Martin Is Glad His Dad Gets to Watch Victory

LOS ANGELES —  More than anything, Tim Martin wanted his father to watch him run the boys’ 50 meters at the Sunkist Invitational indoor track and field meet Friday at the Sports Arena.

And Martin, a senior at San Clemente High School, wanted to watch Ben Johnson run the featured men’s 50.

Martin hadn’t concerned himself with winning. Coming into the meet, his training had not been intense. Martin’s father, George, is a chief warrant officer in the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton. Many of the soldiers from the base have shipped out to Saudia Arabia.

But George Martin, expecting to go any day, was still home Friday, his 46th birthday. Tim’s 18th birthday was Thursday.

The Martins celebrated together at the Sports Arena, where Tim won the 50 meters for the second consecutive year, in 5.99 seconds.

“This is a pretty good birthday present,” Tim Martin said.

Martin overcame a slow start to beat San Diego Lincoln’s Scott Hammond (6.01) and Pasadena’s Mark Noriega (6.02).

He said he lost a step at the start but somehow made it up, closing fastest in the field of six.

In last year’s meet, Martin set a high school meet record by winning the 50 in 5.86, just off the national prep best of 5.81 set by Bill Green of Palo Alto in 1979.

Neither the victory nor the slowish time had much effect on Martin. Just being at the meet with his father in the stands was sufficient.

“Last year, I took the meet more seriously,” he said. “Mainly, I came here to see Ben Johnson run. He’s not as fast as he used to be.”

Johnson, in the second race of his comeback after a two-year ban for steroid use, finished second in the 50 meters in 5.74, behind Andre Cason’s 5.69.

Martin said he’d been running consistently two months ago but seldom ran over Christmas vacation. Lately, he’s been glued to the TV, watching CNN for updates from the Persian Gulf.

It hasn’t been a comfortable time for the Martins, who live in San Onofre.

For a while Friday night, though, they were able to think about something more pleasant.

“Now, I just want to be ready when (the outdoor) season comes in March,” Tim said.

And he hopes his father will be there to watch him run again.

Sunkist Notes

Mark Junkermann, a former Los Alamitos High and UCLA distance runner, finished third in the open two-mile in 8:38.55, beating Olympian Doug Padilla, among others. Marc Davis of the University of Arizona, won in 8:31.85. It marked a breakthrough of sorts for Junkermann, a 3,000-meter steeplechase runner at UCLA. “This is the first time in my life I’ve beaten some of these guys,” he said. “Well, I’ve beaten Padilla before, but he was sick. But not (Olympian Brian) Diemer.” Junkermann, whose personal best for two miles is an 8:32 clocking set in 1987, recently joined the Santa Monica Track Club’s elite team. And he’s been training with Coach Joe Douglas on his old UCLA training path along San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica. “I think I’m in the best shape of my life,” said Junkermann, who plans to run indoors in Europe next month.

Saddleback won its heat of the boys’ 4 x 160-yard relay in 1:07.4, ahead of Beverly Hills (1:07.5) and Hawthorne (1:08.1). . . . Rashawn Sims of Esperanza won his heat of the boys’ 500 yards in 1:00.1, moving into the lead on the final lap. Gentry Bradley of Pius X was second in 1:00.7. . . . Martha Pinta of Katella, runner-up in the state girls’ 3,200 last year, finished with no place and or time in the girls’ rated mile, meaning she was not in the top seven.