Conway Does It His Way: Attempts to Jump 8-0 1/2 After Clearing 7-10

NORMAN, Okla. â€”  Someone told Hollis Conway Saturday night, and he didn’t believe it. Someone showed him a newspaper Sunday morning, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Javier Sotomayor of Cuba had raised his own world record in the high jump Saturday night in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in the athletes’ dorms and hotels here at the U.S. Olympic Festival, the word was flying around: “The Cuban has jumped 8 feet.�

Conway, the American record-holder in the high jump, took a great deal of kidding from festival athletes Sunday--too much for his taste--and resolved to do something about it. The silver medalist in the Seoul Olympics and the only American to have attempted 8 feet, Conway responded by bettering his own American record, raising it from 7 feet 9 3/4 inches to 7-10.

And as if to underscore his point, he had three attempts a 8-0 1/2. It is believed to be the highest height ever attempted by anyone in the event.

“I am a little disappointed; I wanted to be the first man to jump 8 feet,� Conway said. “But dreams can change. I can be the first American to jump 8 feet.�

The 22-year-old from Lafayette, La., did not have a great day of jumping, taking three attempts to clear 7-8. But his clearance at 7-10 appeared to have inches to spare.

“I thought I had 8 feet on that jump,� he said. “I backed up and just ran. I didn’t think about anything else. I just ran.�

A sparse crowd of 4,640 on a blazing hot day at the University of Oklahoma cheered wildly as Conway prepared for the 8-foot 0 1/2-inch jump. They chanted, “Eight feet, eight feet,� having been alerted by the public-address announcer that it was a world-record attempt.

Brian Brown of New Iberia, La., who is the current national champion, was second and Brian Stanton of Los Angeles, a 1988 Olympian was third. Both jumpers cleared 7-6 1/2, and Brown was awarded second on the basis of fewer misses.

Brown and Conway both technically broke Rule 143 of the International Amateur Athletic Federation regarding assistance to athletes. The two, who are friends and roommates here, were videotaping their jumps and watching the replays on a monitor during the competition. The rules prohibit any assistance, even mechanical.

When event officials noticed this late in the competition, the head field judge, Marshall Goss, confiscated the video equipment.

Even with the help, Conway was shaky until the later rounds. “All my jumps were terrible,� he said.

Conway stood next to the bar when officials set it at 8-0 1/2, more than two feet above his head. He is small--6 feet, 145 pounds--by the standards of the event. Sotomayor is 6-5, 168. That height advantage becomes more significant as the bar is raised.

“It makes heights like 7-6 1/2 look like nothing,� Stanton said. “To jump 7-8 is like OK. Seven-nine and 7-10, now you are special.�

Conway and Sotomayor are scheduled to meet next Sunday in the Jack in the Box Invitational at UCLA. Conway said he has jumped against the Cuban several times and beat him only once, when Sotomayor no-heighted at a meet in Zurich, Switzerland. Conway cleared 7-2 in that competition.

“Every time Sotomayor jumps well, I jump better,� Conway said.

Conway said he was ready to jump high Sunday, but he was urged on by the news of Sotomayor’s record.

“Revenge is never a part of high jumping,� Conway said. “But I guess I was trying to make a point.�

The youngest of seven children, Conway is a business student at Southwest Louisiana University. Because of National Collegiate Athletic Assn. rules forbidding collegiate athletes from being paid to compete, Conway has decided to forgo any further collegiate competition. Conway had set the American record last month in the NCAA Championships at Provo, Utah.

The track and field competition concluded the two-week Olympic Festival in and around Oklahoma City.

Oklahomans have been unrelentingly cheerful, helpful and positive about the festival, which nearly without exception people here have referred to as “the Olympics.�

Hyperbole is the domain of organizers, and this event has been no exception. The festival motto, which has accompanied every press release or official document, is, “Winning a Place in the World,� certainly a high aspiration.

The only real criticism here has been similar to that in previous festivals--the best athletes in some sports attend, and the elite in other sports are conspicuous by their absence.