Watts Doesn’t Exactly Light Up 400 Meters

Because his name is Quincy, his friends call him ‘Q.’ But on Saturday at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, it stood for question mark.

That is what Quincy Watts left behind after a disappointing time of 45.73 seconds and a third-place finish in the Benny Brown Memorial 400 meters, one of seven open events scheduled to add luster to the 63rd annual dual meet between UCLA and USC. The Bruin men and women won their duals, and, as a bonus, beat Brigham Young in triangular scoring.

Watts, a former Trojan from Calabasas who is trying to defend his Olympic title in the 400 this year, started fast this season with a time of 44.78. But he has since hit a speed bump on the road to Atlanta, finishing third in his last two races.

The first two finishers, Calvin Harrison in 45.0 and Anthuan Maybank in 45.1, are capable quarter-milers. But neither will be confused with Michael Johnson, the man Watts eventually will have to beat this season to reclaim the event.

Watts’ coach, Jim Bush, was simply perplexed.

“I’m going crazy,” he said. “His workouts are fantastic, but each week he gets slower. This is the most frustrated I’ve ever been.”

On Watts’ behalf, Bush has verbally challenged Johnson this spring. But it hardly looks like a fair fight at this point. In his first 400 of the season last weekend, Johnson ran the fastest time in the world this year--44.41. On Saturday in an IAAF Grand Prix meet in Rio de Janeiro, he opened in the 200 with a strong 20.27 into a head wind, beating Jeff Williams’ 20.47.

If anything got Johnson’s attention Saturday, it was Mike Marsh’s winning time of 19.98 in the 200 in Houston’s Mizuno Invitational. Although he was aided by a hefty tail wind of 3.8 meters per second, any time under 20 seconds this early in the season is impressive.

In his first race in two months after injuring his hamstring, world-record holder Leroy Burrell was less imposing in the 100, failing to advance to the final with an eighth-place finish in his heat in 10.39.

Also in Houston, Carl Lewis looked sharp for his first long jump competition of the season with five efforts over 27 feet--four wind-aided. The best his nemesis, Mike Powell, could muster in Rio was 26-8 in a second-place finish to the 27-3 of Brazil’s Nelson Ferreira.

At UCLA, Ato Boldon, third in the 100 meters in last summer’s world championships for his native Trinidad, won both sprints--10.04 in the 100, 20.29 in the 200--and ran the opening leg for the triumphant 400-meter relay team as the Bruin men beat USC, 109-52, for the 18th year in a row.

The fourth consecutive victory over the Trojans was more tense for the Bruin women, who had to win the final event--the 1,600-meter relay--for a 74-70 victory.

In another area meet, the Steve Scott Invitational at UC Irvine, Ruth Wysocki ran the fastest outdoor time in the world this year--2:00.20--in the 800 meters. In the men’s 800, Johnny Gray won in 1:46.85 to set a stadium record and ruin the afternoon of the meet’s namesake. The old record was held by Steve Scott.

Times correspondent Melanie Neff contributed to this story.