Roger Kingdom won back-to-back Olympic high hurdles titles in 1984 and 1988, but he has never won a medal in the World Championships. Kingdom had never even made a world meet team until Sunday, when he became the improbable national champion after four years of struggling to make the top 10 in the United States.
“I wasn’t the favorite, I was the forgotten man,” said Kingdom, 32. “Of all the championships I’ve won, this has to be the most satisfying.”
Kingdom won his fifth U.S. title–but first since 1990–in a wind-aided 13.09 seconds at Sacramento City College, with Allen Johnson second (:13.11) and Jack Pierce third (:13.26). That trio will go to the World Championships Aug. 4-13 in Sweden.
“People tried to say I was done,” Kingdom said. “Every time I saw a meet organizer, he would say, `What are you doing now that you are retired?’ “
Such questions were only slightly rude, given Kingdom’s constant injury problems since knee surgery in 1991. He still was greatly offended, especially when those organizers would not let him run in their meets.
Six years ago, Kingdom set a world record (:12.92) that was lowered to :12.91 by Britain’s Colin Jackson in 1993. “My ultimate goal is to get the record again and shoot for the ’96 Olympics,” he said. “I’m going to set the retirement date.”
Not biting: Mike Powell’s victory over Carl Lewis in Sunday’s long jump was his fourth in their last five meetings, beginning with Powell’s world-record leap of 29 feet, 4 1/2 inches at the 1991 World Championships. But Powell, silver medalist behind Lewis at the 1992 Olympics, would not take the bait on a question about his recent dominance.
“I realize he is only a little away from coming back to what he was before,” Powell, 31, said of Lewis, 33, long-jump champion in three straight Olympics.
Powell also feels he can return to the form that had him looking at a 30-foot jump. He won this competition with a wind-aided 28-0 3/4, with Lewis second at 27-8 3/4 and Kareem Streete-Thompson third at 27-5 1/4.
“I haven’t had an injury-free season said 1991,” said Powell, who made his season debut at this meet because of a broken bone in his foot.
No little feat: Kevin Little, second to Michael Johnson in Sunday’s 200, thought his career was over after surgery to repair an Achilles tendon severed in a bicycling accident two years ago. The Drake graduate from Ankeny, Iowa, had not even made the final of a major outdoor meet since 1990.
Little, 27, not only earned a place in the world meet but an odd distinction: he will be the first Caucasian athlete to represent the U.S. in the outdoor worlds or Olympics at 100, 200 or 400 meters since Mark Lutz at the 1976 Olympics. Those distances recently have been totally dominated by African-Americans.
Spike marks: Despite a sore leg that nearly forced her out of the meet after one round of the 100, Gwen Torrence went on to win both that and Sunday’s 200 (in a wind-aided :22.03). “I was able to relax a little more after the 100,” she said.
Biggest flop: Steve Holman in Sunday’s 1,500 meters, where he let the pace dawdle (first 400 in 1:06.92, or :00.32 slower than the women) and missed the world team by finishing fifth (3:45.10) behind winner Paul McMullen (3:43.90).
Made it: Two ex-Wisconsin runners, Suzy Hamilton (2nd at 1,500) and 1995 grad Amy Wickus (3rd at 800), made the world team.
