Jumpers shuffling around

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Thanks to a former Arkansas Razorback and a possible future LSU Tiger, an Ole Miss Rebel has made the United States Olympic team in the long jump.
Savante Stringfellow, who will be a senior at Ole Miss next year, finished fifth in the long jump at the Olympic Trials on July 18. But Stringfellow has moved up to the third slot on U.S. team because Walter Davis and Robert Howard have declined a spot in the long jump to concentrate on the triple jump.
Davis, who competed at Barton County (Kan.) the past two years, took third in the long jump at the Trials (26-7.25) to secure the last spot on the U.S. team, but later in the week also took third in the triple jump (55-3.75).
Howard, a former Razorback who won the triple jump (55-9) at the U.S. Trials after taking fourth in the long jump (26-5.75), could have taken Davis' vacated spot in the long jump.
But Arkansas assistant coach Dick Booth, who will be a U.S. assistant and coach the jumpers in Sydney, Australia, said that with the Olympic triple jump final being on the same day as the long jump qualifying rounds -- Sept. 25 -- both Davis and Howard decided to pass on the long jump and concentrate strictly on the triple jump because it is considered their stronger events.
Howard is a 10-time NCAA champion for the Razorbacks in the long and triple jumps and was member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team in the triple jump.
"I talked it over with Robert, and if he long jumped at the Olympics, it would mean being at the track from about 8:30 a.m. until maybe 1:30 p.m. for the qualifying," Booth said. "Then he'd have to come back to the (Olympic) Village and be back at the track in a few hours to try and win a triple jump medal.
"I just don't see that being a smart choice, so that's why Robert is just going to do the triple jump."
Booth has been recruiting Davis in the hopes he would sign with Arkansas. But Booth said Wednesday that Davis, who is from Leonville, La., has indicated he plans to sign with LSU.
With Davis and Howard passing on the long jump, Stringfellow, who went 26-4.5 at the Trials, gets the third spot on the U.S. team behind former Razorback Melvin Lister and Dwight Phillips, formerly of Arizona State.
"Stringfellow is the luckiest guy in the world to have the schedule set up where two triple jumpers who also made the long jump decided not to double at the Olympics," Booth said. "But we're glad to have (Stringfellow) on the team. He's kind of like lightning in a bottle -- you're never sure what he's going to do, but he could hit a big jump."
Stringfellow won the long jump at the 2000 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, beating Lister and Phillips.
"I am relieved, after placing fifth at the Trials, to still have an opportunity to compete in the Olympics," Stringfellow said. "Making the Olympics was my ultimate goal, and now I have achieved that."
At the Trials, Howard had complained vehemently after the long jump that his sixth attempt was marked improperly and cost him a second-place finish.
In retrospective it seems odd Howard turned down a spot in the long jump in light of his protest. But Booth said that at the time, Howard didn't know he was going to win the triple jump a few days later.
"As it turned out, what happened to Robert in the long jump is a moot point," Booth said. "But it created an awful lot of consternation that night, because he hits what he thinks is a 27-foot jump, but then they mark back here and Robert feels like one moment he's made the Olympic team and then the next moment had it snatched away from him.
"It was devastating at the time and he moped about it that night, but as I told him, 'You've to put this behind you and re-channel all this energy and anger towards something positive in the triple jump,' and that's exactly what he did."
Another former Razorback, Erick Walder, missed making the long jump team by one spot. He was the next long jumper at the Trials behind Stringfellow, taking sixth at 26-3.5.
"I don't want to sound ugly about it, but Erick can't blame anybody but himself for not making the team," Booth said. "He had six tries on a nice day, and he just didn't jump far enough."
It was the third time Walder, a 10-time NCAA champion at Arkansas, competed at the U.S. Trials but failed to make the Olympic team.

This article was published on Thursday, August 10, 2000

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