AFP
15 April 2000 – Walnut, California - Stacy Dragila, who twice raised the women's indoor pole vault world record in the space of 15 days this year, handily won the title at the Mt SAC relays outdoor meet on Saturday.
Dragila was the only woman in the field of 12 - which included four of the current top-10 vaulters - to clear 4.34m. Lisa Kubishta was second and Mary Sauer third, both clearing 4.19m.
The American, who co-owns the outdoor pole vault world record of 4.60 with Australian Emma George, vaulted 4.56 in Brisbane in February for the best outdoor performance this year.
Then she came home for her indoor world record spree, clearing 4.61m on February 20 at a meet in Idaho then following up with a 4.62m at the US Indoor Championships in Atlanta 15 days later. But on Saturday she fell short on three attempts at a Mt. SAC record 4.49 to bring the only elite event of the day to a close.
Sunday sees the bulk of the invitational events at the three-day meeting in the foothills east of Los Angeles.
The programme suffered a blow when 100m world record-holder Maurice Greene withdrew from Sunday's 200m citing sore leg muscles.
Greene pulled out of a relay at the Texas Relays a week earlier for the same reason, but said it was only a precautionary measure in the early stages of an Olympic season.
Trinidad and Tobago's Ato Boldon, who was expected to run the 100m, will instead run only a relay, his coach John Smith said.
The women's 400m gained interest however, with a match-up likely between 100m world champion Marion Jones and 200m world champ Inger Miller.
Jones has won the 400m at Mt. SAC the past two years, and will no doubt be looking for a good performance to boost her claim to a berth on the Olympic 4 x 400m relay team.
Miller was originally scheduled to run the 100m, but decided to try her hand over the 400m and, perhaps not coincidentally, against Jones.
With most of the elite events yet to come, the meet had produced one fastest time in the world this year: Kenya's Bernard Lagat clocked 13:23.46 to win the 5000m on Friday night.
