photo by Matt MLCorm.U
Pre leads his heat
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Young, Pre qualify
for 5,000 showdown
By PAUI. BIKER
Of the Emerald
George Young says he arrived
in town on the Fourth of July.
But a nervous Steve Prefon
taine and 12,500 expectant fans at
Hayward Field couldn't be
certain the veteran distance
runner would show until he lined
up for his opening race in the
5,000 meters Thursday.
Originally, Pre had been
matched against Young in the
first heat of the day. Then the
heats were scrambled twice, and
when it was all over, both had
qualified in different races.
Prefontaine jockeyed with the
pack for awhile in the first one
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then burst by the crowd to qualify
in a breeze.
Oregon's American and
collegiate record holder at this
distance seized the lead for good
at the end of nine laps and
coasted home in 13:51.2.
Young, the mystery man from
Casa Grande, Arizona who is
little less than legend among
American distance runners, had
a much more casual workout.
He ran dead last through nine
turns around Stevenson Track
while Rick Hitchcock and
Leonard Hilton idled through 70
second quarters.
Then he picked it up briefly
before jogging home in fifth
place, running 14:11.6. The heat
overall was so slow that the top
eight all finished over 14 minutes.
By comparison, the first race
saw the top six run in the 13:50s,
with Tracy Smith chasing Pre to
the finish in 13:52.8 and Gerry
Lindgren running a 13:53.6 for
third.
After it was all over, Prefon
taine, a senior-to-be at Oregon,
gave signs for the first time that
the Olympic Trials did indeed
bring tremendous pressure.
He appeared relieved to be past
the first hurdle.
“When you’ve rested for four or
five days, the thought always
comes: are you ready? Are you in
shape?”
With that question answered,
he could look to the final—the
Olympic Trials final event.
Pre has talked all year of
finally getting to face Young
head-on; the man he has called
"America’s greatest distance
runner ever,” the man who has
been ih the Olympic games no
less than three times. In 1968, at
Mexico City, Young won a bronze
medal in the steeplechase and
finished 16th in the marathon.
Obviously walking a mental
tightrope in anticipation of
Sunday’s final, Pre wouldn’t talk
about the race.
“It's not that I don’t like to talk.
It's just that I’m very nervous.”
While Pre quickly got the post
race chatter over with, some of
the other qualifiers were much
looser.
Buoyant little Gerry Lindgren,
who tailed Prefontaine and
qualified third at the finish, tad
other things on his mind Shirti.
for one.
“I'm trying to get ahold oft
‘Go Pre' T-shirt,” he said. “It's
just about the neatest thing I’ve
seen here.”
Tracy Smith, an Olympian it
1968 in the 10,000 and a La
Angeles police officer ran t
strong second in Pre's heat and
had some predictions to offer for
the final
"I think it will take 13:20 t«
make the team" (the world
record is 13:16.6, the America!
record is 13:29.8).
"I'm not ready for a world
record, but I think I’m ready for
13:20."
II was Smith, a 1067 graduated
Oregon State, who did most of tin
spurting in his heat.
“I want the pace to be hard,
because my main asset il
strength," he said. “I want it to
be in the 8:40s or high 8:30s to
burn off the kickers.
In the second race, whilt
Young was content to finish fifth.
Terry Harrison was winninj
eventually with a 14:06.2 Otte
qualifiers were Hilton, of
Houston Spike Club, Jim John
son . who failed to qualify lad
week in the steeplechase, and
Glen Herold.
Greg Fredericks, the puzzlinj
youth who one week ran a n»
American record 10,000 niefert,
then folded here in the saw
event, was the sixth and last man
to make the final.
In the first race it was Smith
Lindgren, Dick Buerkle, Clift
Clark, and Sid Sink joining tl*
finals' field.
Sink, the American record
holder in the steeplechase, d
another man fighting to maketl*
team after an earlier blowout.
"I'd have rather been in
heat than the second one," h
admitted. “It seems it would
make you sharper—runninf
faster.”
With more than 14,000 expected
for the final day, all itching to see
the long-awaited moment of truth
for Prefontaine, one couldn't a*
for a more dramatic finish.