Liquori Becomes The Story At Race

In more than two decades as a track commentator, ABC’s Marty Liquori scrupulously has avoided the temptation to become a part of the action, going so far as not to tell runners how far they were from the finish line or even where their closest competition was.

But Liquori crossed that line during the running of the Advil Mini-Marathon, which airs today on “Wide World of Sports,” and probably helped keep a deserving runner on course for the Olympics, and saved her from injury.

“For 25 years, I’ve been able to keep that distinction of watching people, but not being a part of it, but I felt like I had to do something,” said Liquori, a finalist in the 1,500 meters in the 1968 Olympics.

With 300 yards to go in last Saturday’s race in New York, Liquori was sitting in the lead convertible, watching Kenya’s Tegla Loroupe, a two-time New York City Marathon women’s winner, headed for apparent victory, when a street person emerged from a water stand and began running with and into Loroupe.

Liquori realized no one would be able to assist the 82-pound woman, a medal candidate for this year’s Games, and flashed back in his mind’s eye to the 1984 Olympics, when Gabriel Anderson staggered into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at the end of the women’s marathon, hobbled with heat stroke.

No one immediately helped Anderson, and Liquori didn’t want the same fate to befall Loroupe.

“I just knew if she fell, it would probably affect her Olympics. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing,” said Liquori, who jumped out of the car and grabbed the man by his lapels, pulling him away from Loroupe, who finished the race unharmed.

Today, HBO will show a tape of the June 7 Oscar De La Hoya-Julio Cesar Chavez bout after the Kevin Kelley-Derrick Gainer match.

Also, HBO will track Roy Jones Jr., who will play point guard in the USBL, then fight Eric Lucas.