At a university that has pumped out several track and field
stars, Rafer Johnson and Jackie Joyner-Kersee transcended them all.
In an event that bears their names, it can be assured that its
participants will be striving to live up to the legacies of the two
Olympians.
UCLA is hosting the event for the fourth year in a row as more
than 600 athletes have landed in Westwood to compete in the track
and field meet.
UCLA coach Art Venegas said the Rafer Johnson/Jackie
Joyner-Kersee Invitational at Drake Stadium will more than live up
to its namesakes.
“There’s big shoes to fill when you name anything
after Rafer Johnson and Jackie Joyner-Kersee,” Venegas said.
“So everybody who comes to compete here, no matter how good
an athlete they may be, they are going to be second-best to those
two. That sets the tone right there.”
Having such a prestigious event with the involvement of Johnson
and Joyner-Kersee helps pay homage to the tradition and rich
history which the track program has built up over the years.
Johnson was the American record holder in the decathlon while he
was a freshman in 1954, while Joyner-Kersee still holds the world
record for the heptathlon.
Though the athletes who have competed at this invitational
don’t have the same credentials as Johnson or Joyner-Kersee,
the event has attracted elite athletes in its short history.
Just last year, the meet hosted Olympic gold medalists Felix
Sanchez and Joanna Hayes, while this year’s competition is
set to feature international stars Shevon Stoddart of Jamaica and
Olympic 10,000m champion Xing Hunia of China.
“We are very fortunate that a lot of the best
Olympic-level people train in Southern California, so they use this
meet as a sort of spring board to get their season started,”
Venegas said. “We’ve had guys on the Olympic team in
the throws, in the jumps who used this meet in the past as their
opening meet, so it was very exciting walking around Athens in 2004
to see guys who were at the RJ/JJK meet.”
With the myriad professional athletes competing at Drake Stadium
this weekend, it is sometimes easy to forget that the meet is
primarily host to a plethora of Division I university teams.
Most of the Pac-10 schools will be present as well as other
high-end programs such as Missouri and Brigham Young
University.
“There’s a good mixture of college-level athletes,
both elite and developing, and also open and international
athletes,” distance coach and meet director Eric Peterson
said. “We have more athletes here this weekend then we have
ever had in the past.”
The RJ/JJK meet must still compete with the Texas Relays, a more
prominent and established meet, to bring schools to its
invitational. But starting next year, the two meets will no longer
conflict, which should allow for more teams from around the country
to come to Los Angeles.
“We have taken a bit of a hit because Texas was going to
compete at our meet if it did not conflict with theirs. But
starting next year, we will be going on a six-year run where the
two meets will no longer conflict,” Venegas said. “More
and more people are finding that this meet is exactly what they
need on their schedule. The way we run and operate the meet is to
their liking.”
Another inviting aspect of the RJ/JJK Invitational is the
meet’s unique setup, which provides for an action-filled
afternoon Saturday to entice the casual fans to attend.
“My philosophy when I started this meet was that track
meets were becoming less interesting because they were getting too
long,” Venegas said. “We’ve taken it down to just
finals on Saturday with the elite athletes, so it will be at a very
fast pace. When people come to the meet Saturday, they will see why
track had a great fan base 30, 40 years ago because it was quick
and fast. So people will sit their butts down at 12 and be out of
there by 3 and still get to see action after action, all with
world-class athletes.”
But even with these advantages, the meet has not experienced the
type of crowds conducive to such a large event.
Venegas believes that despite the smaller turnout, the local,
die-hard track fans should be out in full force.
“This meet is really the first time this year that we will
have pretty much all of our athletes competing in their primary
events,” Venegas said. “Our fans will get to see our
full roster and kind of get a feel of how we are coming
together.”
Good weather should also play a large role in bringing a large
crowd out this weekend. The week’s drenching conditions
turned Drake stadium into a lake, limiting the team’s
practice to weight-room sessions. But the forecast this weekend
does call for sunny skies, which should be the perfect complement
for a series of first-rate performances.