LAUNCHING PAD: Twenty athletes from the San...

LAUNCHING PAD: Twenty athletes from the San Fernando Valley competed in the Olympic Festival, a 37-sport celebration of amateur athletics, which on Sunday concluded a 10-day run in Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs (C3). . . . From its inception in 1978, the festival has been a springboard for 70% of U.S. athletes who have participated in the Summer Games.

HEAVY HANDED: With one stunning right cross last week, Lance Whitaker, 24, became Olympic Festival champion and the No. 1 ranked amateur super heavyweight boxer in the nation. . . . The former San Fernando High football and basketball player knocked out Thomas Martin with one punch, 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the second round of their gold medal match.

GOLD GLOVE: The top 66 women’s softball players in the nation, including Sheila Cornell of Burbank, above, were split into four teams at the festival. . . . Cornell, 33, played first base and batted cleanup for the South squad. She is a front-runner to make the 15-member U.S. team that will participate in the first Olympic softball competition. . . . The former Taft High star batted .581 to pace the U.S. team to a gold medal this spring in the Pan American Games.

CIRCUITOUS: Quincy Watts should have joined world record-holder Butch Reynolds and stayed home to train for the world track and field championships next month in Goteborg, Sweden. . . . The two-time Olympic gold medalist, a former Taft High sprint champion, settled for a silver medal after getting upset in the Olympic Festival 400-meter race on Saturday. . . . Watts was later treated for dehydration at a Colorado Springs hospital.

CURTAINS: The Olympic Festival has been canceled for 1997, although the U.S. Olympic Committee might revise the format and bring the event back on a smaller scale in 1999. . . . While popular among athletes, the festival was a tough sell in cities with competitive sports markets.