Reigning In Rain O’Brien Endures Awful Weather To Win National Title Again

Some impressive records were established Thursday at the USA/ Mobil Track and Field Championships.

For rainfall and cold temperatures.

The effect was to take a sharp second-day rally by decathlete Dan O’Brien and turn it into, well, just another in a long series of simply solid performances.

The 10-event ordeal - a decathlon that thought it was a marathon - finished after 11:30 Thursday night with O’Brien well behind the field with a 5:01.02 in the 1,500. It left him with 8,682 points, a world best this year.

It was O’Brien’s fourth national championship - his third straight. The effort, in front of a crowd of 4,237, qualified O’Brien for the World Championships in Sweden in August.

“I really think he was jacked up to score well until the weather turned bad the second time (in the pole vault) and that let him down a little,” said Mike Keller, one of O’Brien’s coaches. “All the way through it, though, he was really steady and that’s a really positive thing about this.”

O’Brien needed a 4:58.13 clocking to get over 8,700 for the sixth time, but a late sprint was not enough to overcome a casual first three laps.

The Moscow, Idaho, resident had recovered from a steady but unspectacular first day (4,628 points) with strong efforts in the hurdles and discus early Thursday afternoon to position himself for another run at his own world record.

But the Sacramento skies opened up and, along with cold, gusting winds, it left Thursday’s final five decathlon events consisting of shivering, teeth chattering, waiting, muttering and trying in vain to stay dry.

Before the weather deteriorated, the field was helpless against O’Brien. His recent times in the mid-13s in the 110-meter hurdles hinted that he’d break his own American deca hurdle record of 13.81. Thoroughly unchallenged, he cruised to a 13.84 clocking for 992 points.

Barring unexpected collapse, it effectively secured O’Brien’s national championship - the only question being the margin of victory.

O’Brien really got his coaches - Keller and Rick Sloan - thumbing through the scoring tables after he set a discus PR by more than 7 feet with a toss of 167-10.

That brought him to within 19 points of the pace he was on when he set the world record (8,891) in Talence, France, in 1992.

But the pole vault evolved into an amazing series of calamities.

A few low-height attempts were made by competitors before the deluge. Vaulters took cover from the rain for roughly an hour before trying to return. Then, though, winds of nearly 30 miles per hour forced another delay.

Officials decided to turn the pit around so vaulters would benefit from a runway with a tail wind. As they warmed up again, decathlete Aric Long came up short of the pit on a vault and suffered a shoulder injury that caused him to lie in the pit for another half hour.

Finally, as wind-chills dipped into the 40s - a surprising development in mid-June in Sacramento - O’Brien got his first clearance at 15-1 1/4. He continued with an easy clearance of 15-9 before the rain struck again.

And when competitor Drew Fucci suffered the same fate as Long - missing the pit and getting shaken up - O’Brien and his coaches decided that a shot at the record was not worth continued exposure to possible injury.

O’Brien had expected to surpass 17 feet in the vault, and stopping prematurely cost him roughly 120 points.

The problem then, though, was that the decathlon schedule was nearly 3 hours late and the women’s javelin qualifying had started - leaving the decathletes to wait another hour and a half before taking over the javelin runway.

The pole vault took so long, in fact, that Long was carried off and taken to a local hospital, examined, released and returned to the field to clear higher heights.

O’Brien, once again, was steady in the javelin, throwing 202-0, good for 761 points.

Joyner-Kersee wins

In other action Thursday, Jackie Joyner-Kersee won her fourth national heptathlon championship with 6,375 points - her lowest point total since the 1984 Olympics.

Still, it was her 19th consecutive victory in a heptathlon she has completed since then.

Central Valley High grad Annette Peters, American record holder in the 5,000, took sixth in her event, apparently slowed by some leg problems she’s encountered recently.

Coeur d’Alene High’s Corissa Yasen, a collegian at Purdue, was scheduled to compete in high jump qualifying, but it was postponed because of the rain.

Eastern Washington grad Lex Strom placed 25th in the hammer throw qualifying with a 178-10 effort.

Michael Johnson, seeking the first 200-400 double in the championships since 1899, moved smartly into today’s 400 final with a 45.16 clocking.

Carl Lewis won his opening heat in the 100 meters in 10.23, then was second to Jon Drummond in the semifinals in 10.12.

The most impressive 100 winner was 1992 Olympic 200 champion Mike Marsh. Running into a headwind, he clocked 10.14 in the prelims, then ran a wind-aided 10.02 in the semifinals.

, DataTimes