Leach and Kim Leave No Doubts

For UCLA-bound Nicole Leach, it was the older competition. For Bruin pole vaulter Yoo Kim, it was a hand injury and a different event.

In both cases, Leach and Kim overcame uncertainty Friday afternoon in the second day of the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at Drake Stadium.

Leach, a senior at Philadelphia West Catholic High, ran unattached against college runners from Brigham Young, Illinois, Utah State and UC Davis, and won the 400-meter hurdles in a season-best 59.31 seconds.

“I was really nervous,” said Leach, who was fourth in the 400 hurdles last summer at the world junior championships in Grossetto, Italy.

Leach started well and by the 200 mark held a sizable lead over second-place finisher Nicole Nevitt of BYU.

Kim, the Korean national pole vault record holder who was second in last year’s NCAA championships, didn’t even compete in his specialty Friday. A hand injury he suffered last week when his pole shattered during practice cut his thumb badly enough to require nearly 30 stitches.

So UCLA Coach Art Venegas had Kim compete in the long jump. The versatile senior responded with a leap of 22 feet 3 1/2 inches, second to Maurice Ennis’ jump of 23-8.

“I had messed around with the long jump in practice only once or twice before,” Kim said. “But I never had really jumped before. Then Coach Venegas comes over and tells me to start working on the long jump and the approach is very similar to the pole vault.”

Kim, who is not expected to return to the pole vault for at least two weeks, said that he has had plenty of poles shatter on him before but never with the force of last week’s break.

“When it happened, I didn’t think anything was unusual but when I hit the pit, I felt this sharp pain in my hand,” Kim said. “The vibration just ripped the skin apart.”

Also Friday, Arizona junior Robert Cheseret ran the seventh fastest time in the 5,000 this year in 13:31.62, breaking his meet record of 14:21.20; UCLA senior Tony Golson won the 110 high hurdles in 14.24, and Bruin sophomore Jeff Jacobs won the 400 in 47.78, 1.5 seconds better than his previous best.

The meet concludes today with invitational competition, starting with field events at 11:45 a.m. and running events at 12:15 p.m.