Joyner-Kersee Wins Heptathlon

All hail the Queen.

A tearful and relieved Jackie Joyner-Kersee, considered by many the greatest female athlete ever, put on the most courageous performance of her celebrated career Wednesday night, winning the heptathlon at the Goodwill Games.

Crying before her final event and afterward, Joyner-Kersee ran a gutsy 800 meters to win the two-day, seven-event competition with 6,502 points, the highest score in the world this year.

Not only was Joyner-Kersee in tears, so was her husband and coach, Bob Kersee. When Kersee regained his composure, he came down from the stands onto the field, sneaked up behind Jackie and poured water over her, then warmly embraced his wife.

"I can't believe I won," Joyner-Kersee said.

"I can't believe it, either," said her husband.

Joyner-Kersee's heartwarming victory overshadowed a world record of 2 minutes, 54.20 seconds by the United States men's 1,600-meter relay team, anchored by Michael Johnson.

The heptathlon title came down to the final event. Joyner-Kersee was leading DeDee Nathan by 46 points, but the 800 is one of Joyner-Kersee's least favorite events.

With the heptathlon points system, Nathan had to beat Joyner-Kersee by about 3½ seconds to wrest the gold medal from Joyner-Kersee. But Nathan won by less than two seconds, and the victory was Joyner-Kersee's by 23 points.

Joining the happy couple on the field was Alfred Joyner, Jackie's father.

"I can't believe it's over," he said, "but I'm glad it's over. She has the heart of a champion."

Joyner-Kersee showed it Wednesday night.

Johnson, who came into the games as an uncertain quantity because of injuries over the past year, capped the relay with the fastest leg, 43.1.

"I didn't want to let these guys down," he said. "They ran great legs."

Jerome Young led of the relay with a 44.4 leg, and was followed by his coach, Antonio Pettigrew in 43.2 and Tyree Washington in 43.5, before Johnson finished off the record run. It broke by .09 seconds the previous mark of 2:54.29 by the U.S. team, also anchored by Johnson, at the 1993 World Championships at Stuttgart, Germany.

"We wanted to come out here and do something special for New York, the United States and the Goodwill Games," Pettigrew aid.

The 36-year-old Joyner-Kersee won the previous three Goodwill Games heptathlons, but this was among the least of her accomplishments during a brilliant career that began in East St. Louis, Ill., at the tender age of 12.

She went on to win gold medals in the Olympics in the heptathlon in 1988 and 1992 and in the long jump in 1988, a silver medal in the heptathlon in 1984, and bronze medals in the long jump in 1992 and 1996.

During her remarkable career, she has won 25 of 36 heptathlons and has the six highest scores in history, including the first five over 7,000.

This was the first heptathlon Joyner-Kersee completed since the 1996 Olympic trials. She withdrew from the Atlanta Games multi-event because of injury, and was absent from virtually all competition until the Goodwill Games.

The resourceful Joyner-Kersee will end her great track and field career Saturday in the U.S. Open, an international Grand Prix event at Edwardsville, Ill., 15 miles from her birthplace. There, she will compete in the long jump.

For the second straight day, Maurice Greene ran away from Donovan Bailey down the stretch, this time in the men's 400-meter relay, as the U.S. team beat archrival Canada in 37.90, the fastest time in the world this year and a Goodwill record. For a change, the Americans did not botch the handoffs, as the passes were clean from Jon Drummond to Tim Harden to Dennis Mitchell to Greene.

Bailey got the baton about a meter behind Greene, but did not have the speed to catch the world and Goodwill 100-meter champion, losing by nearly five meters.

"Can't nobody beat us at home," Greene said. "The U.S. is No. 1."

Cuba's Javier Sotomayor, the world record-holder, 1992 Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion in the high jump, outdueled 1996 Olympic champion Charles Austin to win at 7-73/4. Both cleared that height, but Sotomayor, competing despite a tender left ankle, had fewer misses.

Kenya's Tegla Loroupe, the world record-holder in the marathon and two-time New York City Marathon champion, was a popular winner in the women's 10,000. In defending her title, Loroupe was timed in 32;15.44, beating compatriot Sally Barsosio, the world champion, by 180 meters.

Carlette Guidry overtook the Bahamas' Pauline Davis in the final 10 meters, giving the U.S. women's 400-meter relay team its fourth straight victory in the Games. The team of Cheryl Taplin, Chryste Gaines, Angie Vaughn and Guidry was timed in 42.06, the fastest in the world this year and a meet recor.

Jamaica's 1,600-meter women's relay team, anchored by Deon Hemmings, beat the U.S. team by a stride in 3:24.76, the fastest in the world this year. On the final leg, Hemmings held off a powerful stretch run by Kim Graham, as the Americans finished in 3:24.81.

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