Two best of year marks at US Open
(Reuters & AFP)
22 May 1999 Edwardsville, Illinois - Two
world-leading marks for 1999 highlighted Saturday's U.S. Open Grand Prix athletics meeting
at Southern Illinois University.
Poland's Anna Jakubczack clocked the best women's 1500 of the season with a victory in four minutes, 8.77 seconds. Jakubczack held off Cheri Kenah, whose 4:09.33 was the best time by an American in the event this year.
Connie Price-Smith threw an excellent 19.11m metres in the women's shot put giving her the second mark of the year behind Nadine Kleinert from Germany who marked 19.52 last weekend in Halle.
"I'm really focusing on peaking three times this year," said Price-Smith. "I need to be at my best at the national championships, at the world championships in Seville and at the Grand Prix Final."
Larry Wade emerged victorious from a strong field in the
men's 110-metre hurdles, matching his own best time in the world this year of 13.22
seconds.
Fellow American Eugene Swift was second in 13.36 and Mark Crear, who won Goodwill Games
gold last year and finished 1998 season ranked No. 1 in the world, was third in 13.43.
"I'm young to the game, I haven't been running at the professional level that long," Wade said.
The 24-year-old from the small town of Elgin, Texas, was the US university champion last year, before moving to Los Angeles to train under John Smith.
"Every week I learn something new," said Wade, whose learning curve has included victories at the Mt. SAC Relays, the Grand Prix meeting in Rio de Janeiro and the Oregon Track Classic last week.
With Smith, he has worked on a more attacking style, which he hopes will propel him to gold at the World Championships in Seville in August.
"I can't just take it easy, like in college," he said. "The first three hurdles you have to really be aggressive. The driving phase of my race, we've really worked on that. At this level, if you get behind, you lose."
World record holder Kim Batten fought off a late challenge by Sandra Glover to win the women's 400 hurdles in a U.S.-leading time of 54.52.
Tyree Washington, whose best event is the 400 metres, won the men's 200 in 20.09 seconds, shaving one hundredth of a second off his personal best over the distance. Washington, better known as a 400m runner, said he would concentrate on the 200m this year, unless a hoped-for shot at the National Football League intervenes.
"I'm just trying to get a feel for the 200," Washington said. "I haven't really established myself as a 200m runner, I want to see if I can really do it."
In the women's 800, veteran Jearl Miles-Clark crossed the finish in 2:01.41, edging Tina Paulino of Mozambique, who clocked 2:01.67, and fellow American and sister-in-law Joetta Clark (2:01.74).
USA Track and Field took over organisation of the event just two and a half weeks earlier, when Joyner-Kersee's promotional company let it go. USATF Chief Executive Officer Craig Masback admitted the crowd was disappointing, largely because the meet conflicted with several regional high school championship meetings.
Pole vaulter Jeff Hartwig, a native of nearby St. Louis, didn't mind the small crowd since it contained many of his relatives.
"It's great to have a chance to come home and jump in front of friends and family," said Hartwig, who won with a vault of 5.80m. But even he said his fan base was cut back by the other local events.
"There are sectional meets all over the city this weekend," he said. "That's probably what kept the crowd down. It's a little bit of poor planning."
Still, his 81-year-old grandmother saw him vault in person for the first time since he was in school himself, and his performance in the tricky, wind left him optimistic about the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, next weekend.
