Ato Boldon, who won two sprint bronze medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, became the sixth man to break 9.90 seconds in the 100 meters on a "training run" Saturday at the Modesto Relays.
On a hot, sunny day that reminded him of his native Trinidad, Boldon easily won his race in 9.89 - five hundredths of a second off the world record set by Donovan Bailey at the Atlanta Games.Boldon's spectacular season-opening performance highlighted a meet that included two national records in the women's pole vault by Stacy Dragila, who has broken her American record five times in five weeks.
Dragila set a record by clearing 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches on her second try, then improved the mark by six inches by clearing her first attempt at 14-71/4. She missed three attempts at 15 feet, which would have broken the world record.
Boldon, who was running his first outdoor 100 of the year and first since hurting his back at the indoor world championships in Paris in March, was surprised at his own time.
"Not bad at all, when you set a personal record in your first meet," said Boldon, whose previous best was a 9.90 while winning a bronze at Atlanta. "Last year, I had a couple of goals I didn't accomplish."
Bailey, Leroy Burrell, Carl Lewis, Frankie Fredericks and Linford Christie are the only other runners to go under 9.90. Burrell and Fredericks have done it twice. Boldon's 9.89 tied Fredericks' silver-medal winning mark at Atlanta for the seventh-fastest ever.
Boldon, who also won bronze in the 200 in Atlanta, said he hopes to get under 9.80 - which would easily break the world record - this season.
Training partner Jon Drummond, who ran 10.09 to win a separate heat of the 100, bowed to Boldon and joked, "I'm glad I wasn't in that race."
Dragila barely missed on her third attempt at 15 feet, which would have broken the world record of 14-11 set in February by Emma George of Australia. If Dragila had succeeded, it would have been the 33rd world record set at the Modesto Relays, which have been contested since 1932.
Dragila, a graduate of Idaho State who grew up in Auburn, Calif., as a rodeo performer and volleyball player, won the indoor title when the women's pole vault was contested for the first time at a world championships this March in Paris.
Competitors hope the women's pole vault will be included as an event at the 1999 outdoor world championships, and perhaps in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
In other events at the Modesto meet, Eugene Swift won the men's 110-meter hurdles in 13.34 - the best time in the world this year - and 1996 Olympic silver medalist John Godina won the men's shot put with a toss of 68-103/4.
Suzy Powell won the women's discus with a throw of 214 feet, the second best on the all-time American list. And 80-year-old Payton Jordan, a former Stanford track coach, set an age-group record of 14.35 seconds in the 100.