The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 30

D2 Sunday, August 13,1995 The Salina Journal WORLD TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS NBA By The Associated Press USA's Theodore McCall (left) and Jon Drummond are dejected after missing an exchange in the 400-meter relay Saturday. U.S. 400 relay blows exchange Pedroso takes long jump over Powell By Th. Associated Pr.ss GOTEBORG, Sweden First, the U.S. men's 400-meter relay team botched a handoff and didn't get out of the first round.

Then, Mike Powell lost his long jump title to Cuba's Ivan Pedroso. The best news for the Americans at the World Championships on Saturday was Allen Johnson's victory in the 110-meter hurdles in 13.00 seconds. The debacle in the 400 relay was devastating to the U.S. team, which has dominated the event in the World Championships and the Olympics. "We had the team to win, but it didn't happen," said Jon Drummond, the second runner whose handoff to Tony McCall wasn't completed inside the changeover zone.

McCall, who replaced the injured Dennis Mitchell and was competing in his first international meet, ended up in tears. Drummond took the blame, saying he ran up too fast on McCall. "I got slingshotted into the (passing) zone," Drummond said. "The problem was the timing. This was something we weren't worried about in practice.

I was flying. I was running faster than I expected to. "The only way the U.S. can get beat is to beat itself. We beat ourselves today." Handoffs have long been a problem for U.S.

relay teams. The most renowned incident came during the 1988 Olympics when Lee McNeill took a handoff from Calvin Smith out of the zone during the first- round heats. There also was a dropped baton in the 400 relay during the 1991 Pan American Games, a dropped baton By The Associated Press Spain's Martin Fiz celebrates his victory in the marathon Saturday. by Willie Smith in the 1,600 relay during the 1983 World Championships and an obstruction call during the 1,600 after a handoff during this year's Pan American Games. In the long jump, Pedroso got the world title even if he doesn't yet have the world record.

The 22-year- old Cuban is still waiting for track's world governing body to approve a disputed jump for the world record last month. His best leap of 28 feet, 6 1 A inches Saturday was far short of his controversial performance of July 25 when he soared at Sestriere, Italy. But it was superior to anyone's else top effort, including that of Powell, the world record-holder. The ailing Powell, suffering his fifth consecutive loss, was relegated to the bronze medal when James Beckford of Jamaica passed him for second place in the final round with a national record Powell, whose various injuries include a misaligned vertebra, managed only 27-2V2. Still, he is the world record-holder.

His jump of 29-4Vs at the 1993 World Championships is on top of the all-time list, while the Internation- Amateur Athletic Federation is The Associated Press Cuba's Ivan Pedroso and USA's Mike Powell share a moment after placing 1-2 in the long jump on Saturday. al deliberating whether to accept Pedroso's big jump last month. His claim on the record is tenuous because an official was standing in front of the wind gauge during the jump, a rules violation. Pedroso said his chances for a possible world record at the championships were negated by the swirling winds that at times changed from a headwind to a tailwind. But Powell said he was certain that the 22-year-old Cuban eventually would get the record.

"He's capable of breaking it," Powell said. "We have similar technique the hitch-kick, but he has great extension." In the hurdles, the 24-year-old Johnson charged out of the blocks smartly and held on, beating Britain's Tony Jarrett, the runner- up in 13.04, and two-time Olympic gold medalist and American record-holder Roger Kingdom, third in 13.19. Johnson always finds something to motivate him before a race, and this time it was his coach, Curtis Frye. "He told me to focus on the first five hurdles and charge the last three," Johnson said. "That's what I did 'charge, charge, Johnson ran the best race of his career, only .09 seconds off the world record of 12.91 by Britain's Colin Jackson, who missed the competition because of an adductor injury.

The oft-injured Kingdom said winning the bronze medal, his first at the World Championships, "confirmed that I'm really back." The 32-year-old has missed significant time since undergoing two knee operations in 1991 and came into the championships with a slight case of tendinitis in his right knee. "I've proved with the times I'm running this year year that the speed is still there," Kingdom said. Proposed deal may return NBA to good sta "In order to be competitive with these guys (Johnson and Jarrett), I've got to work on getting more snap off the lead leg." In Saturday's other finals: Sonia O'Sullivan became Ireland's first woman's world champion, winning the first 5,000 in the championships, in 14:46.47. She joined 1983 men's 5,000 champion Eamonn Coghlan as Ireland's only gold medalist in the championships. European champion Martin Fiz of Spain took the men's marathon in 2:11:41, beating favored Dionisio Ceron of Mexico by 32 seconds.

Ellina Zvereva of Belarus won the women's discus at 68.64 meters (225-2). While the 400 relay team flopped, the other U.S. relay teams stayed on track in the semifinals. The men's 1,600 relay team of Marlon Ramsey, Derek Mills, Kevin Lyles and Darnell Hall ran the fastest time in the world this year, 2:58.23, in a semifinal heat. In the women's 400 relay, Celena Mondie-Milner, Carlette Guidry, Chryste Gaines and D'Andre Hill won its semifinal heat in 42.44, the fastest in the world this year until Jamaica won the other semifinal.

Players to vote on proposal soon By WENDY E. LANE Th. Associated Pr.ss NEW YORK It seemed wildly improbable the NBA's labor negotiating team scurrying into a meeting with 25 players with less than four hours left before the union's midnight deadline for self- destruction, then the two sides emerging at 11:45 p.m. to announce they had a deal. But the five men in suits, including NBA commissioner David Stern and union-president Buck Williams, weren't on their own in announcing a new collective bargaining agreement.

Standing behind them were some of the game's most respected veterans, a roll call of role models: Houston's Clyde Drexler, Sari Antonio's Doc Rivers, Cleveland's Mark Price, Phoenix's Danny Manning, Detroit's Joe Dumars and Utah's John Stockton. The support they lent to the contract proposal and the llth-hour proceedings may just be enough to convince their colleagues to go the safe route of approving the deal instead of following two superstars, Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, into the courts. "Both sides came here," Drexler said, "with the thought of finding a solution." A final solution it may not be, but the tentative agreement on a six-year labor deal could put locked-out pro basketball back on top in the troubled business of professional sports. Whether players will approve the deal and keep union in business depends on how reluctant they are to take hard-line stance of their brethren in baseball and hockey and risk losing part of the schedule and part of their paychecks. Players will decide on two voting days Aug.

30 and Sept. 7 whether to accept the contract or to dissolve their union and go through the federal courts to end the lockout and get a better deal. "I'm sure this deal may not please everyone, but it's a deal the players behind me support fully and it's a deal I fell will be ratified," Williams said Tuesday night when the negotiations were finished. Initial indications-from-players and their agents, neither of whom had gotten a chance to fully analyze the provisions of the'agree- ment, were guardedly favorable. And the league and the union were engaged in a full-court press to win them over.

For the union, staging the last- minute negotiations was a risky move. A players' insurgency had killed a deal in June because it was viewed as too favorable to owners. Negotiations resumed after the NBA initiated the first labor action in its history, locking out players July 1. But Ewing sent out a strongly worded letter urging players to view with suspicion any new deal the union leadership made. And' when talks broke off Aug.

3, it appeared the union leadership was so weakened it had no choice except joining forces with Jordan and agreeing to dissolve. In a final effort, executive director Simon Gourdine and Williams summoned their supporters, big names who would lend credence to the proceedings. It's unknown who made the first move the NBA or the union. Neither side will say. The league may have decided the risk of losing a long court battle was too great, not to mention putting its multimillion-dollar sponsorships in jeopardy by losing all or part of a season to a work stoppage.

Even Stern acknowledged the split in the players' union that scuttled the previous deal and led' to the decertification threat forced the union and the league to make a deal the players would like. "I would say the tactic worked," he said. "The risk the tactic raised to the play- ers, the owners and the '95 season was sufficiently high' that it was worth doing." Regardless of who made the initial concession or how good the deal is for team owners versus players, Stern stands to come out a big winner if the deal passes. He will once again look like the smartest dealmaker and best salesman in pro sports. A ratified agreement would also make winners of Gourdine and Williams.

Gourdine will have saved his job and shown players he can be trusted, and Williams will have won points for persis- tence in trying to fulfill the players' mandate for salary cap exceptions that would still allow sufficient player movement and free agent compensation. Despite their vocal opposition to the union leadership and their pending antitrust suit against the league, Ewing and Jordan likely won't bear any lasting scars for leading the dissident faction. Jordan is too valuable to the NBA for the league to lash out against him, and his popularity with fans transcends any offseason labor squabbles. The losers, of course, would be- the agents, who were never sympathetic figures, anyway. Because of the rookie pay scale, they will lose commissions on those big-ticket rookie contracts.

And they will have lost their power struggle with the union leadership and a shot at testing the legality of the salary cap in court. If the players decide to sign off on the new labor agreement, the biggest winners will be the fans, whose increasingly cynical attitude toward pro sports and its labor troubles won't be tested further. In the end, players on both sides of the dispute pro-union and pro- decertification would be smart to keep the fans in mind. "We are the product," Gourdine said, "and we want to make sure we can enhance the image of the NBA and put this little episode be-' hind us." BIG EIGHT FOOTBALL Moore enters fall drills as OU's No. 1 quarterback By The Associated Pr.ss NORMAN, Okla.

With his strong performance during spring workouts, Eric Moore left no doubt that he is Oklahoma's No. 1 quarterback heading into two-a- day fall drills. With his strong performance in a the team's two-mile run Saturday, Garrick McGee left no doubt he's in great shape. And that, coach Howard Schnellenberger said at Photo Day, gives McGee a chance to regain his starting job. "That is probably the best news of the whole thing," Schnellen- berger said of McGee's time of 13 minutes, 47 seconds.

"Garrick has worked very hard on his conditioning since spring practice and is in good physical condition. "He's pretty far behind Eric Moore, but he can go out and practice for two or three hours, he can do the full-speed workouts. "If I would be a horse man, in this long race we're in the last three furlongs and he's probably a furlong behind. If he's Silky Sullivan or some great come-from-be- bind horse, he's got a chance to win. But he's got some long odds to overcome." CONFERENCE McGee hasn't played in a game since Nov.

25 against Nebraska, the Sooners' final regular-season game last year. A week after that game, he came down with meningitis. He lost about 25 pounds and missed spring drills. Meanwhile, Moore came off his redshirt year and had an impressive spring. Schnellenberger said Moore picked up the offense as fast or faster than any player who has played for him.

He said Saturday he feels "wonderful, really good" about the second- year freshman. His only concern about Moore, Schnellenberger said, is his inexperience. He said he has never played a college quarterback who hasn't studied the offense for at least a year. Moore would be his first. McGee's experience he was the starter all of last year and played five games as a freshman at Arizona State in 1992 is the stuff that would make Schnellen- berger relax a bit.

7 NOTES RUSTY CU: At Boulder, Colorado's No. 13 ranking is fair, reflecting the Buffaloes' "unknown" status after losing so much talent to graduation, coach Rick Neuheisel said Saturday. But the fact the Buffs were dropped 10 spots from their No. 3 position in the final 1994 poll also will serve as a motivator, he said. Colorado held its first full practice of fall drills Saturday, and the first-year head coach was pleased.

"Obviously, there's a lot of rust on us, but that's expected," Neuheisel said. "Without a team meeting, we were able to go out there and put hi almost 70 percent of our offense. Our kids picked up right where they left off after spring practice, which is a tribute to them and their work ethic over the summer." Asked about the preseason ranking, Neuheisel said he wasn't surprised, given the loss of 10 players who were drafted into the NFL. "Where we're being ranked typifies us as an unknown," he said. "I don't know if anybody knows exactly what to expect from Colorado this year.

They don't know what to expect from myself as a new head coach, whether I'll panic or drop the ball. They don't know what to expect from a lot of our new players who are taking over from proven stars who are now in NFL camps. NO. 2 SUITS OSBORNE: At Lincoln, Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne said Saturday that the defending champion Corn- buskers' No. 2 ranking in The Associated Press preseason poll suits him just fine.

"My preference is to be ranked fairly high early on in order to enable you to make a run at if," Osborne said. "If you start out at No. 20 or so, it makes it pretty difficult to move up. On the other hand, it is nice not to be at the top, we are probably already a big enough target." Nebraska is ranked one spot behind Florida State. The Seminoles received 31 first-place votes and 1,498 points, while the NU got 15 firsts and 1,439 points.

By The Associated Oklahoma running back James Allen signs autographs for young at the Photo Day on Saturday..