U.S. Team Runs to Record : Track and field: Reynolds is surprised by warm response from IAAF president after helping Americans establish history’s fastest 1,600-meter relay time.

When Butch Reynolds passed the baton to Michael Johnson after the third leg of the 1,600-meter relay late Sunday afternoon at Gottlieb Daimler Stadium, only two questions remained in track and field’s World Championships.

Would Johnson run the final 400 meters fast enough to give the U.S. team the world record? And would International Amateur Athletic Federation President Primo Nebiolo, who traditionally presents the medals after the final event, make an exception because of the acute indigestion he suffers whenever he is near Reynolds?

The first question was answered more quickly than had seemed possible up to that point. Johnson’s anchor leg was timed unofficially in 42.94 seconds, faster than the previous record for a relay of 43.1 set by Quincy Watts in last summer’s Olympics, when the United States ran a world-record time of 2:55.74.

This summer’s U.S. model, which included three of the fastest quarter-milers ever in the world champion Johnson, the world record-holder Reynolds and the Olympic champion Watts, smashed that record by almost 1 1/2 seconds, finishing in 2:54.29.

Kenya, the second-place team, finished more than 5 1/2 seconds behind in 2:59.82.

“It was a tremendous event to watch,” said Andrew Valmon, who did just that after finishing his leadoff leg for the United States in 44.5. Watts was timed in 43.6, Reynolds in 43.23.

Reynolds predicted the record would stand for at least 20 years.

“That’s what’s important,” he said, “being a legend in the sport.”

IAAF officials, who govern track and field, prefer to think of Reynolds as notorious rather than legendary. After they suspended him for two years in 1990, claiming he submitted a positive sample for an anabolic steroid, Reynolds questioned the validity of the test in a lawsuit. A U.S. federal court awarded him $27.3 million, a judgment the IAAF is contesting.

Since then, Nebiolo, the IAAF president from Italy, has avoided allowing Reynolds’ name to cross his lips. When asked about him in a news conference before the championships began 10 days ago, Nebiolo turned to his right-hand man, IAAF General Secretary Istvan Gyulai, and said, “What is the name of this athlete again?”

Although Nebiolo was scheduled to present the medals to the 1,600-meter relay teams, it appeared as if he would boycott when IAAF spokeswoman Jayne Pearce announced after the race that a vice president, Lamine Diack of Senegal, would do the honors.

He did, for everyone except Reynolds.

When it came time for Reynolds to receive his medal, Nebiolo, who had been standing at Diack’s side, dramatically stepped forward. The startled Reynolds hopped off the podium, but the president waved him back to his original position and motioned for him to lean forward. When Nebiolo placed the medal around his neck, Reynolds hugged him. Nebiolo responded by giving him three gentle love taps on the face and kissing him on both cheeks.

“I was speechless and very touched,” Reynolds said. “He told me on the stand, ‘You’re very, very strong.’ I’ve been waiting forever to get his respect. I think Primo realizes that now, and we can put this behind us. I think it’s not totally over because we have a judgment. Hopefully, we can come to some kind of agreement.”

Nebiolo could afford to be magnanimous because of the success of the World Championships. Initiated in 1983 as a quadrennial event, it became biennial after 1991 at his insistence despite protests from some athletes and coaches that the calendar was becoming cluttered with too many major meets.

“I don’t want to seem over-triumphant because some of you already accuse me of being Napoleon,” Nebiolo said during a news conference Sunday. “You decide for yourselves how these championships have worked.”

Many longtime track and field observers said these were the best of the four World Championships even before the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team set the fifth world record of the meet.

Actually, there was a sixth because the knowledgeable, enthusiastic spectators set an attendance record of 585,000. The average crowd in the 52,700-seat stadium for 14 sessions, including mornings on weekdays, was 41,785. The last five sessions were virtual sellouts.

Germans have received a lot of attention in the worldwide press in recent months because of incidents of violence against foreigners, but, while the German fans clearly favored their own athletes, they were noisily appreciative of most good performances, no matter who performed them.

They must have grown weary, however, of hearing “The Star Spangled Banner.” Reflecting track and field’s new world order without Soviets and East Germans, the United States won 13 gold medals, its most ever in the World Championships. China was second with four. In the overall medal standings, the United States finished with 26, 10 more than runner-up Russia.

The United States added four medals in the relays Sunday, including three golds.

After equaling the world record in the men’s 400-meter relay in Saturday’s semifinals at 37.40, the U.S. sprinters did not have as much life in their legs in the final. But they still won handily in 37.48. Great Britain was second in 37.77.

U.S. women sprinters broke the American record in their relay, running 41.49, which equals the second-fastest time ever. Unfortunately for them, the other team that has run that fast, Russia, also did it in Sunday’s final. The Russians were declared the winners when the photo of the finish revealed that Irina Privalova beat Gail Devers across the line.

U.S. women quarter-milers, however, ran away with their relay, winning in 3:16.71, the fourth-fastest ever. Gwen Torrence ran on both U.S. relays, giving her four medals for the meet.

Although the United States dominated, 36 of the 189 countries won medals. Almost everyone seemed to leave happy, except for Kenya’s Moses Tanui, who was so frustrated because the Ethiopian who trailed him in Sunday’s 10,000 meters kept stepping on the back of his left shoe that he finally kicked it off and ran the final lap with one foot bare. That enabled the Ethiopian, Haile Gebresilasie, to pass him for the victory.

“That was the only way he could beat me,” Tanui complained after finishing second. “I’m really angry.”

In contrast, the original angry man of these championships, Algeria’s Noureddine Morceli, was all smiles after winning the 1,500 meters.

He had threatened to stage a one-man boycott because the IAAF would not pay him the same amount to appear as he alleged it was paying Carl Lewis and Sergei Bubka. Nebiolo responded that the IAAF was paying Morceli the same. Nothing.

“Probably, I was wrong before,” Morceli said. “Now, I realize what this means to be world champion. I had to be here. I have no problem with Primo Nebiolo.”

Napoleon’s empire was never so secure.