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Attitude adjustment Triple jumper turning vicious again -- on track
COURAN COVE, Australia (AP) -- After losing an Olympic long-jump berth by the seat of his pants, Robert Howard hopes the return of a "vicious ... ferocious" attitude lifts him to success in Sydney in the triple jump. Howard missed the 1999 season after surgery on his right heel to repair a bone spur. He was injured at the 1998 Goodwill Games and didn't compete again until two months ago. His only tune-up for the U.S. Olympic trials at Sacramento, Calif., in July was at a meet in Milan, Italy, on June 21, when he bounded 55 feet, 4 inches. "I felt like I didn't miss a beat," Howard said, after winning the trials at 55-9 and making his second Olympic team. "I had been hurt and frustrated, going through much mental pain and drama. I started training in February and went through a lot. I had to compact my training and not get injured." Before securing his spot on the team, Howard also went through a lot of grief at the trials. In the long jump, Howard appeared to have made the team with his final leap. Officials ruled, however, that his shorts had grazed the sand at 26-33/4, about seven inches short of where he thought the mark should have been measured, costing him second place. He wound up fourth, two spots away from a spot on the team. "When I landed, dirt went flying all over," he said. "They said I landed with my shorts dragging. That had never happened to me before." Howard protested vigorously, but the officials raked the pit quickly, ending any chance of a remeasurement. Howard was bitterly disappointed. "To get to that level, after all the hard work I had put in, didn't sit well," Howard said. "I had trained three times a day and lost 23 pounds, to 168. It took a lot out of me. That's why the frustration came out." Howard regained his composure in time for the triple jump six days later, and he was very consistent. His four legal jumps were all between 55-4 3/4 and 55-9. "That was very stressful," the three-time NCAA outdoor triple jump champion and two-time long jump champion at Arkansas said of the trials, "but it worked out well in the end. It was a relief. "Since the trials, I've been mentally and emotionally drained. It's taken me a long time to get back up." He finished eighth in the triple jump at Atlanta in 1996 and had been hoping to compete in both jumps at the Sydney Games last month. "I knew I could have pulled it off," he said. "Now I will have to carry all my emotions into one event. I just have to get myself back up emotionally. The trials felt like the games." At Atlanta, Howard felt he was too young and naive to compete with the world's best. "I didn't know much at all then," he said. "Now I can reflect back and know I now can compete. "In the days I was competing for Arkansas, I was vicious. I didn't want to rock the boat at the games, but I got there and everybody started talking, talking, talking. There was a lot of psyching going on. I had used strategy like that at Arkansas when I was 18 or 19. I was a ferocious competitor. "Now I will be ready to do that at the games, but I also will have to be physically ready." Arkansas coach John McDonnell firmly believes in Howard. "He's solid as a rock," McDonnell said. "When it comes to heart and determination, no one can compare to Robert Howard. At the NCAA Indoor Championships in 1998, he competed with a badly bruised heel - and he won. He shouldn't have jumped and I didn't want him to jump, but he's very tough." Besides the Olympics, Howard has a full plate these days. He was married July 1 and was recently accepted to medical school at Arkansas-Little Rock. "He's a brilliant student," McDonnell said. "On an academic level, he can't understand guys who have been given the opportunity to go to school and don't take advantage of it." Howard will take advantage of his medical school opportunity next year, after being given a deferment to compete at the games. "I want to start that part of my life, but I'm not ready yet,"Howard said. "First, I want to jump 57-5 or 57-9 to get a medal at the games. That's what I want now."
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