WORLD TRACK NOTES : No Record, but Powell Happy

Two years ago in the World Championships, U.S. long jumper Mike Powell astonished favored Carl Lewis, who had a 10-year winning streak in the event, and virtually everyone else in track and field by breaking Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old world record.

Powell, of Alta Loma, did nothing so spectacular Friday night in successfully defending his championship at Gottlieb Daimler Stadium. His best of 28 feet 2 1/4 inches was more than a foot short of the 29-4 1/2 he jumped that extraordinary night in Tokyo.

But Powell, 30, was satisfied.

“Any time you win a world championship, you have to be happy,” he said. “I’m going to be smiling just as much as I was in Tokyo.”

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After finishing fourth in the 100 meters last Sunday, Lewis improved to third in the 200 meters. He ran 19.99 seconds, which equaled the previous best time in the world this year, but Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks and Great Britain’s John Regis bettered it in Friday night’s final.

The first African to win a sprint in the World Championships, Fredericks, who attended Brigham Young University, won in 19.85. Regis ran 19.94.

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Defending decathlon champion Dan O’Brien must have felt like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when they were being followed by a persistent posse.

“Who are those guys?” they asked.

Hobbled by multiple injuries, O’Brien, 27, began the final five events Friday with only a four-point lead over Germany’s 22-year-old-Paul Meier. The American disposed of him early, but then had to contend with 24-year-old Eduard Hamalainen of Belarus.

With personal bests in five events, Hamalainen trailed by only 97 points before the closer, the 1,500-meter run. He needed to finish 15 seconds ahead of O’Brien to win the championship.

“I’m the kind of person who doesn’t appreciate the 1,500,” O’Brien said.

Nevertheless, he shadowed Hamalainen for four laps, finishing less than a second behind him. O’Brien finished with a meet record 8,817 points to Hamalainen’s 8,724. Meier was third with 8,548.

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Dmitry Polyunin of Uzbekistan, third in the men’s javelin, had to return his medal after testing positive for an anabolic steroid. Also testing positive for the same drug was Russia’s Liliya Nurutdinova, the defending world champion in the women’s 800 meters who finished seventh in that event here.