Track and Field : Tully Comes Off Injury Ready for Record Assault

Mike Tully has been America’s most consistent pole vaulter for several years in an event in which athletes tend to soar, then fade from sight.

Tully, 29, figures he has two good years left as an athlete and he wants to make the most of them.

“I’m motivated for the few years I have left,” Tully said Monday at a track writers’ luncheon. “I’m really fired up. I figure I can jump 19-6 and possibly get the world record with proper training.”

Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union is the world record-holder at 19-8 and is acknowledged as the best in the world in his specialty.

Tully, known as a fierce competitor, acknowledges Bubka as an “awesome athlete” but one, nevertheless, who can be beaten.

Tully will return to competition Saturday in the Pepsi Invitational at UCLA after a four-month layoff from minor groin surgery.

A former American record-holder in the vault, Tully has distinguished himself by winning two World Cup competitions and getting a silver medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

“I did 18-8 in practice with a short, 100-foot run and that’s a PR (personal record) for me (with a short runup),” Tully said. “I’d like to get another (Olympic) medal in Seoul.”

Tully said he would like to vault against Joe Dial, the current American outdoor record-holder at 19-4, in Saturday’s meet. Dial will probably compete, although he is recovering from a strained muscle he suffered while playing softball.

“Jumping Joe has been jumping records in strange places where nobody is at,” said Tully, needling his adversary.

Tully was referring to Dial’s record spree last month in Norman, Okla., and El Paso, where he improved the U.S. record to 19-2 3/4, 19-3 1/2 and, finally, 19-4.

“I heard that when he set his last record, his father measured the cross bar,” said Tully, applying the needle again. “You’re not going to see my dad at the Pepsi meet measuring an American record.”

Although Tully is a former world indoor record-holder, he prefers to jump outdoors, where he has made his best marks.

Conversely, Billy Olson is renowned as an indoor jumper but has faltered outdoors in recent seasons. Olson isn’t expected to compete outdoors until the TAC meet June 19-21 in Eugene, Ore.

“It’s a strange deal,” Tully said. “Everyone knows that you should jump higher outdoors than indoors. And I think you should gear toward the outdoor season until they change the Olympics to indoors.

“Olson has fallen off every year (outdoors), and you can come up with your own explanations why.”

Tully reasons that Bubka and some of the other world-class vaulters will have to pull back from strenuous schedules to peak for the world championships in Rome in 1987 and again for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

So the next two years are critical for Tully, who is seemingly refreshed from his layoff. He realizes that he can’t be a vaulter all his life and he wants to go out on a high note.

Willie Banks, the world record-holder in the triple jump at 58-11 1/2, says his record is soft.

Banks, 30, who also will compete in Saturday’s meet, said: “I think the triple jump (record) should be somewhere around 60 or 61 feet, possibly 62 or 63 feet if people get stronger and faster.

“I think Charlie Simpkins can go 60 or 61 feet today if he learns how to jump properly. The event is young and there aren’t enough good coaches teaching the jumpers the basics until they get up there.

“If you don’t open up with a 56-footer, you’re not good. The triple jump is a soft record and it has to be broken, hopefully by myself. A 56-2 jump is trash. Fifty-seven feet is a whisper. Fifty-eight you’re starting to talk and 59 you’ve got my job.”

Track Notes Other luncheon guests were Czechoslovakia’s Imrich Bugar, who was ranked second in the world in the discus in 1985, and sprinter Nellie Cooman of the Netherlands, the world indoor record-holder at 7.00 seconds for 60 meters. Both will compete in Saturday’s meet. Cooman, who beat East Germany’s Marlies Gohr in the European indoor meet, is trying to sustain her speed for 100 meters. . . . Joaquim Cruz of Brazil has tendinitis in his left leg and has withdrawn for the mile in Saturday’s Pepsi Invitational and will be sidelined indefinitely. . . . The State junior college meet will be held Friday and Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. . . . A track clinic will be held Friday at UCLA starting at 4 p.m. Featured athletes include Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Greg Foster, Billy Olson and Edwin Moses.

Harrison Dillard, winner of four Olympic track gold medals, was critical of Moses’ claim that the intermediate hurdler has a 109-race winning streak. Dillard, who once had a winning streak of 82 races, said in New York that his victories were all finals. “We never counted heats and semifinals as victories, as Edwin does,” he said. “What’s more Edwin includes only one event, the 400-meter hurdles, in his streak. I consider my record more valid.” Dillard won Olympic gold medals in the 100 meters in 1948 and the 110-meter high hurdles in 1952 and was a member of the U.S. 400-meter relay teams in both of those Games. Moses’ streak, counting finals only, is 94. It began in 1977. Moses’ contract negotiator, Gordon Baskin, has said previously, “If Edwin lost a heat race, it would be presumed that his streak is over.”