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Fitting Finale: Joyner-Kersee Bronzed

ATLANTA, Aug. 2—Jackie Joyner-Kersee told herself this was it, her "last shot." After four Olympic Games, three gold medals, and at least eight years of being considered the world’s greatest female athlete, it had come down to one last long jump. Mired in sixth place, with a right hamstring heavily taped and full of pain, Joyner-Kersee gritted her teeth and leapt.

The results were bittersweet. The jump was good enough for third place, Joyner-Kersee’s second consecutive bronze medal in the Olympic long jump and her sixth Olympic medal overall. But, for the first time in eight years, Joyner-Kersee was not leaving the Olympics with gold. The top of the medal stand would be waiting for someone else.

While Joyner-Kersee’s remarkable Olympic career appeared to have run its course before 82,916 appreciative spectators at Olympic Stadium, the mystery of who is running what in the two U.S. men’s relays only intensified tonight as all four of the U.S. men’s and women’s teams qualified for the final.

While Carl Lewis inched closer to a possible berth on the 4x100-meter relay team, Michael Johnson withdrew from the men’s 4x400 relay, citing "a little tightness" in his lower right hamstring.

Johnson, who was virtually assured of his third gold medal if he ran the relay Saturday night in Olympic Stadium, said he was "disappointed," adding, "I guess you can’t get everything."

Johnson set a world record of 19.32 seconds in the 200 meters Thursday, achieving his goal of winning the 200-400 double at the Olympic Games.

"There are a lot of guys capable of running, and I don’t want to hurt the chances for a gold medal," Johnson said at a news conference this afternoon.

Johnson felt a slight twinge in his hamstring in the last five meters of the 200 meters and immediately had his leg wrapped in ice while he rejoiced on the track.

"It’s not a pull," Johnson said. "There’s no damage, just a little swelling."

Lewis, meanwhile, edged closer to the 4x100 relay team—and a chance for an historic 10th gold medal—despite several twists and turns in what has become a soap operatic saga.

"One of two things will happen," Lewis said this morning. "We’ll get it all worked out [for him to be on the team]. Or, they’ll work it out to put Michael on the team."

Or, perhaps, both.

Jon Drummond, who ran the lead leg in qualifying today, promised a "surprise" Saturday night, and one theory has it that both Johnson and Lewis will be placed on the 4x100 relay.

But Lewis said he had "no idea" what would happen, and had talked to no one about it. He and Dennis Mitchell, the current anchor leg, had a brief conversation Thursday before Mitchell’s cellular phone went dead, Lewis said.

For the first time since he won the long jump Monday night, Lewis came to the practice track at the same time the relay runners did this afternoon, but did not practice running the relay or handing off the baton.

"He went out there to wish the guys well," said Joe Douglas, Lewis’s manager.

To show how unprepared Lewis is to run the relay, he said he had to have his running spikes shipped overnight to Atlanta.

"I don’t have my spikes here," Lewis said. "I only had my flats [for the long jump] and I gave them away."

There were other signs that Lewis might be put on the team. Mitchell said he would be willing to give up his spot on the anchor leg and move to the third spot to open up the anchor leg for Lewis. Twice Lewis has led the Americans to an Olympic gold medal as the anchor, in 1984 and 1992. In 1988 the team was disqualified in a qualifying round before Lewis had a chance to run.

And Jeff Williams, the fourth-place finisher at the Olympic trials who has been passed over for the relay, said he thought Lewis’s spot on the team was "a done deal."

One confusing development involved longtime Lewis friend and training partner, Leroy Burrell. On Thursday, it was announced he had withdrawn due to Achilles’ tendinitis. Today, the coaches said he was much better after being treated by anti-inflammatories and in fact never had withdrawn.

Head coach Erv Hunt told NBC that it was Mike Marsh who was injured, not Burrell.

But Douglas, who manages Burrell and Marsh as well as Lewis, said Marsh is not injured and Burrell’s status would be known by Saturday.

"It’s history in the making for some people," Douglas said, "but we will accept whatever the coaches say."

In the women’s long jump, Nigeria’s Chioma Ajunwa leapt 23 feet 4• inches on her first attempt and it held up for two hours to ensure the gold medal. World champion Fiona May of Italy won the silver with a leap of 23-0•; Joyner-Kersee earned the bronze at 22-11, well off her U.S. record of 24-7, set two years ago.

In 1988 in Seoul, the only time she won the gold medal in the event, she jumped 24-3•.

"I’m very proud of my effort," said Joyner-Kersee, 34, who withdrew from the heptathlon after one event last Saturday when she injured her hamstring going over a hurdle. "The last two weeks have been very hard for me. I didn’t know it would take [the maximum] six jumps tonight. Each time, I tried to believe I would pull off a winner.

"It was my last jump," she said. "This one I really had to work hard for. I really don’t like pain and I was in a lot of pain. . . . I just said to stay positive. A bronze medal is better than no medal."

Ajunwa’s victory was a triumph in several ways. It was the first Olympic medal won by an African woman in a field event, and it was the first gold medal ever in the Olympics for Nigeria.

Ajunwa tested positive for anabolic steroids on June 11, 1992, and served a four-year suspension. She said she was taking medications "front and back" as a 21-year-old, and didn’t know she was taking steroids.

In other events, Joseph Keter of Kenya won the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase over world-record holder Moses Kiptanui; Germany’s Astrid Kumbernuss won her 38th consecutive victory in the shot put; and Portugal’s Fernanda Ribeiro slipped inside China’s Wang Junxia nearing the finish line to win the women’s 10,000.

In the pole vault, France’s Jean Galfione won the gold with a height of 19-5. Lawrence Johnson of Norfolk missed three times at 19 feet 0" inches and finished eighth. It was a disappointing finish for Johnson, the U.S. record holder at 19-7•, who thought he had a chance for a medal after world record holder Sergei Bubka withdrew during qualification.