Godina-Barnes Encounter More Dud Than Thud

If the 37th annual L.A. Invitational in the Sports Arena on Saturday night was the last, the once-proud tradition of indoor track and field in Los Angeles might have ended with a thud.

And it was not only was the sound of the men’s 16-pound shotputs hitting the hardwood but also the fallen expectations of the duel between John Godina and Randy Barnes.

Rivals in and out of the shotput ring, the two best throwers in the United States and two of the best in the world figured to provide a night almost as memorable as the one here in 1989 when Barnes set the indoor world record of 74 feet 4 1/4.

But Barnes, the outdoor world-record holder, has been training in snowbound West Virginia this winter and could not thaw out in time to compete with Godina.

Godina, the outdoor world champion in 1995, recorded the two best throws in the world this year--69 2 1/2 and 69-8--to easily outdistance runner-up Barnes’ best of 68-7 3/4. That was one of only two legal throws for him.

Although it was an impressive performance against a worthy opponent, Godina, in his first year out of UCLA and still training in Westwood, was not impressed.

“I thought it was all right, not anything special,” he said.

The same could be said for the L.A. Invitational, formerly known as the Sunkist. The lingering image of the meet might be Suzy Hamilton’s start of the race in the women’s 880 yards. Unfortunately, she did it with a pistol instead of her legs. While that might make a nice poster for the National Rifle Assn., it presumably did little for the sparse crowd.

One of the United States’ premier women middle-distance runners, she was supposed to be among the meet’s featured attractions. But she was unable to compete because of a sore Achilles’ tendon. Because she had traveled from her home in Eugene, Ore., she at least made herself useful by firing the starting gun.

Some other elite athletes who had committed to the meet did not make it that close to the antiquated wood track. Mark Crear, the world’s No. 1 ranked high hurdler in 1995, and Ato Boldon, who finished third in the 100 meters in last summer’s World Championships, also dropped out because of injuries.

Those withdrawals combined with the name athletes who usually pencil in Los Angeles automatically on their indoor calendars but went elsewhere this year left the L.A. Invitational with perhaps its weakest field ever. In a storied meet that includes among its record holders sure Hall of Famers such as Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Sergei Bubka, Mary Slaney, Greg Foster and Eamonn Coghlan, many of the winners Saturday night were barely known even to the sport’s avid followers.

There were exceptions. Besides Godina and Barnes, others here who figure to contend for berths on the U.S. Olympic team this summer in Atlanta were Jon Drummond, Johnny Gray, Mark Davis and Valeyta Althouse.

All four won their events--Drummond in the 50 meters in 5.68 seconds, Gray in the 880 yards in 1:49.79, Davis in the 3,000 meters in 8:04.6 and Althouse in the women’s shotput. Althouse, of UCLA, had bests of 59-3 1/2 and 59 1 1/2, both bettering the NCAA indoor record of 59-0 she set earlier this month.

But most of the Olympic hopefuls followed the money to a more lucrative indoor meet Saturday in Fairfax, Va. The L.A. Invitational’s promoter, Al Franken, was unable to compete for top talent this year when longtime sponsor Sunkist redirected its marketing dollars.

The L.A. Sports & Entertainment Commission and the Sports Arena joined efforts to save the meet, but Franken had to work with about half his usual $300,000 budget.

“When you’ve been driving a Porsche, it’s hard to drive a Volkswagen,” he said.

The high-profile athletes who entered here did so for the most part out of loyalty to Franken. He offered 35% of his profits to the competitors, but he had to admit before the meet that he would be fortunate to break even.

The crowd was announced at 8,050, but most of those fans came for the always popular high school portion of the program in the afternoon. By the time the invitational began in the early evening, there were probably not more than 6,000 people in the building.

If he cannot attract a title sponsor before next winter, Franken said that the meet next year might be limited to high school athletes.

Unless another promoter steps forward, that could mean the end of indoor track and field for elite athletes in Southern California. Less than 10 years ago, two meets in Los Angeles and one in San Diego attracted many of the world’s best. Only the L.A. Invitational remained in recent years, and now that is in jeopardy.