, she has won 10 individual medals in major championships, none of them gold.

“I don’t care about the Mercedes,” she said of the $28,000 car awarded to each individual champion. “I just want the gold medal. Who could tell who was the winner? If they can’t decide, give us each a gold medal.”

Devers’ coach, Bob Kersee, sympathized with Ottey.

“If anybody in this sport deserves a gold medal, she does,” he said.

Someone suggested a rematch.

“How much money do you have in your pocket?” Kersee asked.