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U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : ROUNDUP : Dumble Humbles the Field

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A model, the son of a former Olympic champion and a veteran sprinter were outperformed by a discus thrower from Panorama City on Friday as Olympic Festival track and field competition got underway at a new, $5.5 million stadium at Southern Illinois University.

Dawn Dumble, a 22-year-old thrower who starred at UCLA, won the discus with a toss of 185 feet 11 inches.

Dumble’s last big victory came more than a year ago when she won the NCAA shotput title.

Victoria Herazo of Valencia, a member of the Screen Actors Guild and a professional model, finished fourth in the 10-kilometer walk in a time of 47 minutes 45 seconds, but was disqualified by race officials afterward.

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In the decathlon, Tom Richards of Thousand Oaks was in fifth place with the final five events of the competition scheduled for today.

Richards, son of Bob Richards, a two-time Olympic champion in the pole vault, placed eighth in the 100 meters (11.54), sixth in the long jump (20-11 1/4), second in the shot put (43-0), fifth in the high jump (6-4) and fifth in the 400 meters (51.93).

Richards, who finished fifth in the decathlon at the NCAA championships representing Stephen F. Austin University, has 3,556 points, 551 points behind the leader, Matt Shelton of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Drawing one of the biggest cheers of the night from a crowd of almost 10,000 was Alice Brown, a former Cal State Northridge All-American.

Brown, a three-time Olympian, was making a record ninth appearance in the Olympic Festival. Already the owner of a Festival-record seven gold medals in track, Brown celebrated her return to the competition by helping earn a medal of a different color.

The West’s 400-meter relay team, with Brown running the leadoff leg, won the bronze medal in a time of 44.85, a half-second behind the gold-medal winning North squad.

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Brown, 33, will run in the 100-meter race today, seeking to tie Terri Dendy’s Festival record of 13 medals.

In other Olympic Festival action:

Ruth Reux, a fencer from Canoga Park, helped the West team win a silver medal in foil. The West dropped a 25-21 decision to the North in the gold-medal bout.

In volleyball, Jennifer Johnson of Sherman Oaks was second on the South team with 15 kills and four blocks, but the North won the bronze-medal match, 15-6, 15-17, 9-15, 15-3, 15-11 at the Washington University Fieldhouse.

Anita Zakharyan of Glendale and partner Ann Alvarez of East Brunswick, N.J., won two of three matches to advance to today’s semifinal round in table tennis. Zakharyan is ranked fourth among U.S. women singles players.

In the men’s competition, Masaru Hashimoto of Pacoima and partner Sean Lonergan of Gaithersburg, Md., won one of their three matches and were eliminated.

At Busch Stadium, the West, with Bryan LaCour of Chatsworth, Randy Wolf of Woodland Hills and Jon Schaeffer of Tarzana on the roster, fell to 0-2 by losing to the South, 7-3. Schaeffer, a Stanford-bound Harvard-Westlake High graduate, had a double.

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In the first day of sailing, Robbie Dean of Newbury Park was last among 12 competitors in the Laser event at Lake Carlyle, Ill. Dean had a best finish of 10th in four races.

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