No matter what it says on the results sheet, Jackie Joyner Kersee won the long jump at Sunday`s Bally Invitational at the Horizon.
The former East St. Louis basketball and track star got a new last name Jan. 11 when she married UCLA women`s track coach Bob Kersee, who also happens to be her coach. The Olympic silver medalist in the heptathlon, now competing for the World Class Athletic Club, jumped a meet-record 21 feet 10 inches to win her indoor specialty.
Joyner Kersee has now won three straight meets, including a victory in Friday`s Millrose Games in New York with a 21-11 1/2 effort. She is adjusting well to marriage after losing in the first meet of the season just a couple of weeks after the marriage.
”Bobby and I have always had a friendly relationship,” said Joyner, who had Olympic gold medalist Valerie Brisco-Hooks as her maid of honor. ”It`s always been a unique relationship. I think it truly was a blessing for me to meet Bobby and for him to meet me, because we have always had a close relationship, a friendly relationship built on friendship and trust.
”I have a lot of things to learn. I feel each year I`m getting better and better and learn more from different athletes. There are things I need to work on, like staying in the weight room whenever I can, working with the javelin and working with the shot. There are a lot of things I can learn from Bobby just listening to him.
”He says I have a lot of talent. Sometimes it`s not good just to have talent. You have to have the mechanics and the techniques. He has always been tough on me, because I have one of the toughest jobs (heptathlon) to do.”
Joyner Kersee was ranked third in the world in the heptathlon and had the highest score in the world last year. The heptathlon, the female counterpart to the decathlon, is a grueling series of seven events: the 100-meter hurdles, the shot put, the high jump, the 200-meter dash, the long jump, the javelin and the 800 meters. That, coupled with Kersee`s coaching a team and individuals like Brisco-Hooks, makes it sound as if Jackie and Bobby eat, sleep and breathe track and field. Not so.
”We talked about it, and if we have a bad practice and we have to talk, we do it right there on the track and leave it there,” Jackie said. ”Once we get home, it`s no more track. Track is over with. At times it was difficult because it can be dull, dull, dull, but we`ve worked it out.”
Marriage did slow down the career of 800-meter winner Delissa Walton-Floyd, but it looks as if she`s running at full speed again. Walton-Floyd, married to Stanley Floyd, a former world-class sprinter who now plays in the Canadian Football League, finished sixth in the 1984 Olympic trials six months after her daughter, Ebony, was born. She is now being coached by Floyd, who helps with their baby while mother trains.
”When I look at my daughter, I have no regrets,” said Walton-Floyd.
”While I was pregnant, I was down. I missed that training and being out there. I made the (trial) finals, but it was six months (missed) training, and that counts a lot. I think had I not been out, I would have made it.”
Sunday, she defeated Olympic gold medalist Doina Melinte of Romania, 1984 U.S. Olympian Diana Richbur and Olympic silver medalist Kim Gallagher. Walton- Floyd led all the way and was timed in 2:03.78. Richburg was second in 2:04.42, Melinte was third in 2:04.54 and Gallagher was fourth in 2:07.99.
Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia, who holds the outdoor world record at 800 meters, and Fita Lovin of Romania, who won the bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics, did not run because of injuries.
”I`m very pleased with the indoor season,” said Walton-Floyd, who says she`s running better than ever with her husband as her coach. ”I did a lot of sacrificing, which put my family on hold. I have a different frame of mind. I just want to win.
”I`m doing what I want. I don`t want to look back on my life and say I gave up. I`m doing what Delissa wants finally. I want to be a winner.”
