Shooting for a Fourth

Three times since 1958, the skivvy-suited male stars of U.S. track and field have challenged Russia's best in dual meets. Three times, by scores of 126-109, 127-108 and 124-111, the Russian bear has taken a skinning. Still the stubborn Russians come back for more. Fortnight ago at the National A.A.U. championships in Walnut, Calif., more than 400 of them turned out to battle for berths on the U.S. men's squad that tuned up against Poland this week, will go on to meet Russia later this month in Palo Alto.

Never had the competition been tougher, the well of talent deeper. Only the first two finishers in each event were eligible for places on the U.S. team--and in some events as many as 40 top athletes were battling for those two top spots. For many an old hero, what had been a winning effort last time around was just not good enough any more. In the end, the internecine warfare produced the intended result: the best team the U.S. has ever fielded for international competition, and one that is favored to beat the Russians once again.

sbDASHES: Villanova's chunky Frank Budd, world-record holder (9.2 sec.) in the 100-yd. dash and undefeated at that distance in two years. But in the Walnut Meet, closely pressed by Florida A. & M.'s 19-year-old Robert Hayes, Budd tore a thigh muscle and pulled up lame. But with Hayes (who clocked a sizzling 9.3 sec. at the nationals) running in the 100 meters, Paul Drayton (who turned in a record-tying 20.5 sec. for 220 yds. around a turn) racing in the 200 meters, and Ulis Williams (whose 45.8 sec. for 440 yds. is only .1 sec. off the world mark) in the 400 meters, anything short of a clean sweep by the U.S. will rank as a signal triumph for the Soviets.

sbMIDDLE DISTANCES: California's Jerry Siebert and Illinois' Jim Dupree have both posted times faster than the fastest Russian in the 800-meter run, and the 1,500 meter should see another sweep: at the A.A.U. meet, for the first time in the U.S., four runners broke four minutes for the mile. The first two: jaunty Jim Beatty, world-record holder in both the indoor mile and the outdoor 2-mile, and his Los Angeles teammate Jim Grelle.

sbHURDLES : The last time Detroit Schoolteacher Hayes Jones lost a 120-yd. high hurdles race was in 1960, but in the A.A.U.

Jones was edged in a near dead heat by Oregon's Jerry Tarr, a relative newcomer.

Time for both: 13.4 sec., tying the meet record. Prospect: another U.S. sweep.

sbSHOT PUT: No one has yet been able to match the U.S. whales, and the only real competition in Palo Alto is likely to be between New Yorker Gary Gubner, the world indoor-record holder, and California's Dallas Long, the outdoor-record holder. The A.A.U. winner: Gubner, with a put of 63 ft. 6 1/2 in., more than 2 ft. shy of Long's record, but still 2 ft. better than the best Russian.

sbPOLE VAULT: Marine Dave Tork and ex-Marine John Uelses, both of whom had cleared 16 ft. earlier this year, could not come near that height and failed to qualify. But California's Ron Morris, a new convert to the whippy fiber glass pole, soared over the bar at 16 ft. 1/4 in. to provide the U.S. with another favorite against the Russians.

Where the Soviets will shine is in the high jump, the distance races (5,000 and 10,000 meters), the javelin, and in such curiosities in the U.S. as the hop-step-and-jump, the walking race and the steeplechase. They also boast strong men in the broad jump and discus: Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, who recently broke Ralph Boston's broad jump record with a prodi gious leap of 27 ft. 3 in., and Vladimir Trusenev, who last month set a new discus record of 202 ft. 2 1/2 in. But the U.S.'s Boston will be tough to beat at home. And so will the top U.S. discus thrower, Al Oerter, who was the first man to hurl the discus 200 ft.; at the A.A.U. championships, Oerter got off the best series ever managed by one man in one meet, fell short of Trusenev's record by just 1/2 in. As Russian Coach Gavril Korobkov said: "It would be no mistake to say that our fourth match with the Amer ican team will be the most difficult of all."

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