RUNNING / JOHN ORTEGA : Confusion Over Streak Leaves Lancaster’s Covert Still in Pursuit

Mark Covert of Lancaster will have to be satisfied for the time being with the second-longest running streak in the world.

The former Burbank High and Valley College standout--who has run at least three miles a day for the past 23 years--apparently had become possessor of the world’s longest current running streak earlier this year when Briton Ron Hill’s streak reportedly came to an end after more than 26 years.

The July issue of Running Times magazine reported that Hill’s streak had ended in March. However, another publication, Running Commentary, claims that the streak is intact and will reach 27 years in December.

According to the report in Running Times, Hill, 52, had decided to stop running every day because he wanted to improve his racing performances at the masters level, and he believed that maintaining the streak was interfering with that objective.

Hill was a world-class distance runner--he placed sixth in the marathon in the 1972 Olympic Games--and he had decided to end the streak after 26.22 years, mirroring the marathon’s distance of 26.22 miles, according to the story.

Hill did terminate a running streak after 26.22 years, but it was his streak of running twice a day that ended. He continues to run at least once every day.

“I didn’t talk to Ron, but I have confirmed through a source at Running Times itself that the streak is still going,” said Joe Henderson, publisher of Running Commentary, a monthly newsletter. “Apparently, there was a misunderstanding. They are going to run a retraction in the next issue.”

Hill could not be reached for comment at his business office in Manchester, England.

Covert, whose streak reached 23 years July 23, had heard about the Hill story in Running Times but did not seem surprised when informed of the error.

“I found it hard to believe that Ron would stop just like that,” Covert said. “I could understand him cutting back to once a day, though.”

Add streak: Covert, 40, was a national-class distance runner in the early 1970s, winning the NCAA Division II cross-country title for Cal State Fullerton in 1970 and finishing sixth in the marathon in the 1972 Olympic Trials.

He is in excellent physical condition for his age, but he has raced seldom in the past four or five years.

“I just don’t get a lot of enjoyment from running 34 or 35 minutes for 10,000 meters,” Covert said. “If I could do speed work on a consistent basis, and run what I consider to be competitive times on the roads, I’d race more often. But every time I’ve tried to run speed for any period of time in the last couple of years I’ve broken down. I have a lot of problems with my feet.”

Covert is also tired of being compared to the runner he once was.

“I ran (less than 33 minutes for a 10k) a couple of years ago and a woman came up to me after the race and said, ‘Didn’t you used to be Mark Covert?’ ” Covert said. “A lot of people just don’t understand that you get old. I have a family and a full-time job.

“I’ve run over 100,000 miles during my career. After you go that far in a car, you trade it in.”

Trivia question: He ranks second on the region’s all-time high school list in the shotput and he won the 1972 state title in the event.

Who is this former area standout?

Hint: He had a successful career as an NFL offensive lineman.

Back on track: Based on his performances in the World track and field championships in Tokyo over the weekend, Quincy Watts of USC appears to have recovered completely from the effects of illnesses that hampered him in the Pan American Games in Havana last month.

Watts--citing a weight loss of seven pounds as a result of his most recent illness--pulled out of the 400 in the World championships to concentrate on the relay, and that decision appeared to pay off as he recorded 400-meter splits of 44.1 and 43.5 for the U. S. team in the semifinals and final of the 1,600-meter relay.

Watts, a three-time state sprint champion at Taft High, moved the U. S. team from second to first place on the second leg of Sunday’s final with his 43.5-second split. However, teammate Antonio Pettigrew was unable to hold off Kriss Akabusi on the anchor leg as Great Britain timed a European record of 2 minutes 57.53 seconds to win.

The United States was second in 2:57.57, marking the first time since the 1952 Olympics that the U. S. team had been beaten in the men’s 1,600 relay in either the Olympics or the World Championships.

Raring to go: Darcy Arreola of Nike Coast failed to qualify for the final of the women’s 1,500 meters in the World championships last week but the experience left her anything but downtrodden about her running future.

“I feel like I’m finally starting to get the hang of racing at the international level,” Arreola said. “I was much more focused in Tokyo than I was in England earlier this year.”

Arreola had finished a disappointing 12th in 4:16.97 in the World University Games in Sheffield, England, in July, when she admitted that she was more concerned about getting back home to the States than racing.

But after running 4:13.08 to finish sixth in her qualifying heat last Thursday, she began looking forward to next season.

“I’m ready to go and train now more than ever,” Arreola said. “I learned a lot being over there around all those runners. You see how serious they are about what they’re doing.

“You get a taste of what it takes to be that good.”

Arreola--the NCAA Division I champion in the 1,500 for Cal State Northridge in June--was so motivated by what she saw in Tokyo that she will add weightlifting to her training regimen. She did not lift weights this season.

“I was probably the only one on the U. S. team who didn’t lift,” Arreola said. “Mark Everett (the 800-meter bronze medalist) took one look at me and said, ‘You don’t lift weights, do you?’ ”

Sisters in arms: Arreola has grown weary of always running workouts by herself the past couple of seasons, but circumstances are expected to change this fall when she plans to train with Suzy Hamilton, her roommate at the World championships.

Hamilton, The Athletics Congress champion in the 1,500 in 1990 and ‘91, recently moved from Wisconsin to Malibu with her husband, a Pepperdine graduate student.

Trivia answer: Randy Cross set a Crespi school record of 67 feet 6 1/2 inches in the shotput in 1972.

Cross played center for the San Francisco 49ers from 1976-88 and was named to the All-Pro team five times.