THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310592
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Olympics '96
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
From Atlanta
LENGTH: 70 lines
Lawrence Johnson has put the pizzazz back into the American pole vault. The Chesapeake resident is the national record holder, the Olympic Trials champion and the first black U.S. Olympic vaulter.
Conscious of giving his audience a good time, Johnson creates a buzz as he claps and high-steps and readies himself at the head of the runway. People who know say the 22-year-old has the kind of potential to back up his style with serious substance on any given day.
But as the pole vault competition gets going today with 9:30 a.m. qualifying, asking Johnson to bring home a medal in his first Olympics could be asking too much.
Three of the four men to clear six meters, or 19 feet, 8 1/4 inches, are in 38-man Olympic field. Johnson is not one of them. Three have cleared 19-8 3/4 this year. Johnson is not one of them.
And three own Olympic medals. Johnson, of course, is not one of them.
Still, all you need to remember about why those statistics are relatively harmless in the volatile world of the pole vault are three words - Sergei Bubka, Barcelona.
The Ukrainian Bubka, 32, is the world record holder at 20-1 3/4 and a five-time world champion. He set the Olympic record of 19-4 1/4 when he won the gold medal in Seoul in 1988. But four years later in Barcelona, expected to dominate again,
Bubka failed to clear a height and was bounced from the competition.
The unpredictability of the vault in general and Johnson in particular is why the Great Bridge graduate is one of the most intriguing entries. Johnson proved his ability to reach as high as 19-7 1/2, his U.S. record, in May. But in four meets since, he barely cleared 19 feet once, which makes him a true wildcard.
``I like to feel as though I'm the underdog,'' said Johnson, listed as 6-foot, 182 pounds. ``I've got some great competitors out there and they're very experienced. They know how to handle different situations and so forth. Bubka's still the man holding the world record. But I'm very hungry.''
These are the men Johnson hopes to chew up:
Bubka, first. He is 6-0, 176 and has the best vault in the world this year, 19-9. He did that in the meet that opened Atlanta's Olympic Stadium in May. Johnson's best at Olympic Stadium, site of the Trials, was 19-0 1/4.
Igor Trandenkov, Russia. The 29-year-old is 6-3, 176 and won the silver medal in Barcelona. He cleared 19-8 3/4 on July 4 to win his third consecutive Russian championship. At the '95 World Championships, though, he finished seventh.
Okkert Brits, South Africa. Like Johnson, Brits is a rarity - a 22-year-old world-class vaulter. Nine months older than Johnson, Brits, 6-5 and 194, charts a mercurial career. His personal-best is 19-9 1/2 and he beat Bubka, after whom he named his pet pit bull, head to head three times last year. But Brits, like Johnson, endures inconsistency and won no meets on the European circuit all spring or summer.
Spain's Javier Garcia, 31, is the other former Olympic medalist - he won bronze in Barcelona - but he is not expected to challenge here. The same might be said for the other Americans in the field, Scott Huffman, whose record Johnson broke, and Jeff Hartwig.
``I think you'll see at least one medal come out of this (American) group,'' Huffman said.
Hartwig, though, gets more to the point.
``Lawrence is one of the guys you look for to do big things,'' Hartwig said.
That's the attraction of Johnson. One way or another, it's hard to take your eyes off him. Because you never know. ILLUSTRATION: Photo illustration by CNB