DATE: Thursday, August 14, 1997             TAG: 9708140632

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson

                                            LENGTH:   69 lines

BLAME USA TRACK FOR HANDOFF GAFFE, TOO

For the ascending track star, there are ways to carve a name for yourself. Finish third in the 100-meter final at the world championships, for instance. That's a good way to make them notice you.

Tim Montgomery, late of Norfolk State, did that last week in Athens, Greece.

In the fickle track game, where micro-second timing is everything and fates tilt on muscle twinges, there also are ways to smudge that goodwill in a blink. Botch the baton handoff in a relay race at the world championships, for instance. That's a good way to make them vilify you.

Montgomery, 22, learned that the hard way Saturday.

If you didn't catch the ironic tale - which is probably likely because we are talking about track here - Montgomery and his former junior college and Norfolk State teammate/roommate, Brian Lewis, got the United States disqualified from the first round of the men's 4x100 relay.

They failed to exchange the baton within the required 20-meter zone. Never dropped it, just couldn't connect. And so the United States, once dominant in the sprint relay, left a major meet without a 4x100 gold medal for the fourth time in seven years - including three years in a row.

Now, to you and me, this has nothing to do with the price of tomatoes, you know? You don't kick your dog over it. (Note to PETA: I do not advocate dog-kicking for any reason except if your other foot is already in the dog's mouth.)

But to track and field nuts, I mean, aficionados, another bungled relay ruins their whole day, to say nothing of the time until the next major championship. Worse, it lets Donovan Bailey and those bloody Canadians, who won the Worlds like they did the '96 Olympics, widen their advantage over the limping U.S.

Nobody has pointed fingers, and Montgomery and Lewis haven't discussed the mistake publicly. (They couldn't be reached Wednesday, nor could Norfolk State coach Steve Riddick, who still trains them.) But published accounts indicate Montgomery, running the second leg, was to blame for taking off so early that Lewis, who found out he'd be subbing for veteran Jon Drummond only 90 minutes before the race, couldn't get him the baton before breaking the boundary.

The gaffe made headlines in all the Sunday papers. However, the pair, particularly Montgomery, can take heart in that the names of the guilty generally fade with haste. Not just among the unconcerned masses, but even within track circles.

``I doubt more than 10 percent of the people in the sport even know where the exchange was botched,'' says Pete Cava, a spokesman for USA Track and Field. ``They just know that the U.S. didn't finish. The onus is on the U.S. more than anything, long after the names are forgotten.''

In other words, Montgomery and Lewis, two of the finest sprinters in the land - and in Montgomery's case, the world - needn't worry about a relay-team blacklist or any such nonsense, Cava says.

Eventually, they will get over their disappointment. They will live to pass batons another day.

As many suggest, though, the antidote to the American doldrums probably lies in rethinking how the relay team is picked - tossed together each year from national championship 100-meter finalists rather than quartets assembled for multiple seasons.

In Canada and most everywhere else, they take the long-term approach. So even though Montgomery should carry a good name down the road, he and other domestic runners could be doomed by the U.S. process to repeat his failure.

It's enough to make a relay maven take a Bromo run. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Maurice Greene sits dejected after the 4x100 meter relay team was

disqualified at worlds.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu