Northridge Meet Suffers From Withdrawals

A quality track and field meet on paper turned into a so-so affair Saturday after one big-name athlete failed to compete because of an injury and another withdrew because of unfavorable wind conditions.

John Godina, the 1995 World champion in the shotput, and Quincy Watts, the 1992 Olympic champion in the 400 meters, were expected to be the headline performers in the Northridge Invitational at Cal State Northridge.

But Godina did not compete after suffering a bruised chest in a weightlifting accident earlier in the week and Watts withdrew because a strong head wind on the backstretch would have made it impossible for him to produce a quality time in his first 400 of the year.

“We were looking to run around 45 seconds,” said Jim Bush, Watts’ coach. “But running in these conditions wouldn’t do him any good. A slow time would just shoot his confidence. . . . I’m so disappointed because . . . he was ready to run a good one.”

UCLA assistant Art Venegas, who coaches Godina, said that his protege’s injury isn’t serious, but he didn’t want to take any chances early in an Olympic year.

With Godina and Watts out, Robert Reading of the Bush Track Club and Dawn Dumble of the Reebok Track Club were the outstanding performers in the first meet at Northridge’s renovated track and field facility.

Reading won the men’s 110-meter high hurdles with a wind-aided time of 13.40 seconds and Dumble took the women’s shotput at 54 feet 5 1/4 inches and the discus at 191-3.

Reading’s victory was his fourth of the season without a loss and came against Larry Harrington (13.48), who was eighth in the U.S. rankings in 1995, two spots ahead of Reading.

Both got off to good starts, but Reading opened a small gap on his rival at the seventh of 10 hurdles and maintained it to the finish.

“It was nice that Larry came down from Fresno,” Reading said. “It helped to have to battle a hurdler of his caliber in the middle of the race.”

Reading, the 1989 NCAA champion for USC, is not as highly regarded as fellow Americans Allen Johnson, Mark Crear and Roger Kingdom, yet one of his main goals this season is to beat all of them in the Olympic trials in June.

The other is to help bring the world record “back to U.S. soil.”

Colin Jackson of Great Britain holds the world record of 12.91.

“I want to bring the world record back to the U.S. and I want to win the trials,” he said. “And I feel like I’m right on pace to do that.”

Dumble, who won the discus and placed second in the shotput in last year’s NCAA championships as a UCLA senior, would probably be delighted with any of three spots on the U.S. team in either event.

She was ranked fifth nationally in both events last year, but is coming back from off-season surgery on her left knee.

Venegas seemed satisfied with her performances Saturday.

“She has a tendency to peak early in the season and we don’t want that this year,” he said. “So today was fine.”

Although the winds slowed performances dramatically in races longer than 200 meters, several athletes road them to notable wind-aided marks in the sprint and jump events.

Peter Hargraves of the New Era Track Club timed 10.19 in the men’s 100 and Bryan Krill of the Bush club clocked 20.66 in the 200.

Derek Scurry, who set the Northridge record of 26-3 1/2 in the long jump in 1993, won that event with a leap of 25-8 3/4 while competing unattached.