World Cup Track and Field Meet : Patricks Win Gold Medals, Family Style

BARCELONA, Spain —  David Patrick said that the only better time he could remember having with his wife was their honeymoon.

In the 20 months since, they have had to clear many hurdles. But never have they done that with quite so much at stake, or with so many people watching, as they did here Friday night, when both became World Cup track champions.

Patrick ran his fastest time of the year, 48.74 seconds, in winning the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles, the first event of the three-day meet. About 45 minutes later, while Patrick was on the stand to receive his gold medal, his wife, Sandra Farmer-Patrick, won the women’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 53.84.

It was a special occasion, although not entirely unprecedented. Earlier this summer, they became the first husband and wife to win U.S. track and field national championships in the same year since 1964, when Harold Connolly won the hammer throw and his wife, Olga, won the discus.

Now they have become the first married couple to win gold medals in the same major international track and field competition since Czechoslovakia’s Zatopeks in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Emil won the 5,000, the 10,000 and the marathon. His wife, Dana Zatopekova, won the javelin throw.

“It would have been horrible if I had lost after David won,” said Farmer-Patrick, a 1985 graduate of Cal State L.A. “I told myself, ‘Oh God, I won’t be able to live with myself when I go back to the hotel.’ ”

Or with David.

One other U.S. athlete had a gold medal to celebrate when he returned to the team’s hotel. Ten years after winning the long jump in his first World Cup at Montreal, Larry Myricks of Ontario, Calif. also won in his second with a jump of 27 feet 2 1/2 inches.

U.S. athletes won two other medals. Leroy Burrell of Houston ran the 100 meters in 10.15 seconds, finishing behind British sprinter Linford Christie’s 10.10. Randy Barnes of Houston was third in the shot with a throw of 69-2 3/4. East Germany’s Ulf Timmerman was first at 71-1 1/2 and Switzerland’s Werner Guenthor second at 70-2 1/2.

There are nine teams in each the men’s and women’s competitions in the World Cup, which is held every four years. Four teams represent countries, five geographical areas.

In the men’s standings, the United States leads with 42 points. Europe, Africa and Great Britain are tied for second with 39. In the women’s standings, East Germany leads with 39 points. The United States is fifth with 26.

One women’s event, the high jump, was postponed until today because of a driving rain that fell through much of the opening night’s activities. When Eliza Doolittle sang that the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, she apparently had never been to Montjuic, which overlooks Barcelona.

There were 46,000 tickets sold, although not all of them were used, for an event chosen to re-inaugurate Montjuic Olympic Stadium, which opened in 1929 and recently was renovated in anticipation of the 1992 Summer Olympics.

The president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, the mayor of Barcelona and the president of the Spanish track and field association were drenched as they performed their roles in the ceremony from the middle of the field. Spain’s King Juan Carlos, meantime, officially dedicated the stadium from inside the royal box. It’s good to be the king.

But into everyone’s life a little rain must fall. Patrick and Farmer-Patrick, who live near Austin, Tex., had their share last summer in the U.S. Olympic trials.

Patrick, 29, ran a personal record in the intermediate hurdles and finished so close to UCLA’s Kevin Young for third place that both were allowed to take victory laps while the photo was studied. Young got the nod and the trip to Seoul.

Farmer-Patrick, 27, finished first in her intermediate hurdles final, but she was disqualified for running out of her lane.

A heavy rain fell before her race, causing a delay. When the meet resumed, her lane was changed from 5 to 6. But coming off the first turn, she got confused and moved back into Lane 5.

That was particularly disappointing for Farmer-Patrick because she easily would have won a place on the Olympic team for her native Jamaica. Despite having lived most of her life in Brooklyn, she chose to compete for Jamaica until she married Patrick on Jan. 2, 1988.

After the Olympic trials, she wrote a letter to the Jamaican track and field association, explaining her decision to run for the United States. She said that she hoped the Jamaicans would reinstate her, but she never received a reply.

“At that point, I would have run for Italy,” she said. “I just wanted to go to the Olympic Games.”

Patrick said that he gave his wife a pep talk after last season.

“I told her that we were going to make everybody pay for what happened to us,” he said. “We said we were going to challenge ourselves for four years, here for World Cup this year, at the Goodwill Games next year, at the World Championships the next year and back to Barcelona in ’92.”

They earned their berths here by winning in June in the national championships at Houston. Farmer-Patrick ran first there, putting pressure on her husband. This time, the roles were reversed.

As usual, Patrick did not challenge for the lead early. But neither did he lose contact with his primary rivals, Nigeria’s Henry Amike and Great Britain’s Kris Akabussi.

Patrick overtook Akabussi after the sixth hurdle and Amike after the seventh. Amike finished in 49.24, Akabussi in 49.42.

Warming up outside the stadium, Farmer-Patrick was unable to watch her husband’s race. But she heard about it from her coach within a few seconds after Patrick crossed the finish line. Then, it was her turn to be nervous.

She had not lost in 12 races this year, twice breaking the U.S. record, but she thought that this might be the night.

“I kept saying, ‘This is the one I’m going to lose. David’s going to kill me.’ ”

It appeared as if she might be prophetic when the Soviet Union’s Tatiana Ledovskaya, silver medalist in the 1988 Summer Olympics, raced to an early lead.

But Ledovskaya is a notoriously fast starter who often fades near the end. Farmer-Patrick passed her coming off the seventh hurdle and never looked back. Ledovskaya finished second in 54.68, more than eight-tenths of a second behind Farmer-Patrick.

“I didn’t win that one on technique or physical conditioning,” she said. “I won that one on guts and glory.”

Her victory did not make up for last year, she said. “But it’s getting better.”