Jacobs a favorite
in N.I.K.E Play race

America's top distance runner
should get a run for the title from
China's Wang Junxia

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

Regina Jacobs is dying for a good fight.

And she thinks she'll get it Saturday afternoon in the Nike P.L.A.Y. Waikiki Mile.

"I was hoping the Chinese would come," said Jacobs, the seven-time U.S. national outdoor 1,500-meter champion. "It's an opportunity for me to size myself up against them."

Toeing the line at the corner of Kalakaua and Kapahulu avenues at 3:45 p.m. with the likes of China's most revered track athlete, Wang Junxia, is just the Christmas gift Jacobs wanted.

Well, almost.

She also wanted Mary Slaney -- at her best. But illness has forced the queen of U.S. women's track out of the world-class Waikiki event.

Wang is the complete track athlete. Her credentials set off a flash-flood of adrenaline through Jacobs' veins.

Wang has a personal best of 3:51.92 at 1,500 meters -- better than anyone in the mile field -- is the Olympic 5,000-meter gold medalist and the 10,000-meter world-record holder.

Arriving in town with her today is Dong Liu, a former 1,500-meter world champion (1993) whose 3:56.31 is the next best time in the field.

Both were once coached by the manufacturer of Chinese "super women," Ma Junren.

They are the type of opponents the feisty 34-year-old Jacobs craves as she enters a brave new phase of her long career.

Last night, in a phone interview from her home in Oakland, Calif., she said that next year she plans an all-out assault on Slaney's records.

"Slaney set the tone for American women's middle-distance running," she said. "She has the records and we have to break them. This is the first year I can say I'm really going after those records."

The venture isn't without its dangers, which explains why Slaney still holds four U.S. marks.

"It's really difficult because you have to take on risks to break an American record," said Jacobs, who also arrives today. "You have to be willing to risk injury by going out hard in races. What's been incredibly disappointing this year for me is that I've been in sub-4 (minute) shape and haven't run sub-4."

Jacobs' personal best at the 1,500 is 4:01.77.

One of her main goals is to best Slaney's long-standing U.S. record of 3:57.12. But even more important to Jacobs, who completed a superb outdoor season, is having a chance to beat the 39-year-old legend at the top of her game.

She finished well ahead of Slaney in the 1,500 at the 1992 nationals and at last year's Olympic trials, but those victories didn't satisfy her.

"That was not the 'real Mary Slaney' in those races," Jacobs said. "She wasn't at her best. I want to get her when she's hot like she was in 1988."

That year, in the 1,500 national final, Jacobs lost to a well-conditioned Slaney over the last 200 meters.

"We looked at each other and she was as shocked as I was, but she fought me off," Jacobs said.

So Jacobs, No. 1 in the U.S. in the 1,500, the 3,000 and the 5,000, and No. 2 in the world in the 1,500, has her own axe to grind with USA Track and Field for suspending Slaney last summer.

Jacobs abandoned plans to compete in two events at the nationals in July so she could focus on beating Slaney in the 1,500. The time was right -- Slaney was in the midst of a big comeback year in which she just missed winning the world indoor 1,500-meter championship in Paris last March.

But the suspension (now lifted) for allegedly high levels of testosterone came between Slaney and Jacobs.

"It's important to define yourself against a great American athlete," said Jacobs, who insists she could have beaten Slaney. "I was thinking, can't we work this out until after I beat her?"

But illness has sidelined Slaney for Saturday's race.

"I know I would have beaten her because Mary Slaney has no kick now," said Jacobs, who won the Waikiki Mile in 1995 but was seventh behind winner Sonia O'Sullivan of Ireland and runner-up Slaney last year.

Jacobs still bristles over her silver medal finish at the 1997 outdoor world championships in Athens in August. She said an off-balance O'Sullivan "grabbed the back of my running bra, pulled me toward her and propelled herself forward" 250 meters from the finish.

O'Sullivan said she did that to avoid falling. Jacobs said O'Sullivan cost her the gold.

Portugal's Carla Sacramento won the gold in 4:04.24 to Jacobs' 4:04.63.

"I don't think she did it maliciously, but it was a very poor way of handling the situation," said Jacobs, who yelled at O'Sullivan after the race. O'Sullivan will also be on hand Saturday. "But I'm enjoying my silver -- it's the first time in 14 or 15 years that a U.S. woman has won a medal in the distances at the worlds. And it came at a tough time for me."

Jacobs said her grandmother, who helped raise her, died earlier in the summer, and Jacobs had to battle a respiratory infection a month before competing at Athens.

Radcliffe cleared to run in Waikiki mile But Slaney, Thorsett out of women's field By Pat Bigold Star-Bulletin Two-time 5th Avenue Mile champion Paula Radcliffe has been cleared for Saturday's Nike P.L.A.Y. Waikiki Mile despite a leg injury that threatened to sideline her yesterday, according to Honolulu Marathon Association president Jim Barahal. But U.S. mile record-holder Mary Slaney, who arrived in town today, remains a no-go due to illness. The 23-year-old Radcliffe, Britain's fastest rising young distance running star, experienced some worrisome swelling in her leg yesterday that required examination. But Barahal said she has now been declared ready to run in the 3:45 p.m. women race on Kalakaua Avenue. Meanwhile, Sarah Thorsett, the sixth-ranked U.S. runner at 1,500 meters, is also out with a hamstring injury. The women's mile features Olympic champion/world record holder Wang Junxia of China, seven-time U.S. 1,500-meter champion Regina Jacobs and 1995 5,000-meter world champion Sonia O'Sullivan of Ireland.