RUNNING / JOHN ORTEGA : Hamstrung by Injury, Beck Passes on Europe

A promising season has turned into a summer of discontent for Marty Beck of Nike International L.A.

The former standout at Glendale College and UCLA placed fifth in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in the USA Track & Field championships in June after lowering his personal best to 49.53 seconds in a heat, but he has not raced since because of a strained left hamstring.

Beck suffered the injury on July 9, the day before he was to race in the U.S. Olympic Festival. It forced him to cancel what would have been his first tour on the European track circuit.

Beck withdrew from such events as The World Games in Helsinki, Finland, and the Bislett Games in Oslo.

While the strained hamstring has been “very frustrating” to Beck because it is his first serious injury, the setback also has been hard on his bank account.

Beck, 24, would have received appearance money in Europe and he has performance incentives in his contract with Nike.

As Beck puts it, the injury “has taken food out of my ‘fridge.”

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Trivia question: Who is the only male athlete to win six individual titles in the state high school championships?

Hint: He is the last man to win the shotput and discus in the Olympic Games.

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Turning the tables: Regina Jacobs of the Mizuno Track Club has a reputation for performing below par against top international competition, but the Argyll Academy--now Campbell Hall High--graduate scored a big victory in the 1,500 in last week’s USA-Pan Africa meet at Duke University.

Jacobs, 30, had failed to qualify for the finals of the last two Olympics as well as the 1987 and ’91 World Championships. But in the Pan Africa meet, she ran 4 minutes 10.24 seconds to edge Algeria’s Olympic champion, Hassiba Boulmerka (4:10.63). Boulmerka also won the 1991 World title.

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Comeback trail: After winning four state titles in cross-country and track at Agoura High, Bryan Dameworth was one of the nation’s most highly recruited distance runners in 1990.

But as he prepares for his fifth--and final--year at Wisconsin, he is not thinking about NCAA championships or All-American finishes. He simply would like to complete the fall season without injury.

Dameworth posted personal bests of 4:09.32 in the mile and 8:53.26 in the 3,200 meters during his senior season at Agoura but has been plagued by physical maladies since.

The most recent injury--a strained lower back--occurred in March and prevented Dameworth from competing during the outdoor track season. During the indoor season, he had run personal bests of 8:14 in the 3,000 and 14:13 in the 5,000.

“After doing well indoors, I was looking forward to the outdoor season, but it never happened,” he said. “I was working out one day and my back felt fine at the start of the run, but it was really hurting at the end.”

Despite the injuries, Dameworth remains optimistic about his future.

“I’m going to keep going until I drop,” he said. “I still feel like I can run some good times if I put it all together. . . . I’m hoping that (the injuries) have made me hungrier.”

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Dropping down: The Agoura High girls’ cross-country team, a Division I power since the state championships began in 1987, will compete at the Division II level this year.

Although Agoura was classified as a Division II school for the past four years based on its enrollment, Charger Coach Bill Duley petitioned the California Interscholastic Federation to move up to the Division I level because he wanted his team to run in the top division.

After finishing second to Palos Verdes--now Peninsula--in the first three state championships, Agoura won the Division I title from 1990-92 and placed fifth last year.

The Chargers might not be as strong this year as in seasons past, but that did not influence his decision, Duley said. Instead, he cited concern about the boys’ team, which has remained at the Division II level the past four years.

“I moved up to Division I because I wanted to beat Peninsula,” Duley said. “But I noticed that the boys kind of got washed over in the last couple of years because they were at a lower level. That’s not good for the program.”

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Record watch: Denean Howard still holds the national high school record in the girls’ 400 with her 50.87 clocking for Kennedy in 1982, but Charlynna Foster of Clearwater, Fla., broke Howard’s age-14 record in last month’s USA Track & Field Junior Olympics.

Foster ran 53.43 to trim nearly four-tenths of a second from Howard’s mark of 53.82 set in 1979.

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The beat goes on: Mark Covert’s running streak turned 26 last month and shows no signs of ending.

Covert, the men’s and women’s cross-country and track coach at Antelope Valley College, has run at least three miles a day every day since July 23, 1968, the summer before his freshman year at Valley College.

According to Covert, he had run 108,759 miles by the anniversary. That’s an average of about 11 miles a day, 80 miles a week and 349 miles a month.

Covert is believed to have the longest active streak in the world and is closing in on the record of 28 years 8 months set by Great Britain’s Ron Hill.

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Trivia answer: Clarence (Bud) Houser was a double winner in the shotput and discus in the 1920, ’21 and ’22 state championships for Oxnard High. Houser won the shotput and discus in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris and repeated his victory in the discus in the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.