Frank Fredericks, one of the nation's top collegiate sprinters, will headline the Clarence Robison Invitational track meet at BYU this weekend.
The meet, which is named after the former BYU track coach, will begin with trials Friday (plus finals in the discus, women's 5,000 and men's and women's 10,000) and finals Saturday (beginning with field events at 1 and track events at 2).The meet will include teams from BYU, Wyoming, Idaho State, Utah State, Weber State and Utah.
Fredericks, the BYU junior from Namibia, will run the 100- and 200-meter dashes. He finished third in the 200-meter dash at last year's NCAA Championships. He has the fastest collegiate time in the nation this year in that event (20.36).
Others to watch: BYU's Per Karlsson, one of the nation's top hammer throwers; Ted Mecham, an All-America steeplechaser who will probably run the 5,000; Utah State's Ime Akpan, an All-America hurdler from Nigeria; BYU's Anu Kaljurdand, a Soviet heptathlete; intermediate hurdlers Jeff Brown (Utah), Terry Kealamkia (Weber) and Shaun McAlmont (BYU).
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EYESTONE PRs: Utah's Ed Eyestone and Paul Pilkington made a good showing at last Sunday's London Marathon. Eyestone finished seventh with a personal record time of 2:12.0, Pilkington 12th in 2:12:52 (the winner was Scotland's Alister Hutton, in 2:10:10).
For his part, Eyestone, despite setting a PR, was disappointed. "We went there to run fast, so we're not ecstatic" said Bob Wood, Eyestone's and Pilkington's agent who was on the scene. "But under the conditions, they both ran well. Nobody ran real fast. It was raining buckets at the start, and it was cold and windy."
For Pilkington, the race confirmed that his win in the January Houston-Tenneco Marathon was no fluke. A 2:15:36 marathoner until this year, he now has run 2:12:52 and 2:11:13 in 1990.
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MORE SUSPENSIONS: The Athletics Congress has had a busy spring. So far TAC has suspended four U.S. Olympic track athletes for drug use, all of them for questionable circumstances.
Larry Myricks, the Olympic bronze medalist in the long jump and a two-time world indoor champion, and Greg Foster, the two-time world champion hurdler, have both been suspended for three months after testing positive for ephedrine, a stimulant that can be found in over-the-counter cold medicines. Antonio McKay, an indoor world 400-meter champion, also has been suspended for three months for testing positive for phenylpropanolamine, a substance that also can be found in cold medicines.
And then there's Henry Marsh, who has been suspended for two years for failure to make himself availabe for a drug test. Marsh was out of town on business when notice of the drug test arrived.
It has become clear that TAC had better come up with a more equitable drug testing program immediately before it does any more damage to U.S. athletes.
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STILL GOING STRONG: Doug Padilla, who won the overall Grand Prix title during the 1990 indoor track season, continues to run well, even at the longer distances on the roads. He recently finished 10th in the Crescent City Classic 10K, running 29:23 on a hot day in New Orleans. That left him 40 seconds behind winner Gidamis Shahanga. Earlier in the year Padilla beat a loaded field to win the Carlsbad 5K setting an American road record of 13:30.