Scott’s Comeback Is Back on Track

Steve Scott has won the marathon, beating testicular cancer into remission, and now is returning to more familiar challenges--the mile and its metric equivalent.

Scott, the last U.S. 1,500 runner to challenge consistently at the international level with a second-place finish in the 1983 World Championships and a fifth in the 1988 Summer Olympics, has planned his comeback on the track for the Mt. SAC Relays in April, almost two years after his cancer was detected in May, 1994.

That is the first step in the pursuit of two goals he has set for this year, beating Eamonn Coghlan’s mile record for runners over 40 of 3 minutes 58.1 seconds and qualifying for the U.S. Olympic trials in the 1,500. If he achieves the former, he will add to his world record for sub-four minute miles of 136.

“Training at that level to run that fast a mile is devastating at any age, especially at age 40,” said Scott, who reaches that birthday May 5. But if he accomplishes it on his target date 21 days later in the Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Ore., that will prove to him that he is in shape for the June 15-23 trials.

“There is no reason to think unless a miracle happens that I would make the team,” he said. “But to be at the trials one last time would be a very significant achievement for me.”

His season starts Sunday with an invitational mile road race at Santee, Calif., near San Diego, that is part of the Steve Scott Festival of Races that he started three years ago. “I’m not in good enough shape to challenge,” he said, “but I’m not going to come in last.”

FACTOID

NBC and ESPN will televise 107 hours of U.S. Olympic trials in 20 sports. ESPN and ESPN II will televise 77 hours live, including 18 from the track and field trials at Atlanta.

NEWSMAKER

Quincy Watts, the 1992 gold medalist in track’s 400 meters, has made his third coaching change since then, returning to the man who coached him at USC, Jim Bush. Although Watts has crashed since the second-place finish to Michael Johnson in the 400 at the 1993 World Championships, Bush is predicting a historic year for the quartermiler.

“If he can stay healthy, he will be the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in the 400,” Bush said last week. “We want to take a little air out of Michael Johnson.”

Bush was distressed as Watts, of Calabasas, went from Olympic champion to a slacker who struggled to advance to the final in last year’s national championships. Watts’ previous coaches, John Smith and Bob Kersee, said the runner has lost his hunger for competition, although not for anything else, since 1993 and is chronically overweight and out of shape. Watts blames his coaching.

Bush, who was on the coaching staff with Kersee at UCLA and coached Smith when he ran for the Bruins, stays out of the controversy. But he has faith in Watts.

“I think he’s the greatest quartermiler who ever lived, and he should be under the world record by now,” he said.

LAUREL WREATH

For the first time since World War II, all nations in the Olympic movement--197 at this point in time--will be together for the Olympics next summer in Atlanta, and the man responsible for bringing the last holdout into the fold, North Korea, is former President Jimmy Carter. Who would have thought that possible 16 years ago, when he spearheaded the boycott of the Moscow Olympics?

THORN WREATH

Michael Jordan insists that he will not play for Dream Team III because he does not believe he should represent the United States for the third time in the Olympics while others have not had the chance. His heart is in the right place but not his head. Jordan transcends borders. He represents basketball. His participation in Atlanta would guarantee maximum exposure throughout the world for the sport and further advance the level at which it is appreciated and played internationally.

THIS WEEK

Disillusioned after the Ben Johnson steroid affair, Canadians are turning back to track and field with the emergence of sprinters Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin.

First and second, respectively, in the 100 meters in last year’s outdoor World Championships, they resume head-to-head competition in the first meet on this year’s Mobil Grand Prix circuit Friday night at Hamilton, Canada. They will run 50 meters. As a two-time indoor world champion at 60 meters, Surin is favored. Organizers expect a respectable crowd of between 7,000 and 10,000.

Olympic Scene Notes

Even though Beijing was a close second to Sydney, Australia in International Olympic Committee voting for the 2000 Summer Olympics, China has decided not to designate a city to bid for 2004. The vote is scheduled for 1997, a year when the government will be preoccupied with the transfer of Hong Kong from British to Chinese authority. Eleven cities plan to submit bids by Wednesday’s deadline.

Nancy Reno and Holly McPeak, the No. 1 team in women’s beach volleyball, made it official that they have reunited after Reno played part of last year with Karolyn Kirby. . . . The U.S. water polo team had a successful two-game homestand against Italy. After beating the reigning world and Olympic champion in the opener, the two teams tied, 11-11, Wednesday at Corona del Mar. With 5:04 remaining, the Italians led, 11-8. Chris Humbert tied it for the United States on a goal with 29 seconds remaining. The U.S. team left its Southern California training base Saturday for two weeks, one in Australia and one in Germany. . . . U.S. judo trials are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Colorado Springs, Colo.

Lacking for confidence? Not Jeff Williams, who finished third in the 200 meters in track and field’s World Championships last summer and predicts better things for the Olympics. “When I get through with Atlanta, I’m going to make Sherman’s march to the sea look like a marshmallow roast,” he says. . . . The women’s world 400-meter champion, France’s Marie-Jose Perec, arrives in Westwood on Monday for her annual winter training with Coach John Smith.