Allen Johnson Makes Most of Opportunity : Track and field: On the day U.S. men falter in 400 relay, hurdler wins 110 meters in 13.0 seconds.

Allen Johnson’s T-shirt read “No Second Chance,” which was appropriate for the U.S. men’s 400-meter relay team Saturday but not for him. He knows better, having taken advantage of second and third chances to become track and field’s 110-meter hurdles world champion.

Earning a berth on the U.S. team after being disqualified and then reinstated during a preliminary round at the national championships this summer at Sacramento, he was fortunate to survive the second round here Friday when he lost his concentration over the 10th and last hurdle and stumbled through the finish line.

Calling that latter episode a “message from a higher force” that he had to be in better focus, he did just that in the final before a Ullevi Stadium crowd of 40,138 on the next-to-last day of track and field’s World Championships. Although he knocked over four hurdles, including the last one, to him it seemed as smooth as a ride in the Mercedes-Benz he won for finishing first in 13.0 seconds, faster than all but four other men in history. Two of them, Great Britain’s Tony Jarrett and the United States’ Roger Kingdom, were behind him Saturday, Jarrett finishing second in 13.04 and Kingdom third in 13.19.

The other medalist for the United States on Saturday was long jumper Mike Powell, although he had to settle for less than the gold he won in the last two World Championships. He did, however, leave here with the world record of 29 feet 4 1/2 inches that he set in a memorable showdown with Carl Lewis during this meet at Tokyo in 1991.

That was in doubt after Cuba’s Ivan Pedroso jumped 29-4 3/4 two weeks ago at Sestriere, Italy. The International Amateur Athletic Federation did not ratify that mark because of an irregularity involving the wind gauge, a decision Cuban officials are protesting, but Pedroso seemed unaffected by the controversy, predicting that he would jump even farther here.

He did not come close, winning with a rather ordinary 28-6 1/2. Powell seemed to have claimed second with an opening effort of 27-2 1/2, but his silver medal turned to bronze when Jamaica’s James Bedford edged him by one centimeter on his final jump. It was the first time an American failed to win the men’s long jump in a major international meet since 1964 and only the third time ever.

“I have to go home and reinvent myself,” said Powell, who has been injured most of this season.

Still, he enabled the United States to increase its medal total to 16, five more than second-place Russia. The United States has nine gold medals--no other country has more than two--and would have been in contention for four more today if not for a mishap in the first round of the men’s 400-meter relay.

After only one U.S. sprinter reached the semifinals in last weekend’s 100 meters, two of them, Jon Drummond and Tony McCall, could not complete the baton pass between the second and third legs.

“This is just another in a bunch of tragedies to hit the U.S. sprinters that we could not anticipate,” said the team’s relay coach, Ron Bazil, mentioning injuries to Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell.

So the men sprinters, for a change, have not come through. The hurdlers have. Johnson’s victory gave the United States its first sweep at a major international meet with victories in all four races, the men’s and women’s high and intermediate hurdles.

Even after Saturday, the high-hurdles champion will be known as the other Johnson on the U.S. team. Michael will be going for his third gold medal today in the men’s 1,600-meter relay. Allen does not mind because, although he also won the world indoor title last winter in the 60-meter hurdles, Johnson, 24, of Chapel Hill, N.C., still calls himself a newcomer at overcoming obstacles.

His next one will come Wednesday night at Zurich, Switzerland, where he will face the world-record holder, Colin Jackson of Great Britain, and this year’s second-ranked hurdler, American Mark Crear. Jackson was not here because of a dispute with his federation; Crear did not qualify for the U.S. team. Jackson said last week that the race there will determine the true world champion.

“Maybe so,” Johnson said, not one to argue with an elder. He said he wore the T-shirt Saturday because his mother made him.

Johnson certainly is a novice compared to Kingdom, 32, who won consecutive Olympic gold medals in 1984 and ’88 but was off his form in four of the last five years because of injuries. His third place Saturday proved to himself that he is back, but he also got a glimpse of the future.

“Hey, this is the next generation,” he said, pointing to Johnson.

Johnson did his part to make Kingdom feel old, saying he idolized him “when I was a teen-ager.”