UCLA Sprinter Boldon Brilliant at NCAA Meet

A year after a disqualification he still claims was unfair, Ato Boldon of UCLA blazed to a 10.06-second clocking in the 100-meter preliminaries Thursday in the NCAA Track and Field Championships at Eugene, Ore.

Boldon, who has the fastest time in the world this year at 9.93, was disqualified in last year’s NCAA semifinals for a false start. He went on to win the NCAA 200 title, then earned the bronze medal in the 100 in last year’s world championships.

On a cool evening at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field, Boldon led nearly from the start and pulled away at the finish.

Boldon is considered a gold medal contender in this year’s Olympic Games, in which he will compete for Trinidad.

He contends he was mistakenly identified as the person who had the false start last year and that the judge saw someone move but wasn’t sure who it was so he asked a volunteer who was carrying uniform baskets and she pointed to Boldon.

Boldon heads a strong 100 field that includes defending champion Tim Harden of Kentucky and Obadele Thompson of Texas El Paso.

Defending champion Greg Haughton of George Mason, the bronze medalist for Jamaica in last year’s world championships, led the qualifying in the men’s 400 meters at 45.54 seconds.

Redshirt freshman Eric Bishop of North Carolina was the surprise winner in the high jump, clearing a personal-best 7 feet 6 inches.

Richard Duncan of Texas won the long jump with a leap of 26-0 1/4; Teri Steer of Southern Methodist won the women’s shot put with a toss of 59 feet, and Corissa Yasen of Purdue won the heptathlon with 5,765 points.

Louisiana State remained on track for its 10th consecutive women’s team championship. The LSU women qualified 1-2-5 in the preliminaries of the 100 meters and 1-2 in the 110-meter hurdle preliminaries.

Colorado’s Heather Sterlin, a 1992 graduate of Mission Viejo High, finished third in the heptathlon. Sterlin, who scored a season-best 5,582 points, a provisional qualifying mark for the Olympic trials, had two second-best marks on Thursday, 20 feet 5 1/4 in the long jump and 2 minutes 15.34 in the 800 meters.