WORLD SPORTS SCENE : He Takes Safe Route to Top of Rankings

For a straight-ahead 100-meter runner, Great Britain’s Linford Christie has an aptitude for ducking, weaving and, occasionally, jabbing.

That, combined with his victories in the Summer Olympics at Barcelona and the World Cup at Havana, should earn him the No. 1 ranking among 100-meter runners this year. But we would feel better about it if he had not chosen to avoid Carl Lewis for the last two months of the track and field season.

While Lewis chased Christie across Europe after the Olympics, the British sprinter chose instead to run in meets where his stiffest competition was Nigeria’s Olapade Adeniken. It did not prove to be a victory tour for Christie, who lost to Adeniken the first three times they met after the Olympics.

But Christie redeemed himself somewhat Friday night by overtaking Adeniken in the final five meters to win the 100 at Havana.

Afterward, Christie became testy when repeatedly asked about Lewis. “Carl Lewis isn’t even the No. 1 American,” he said.

Christie is technically correct. Leroy Burrell was No. 1 in the United States in 1990 and ’91. Dennis Mitchell probably will be so honored this year. But in the weeks immediately after the Olympics, there is little question that Lewis would have been Christie’s most worthy challenger.

Lewis is not entirely blameless. He considered competing at Havana but ultimately agreed with the Olympic champion that a lucrative payday awaits both if they delay their next meeting until next year. HBO reportedly is interested in matching them.

If the sprinters are sincere in their public comments, it, perhaps unfortunately for HBO, will not be a grudge match. While Lewis has consistently said that Christie has nothing to prove, the British sprinter said Friday: “There is no rivalry between me and Carl Lewis. Carl Lewis is the greatest athlete of all time. The rest of us are just trying to get a name on the roll.”

Dan O’Brien, whose sting from not earning a place on the U.S. Olympic team was soothed when he broke the decathlon world record, wants to pursue the seven-event heptathlon world record during next winter’s indoor season.

In the wake of the Jimmy Connors-Martina Narvatilova tennis match at Las Vegas, some smart promoter should arrange for a duel between O’Brien and the two-time Olympic women’s heptathlon champion, Jackie Joyner-Kersee. O’Brien could be handicapped in some fashion to make it competitive.

Are you listening, Al Franken?

Another man who had an Olympic-related disappointment, Ukranian pole vaulter Sergei Bubka has set two world records since, the most recent coming nine days ago when he cleared 20 feet 1 1/2 inches.

That gives him 32 world records, three more than earned by track and field’s previous record-holder for world records, Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi.

Or is it?

Some experts claim that Nurmi should be given credit for two outdoor records that were not ratified by the sport’s international governing body, the IAAF, as well as four indoor records. If true, that would give him a total of 35.

But considering that Bubka is only 28, and that he never raises a record by more than one centimeter because he receives a $25,000 to $50,000 bonus each time he sets one, the issue probably will soon become a non-issue.

Bubka’s former Soviet teammate, Russian Rodion Gataullin, believes that Nurmi’s mark might never have been threatened if officials consistently enforced the rules when the Ukranian vaults.

“No one else is allowed to take the time he takes,” Gataullin said, complaining that Bubka is allowed more than the mandatory two minutes to complete vaults at many meets because promoters are afraid of antagonizing him.

“There is no doubt that he is the best at the moment, but he is not as strong under pressure at championships, where the two-minute rule is vigorously applied,” Gataullin said.

After winning on his final jump in both the 1988 Summer Olympics at Seoul and 1991 World Championships at Tokyo, Bubka did not clear a height at Barcelona.

To South Koreans, a widely-distributed wire-service photograph from the Olympic men’s marathon at Barcelona is considered a metaphor for their place in the new world order. It pictures Japan’s Koichi Morishita in the lead, but he is looking over his shoulder at South Korea’s Hwang Young Cho.

Hwang eventually passed Morishita and became the second Korean to win the Olympic marathon. But the first, Sohn Kee Chung, is still listed in official record books as a representative of Japan. At the time of his victory in 1936, Korea was occupied by the Japanese.

During a recent news conference in Los Angeles to discuss his role as grand marshall of the annual Korean-American parade, Hwang said that he placed his gold medal around Sohn’s neck when they met in Seoul after the Olympics.

“He told me, ‘Now, I can die without any regrets,’ ” Hwang said. “He said that a burden that had been in his heart for more than 50 years was now lifted.”

But unlike many of his countrymen, Hwang said that he saw no political overtones in his victory over a Japanese runner.

“I don’t think it’s good for an athlete to have that kind of mentality,” said Hwang, who revealed that he wore Japanese-made shoes during the race because the Korean shoes he used in training were not sturdy enough.