Photograph by George Sakkestad
Sunnyvale's Joe Naivalu (center) had a busy spring and summer. After winning a second straight hurdles title at the state high - school championships, he represented Fiji at the Olympic Games. Naivalu competed well at Los Gatos All-Comers meets, and set a Fiji national recors in the hurdles in Australia recently.
By DICK SPARRER
Joe Naivalu missed a few of the Los Gatos All-Comers track and field meets this summer.
But he had a pretty good excuse--he was in Atlanta, competing in the Olympic Games.
Naivalu, the two-time state hurdles champ from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, represented Fiji in the 1996 Summer Games. But he still found time for a little competition on the track at Los Gatos High.
Naivalu, who had won the hurdles on the same Gatos track in the CCS Top-8 meet during the high school season, ran 14.5 in the 110-meter high hurdles and 10.88 in the 100-meter dash during the summer campaign in the All-Comers series.
But Naivalu's efforts were just among the many outstanding performances recorded during the 18th year of the popular All-Comers series.
Olympians Naivalu and Patty Sue Plummer topped the field this summer.
Naivalu, a CCS champion in the 110 highs and the 300 intermediate hurdles, represented Fiji at the Olympics, then was back on the track at Gatos for All-Comers action. Later the Sunnyvale sensation set a new Fiji national record when he ran 13.91 in the highs at the World Junior Championships in Sydney, Australia.
Naivalu ran head-to-head with Marty Krulee in the men's open division 100-meters in All-Comers action over the summer. Krulee's 10.82 topped Naivalu's best of 10.88.
Krulee, the spring coach at West Valley College in Saratoga, also recorded an All-Comers best of 22.58 in the 200 meters. Another West Valley coach, Dan Besmer, topped the pole vault bar at 17-0.
John Hamm ran 11.04 in the 100 and 21.4 in the 200, Joe Wright ran 22.08 in the 200 and Ron Pryer ran 48.0 in the 400. The three also teamed with Paul Bryant to run 42.6 in the 400 relay.
Kiet Vong leaped 21-11 1/2 in the long jump, Andy Richen flew 6-8 in the high jump and Youske Okano soared 16-6 in the pole vault. Tom Ryan and Matt Kendall each topped the vault bar at 15-6.
Graham Hill tripled with a 4:19.5 mile, a 9:16 2-mile and a 14:46 5,000 meters, and Mike Lucas doubled with a 1:59.8 800 and a 4:37.4 mile.
Other top marks in the division included: Steve Jones, 10.73 in the 100; Jim Blair, 9:29.9 in the 2-mile; Riccardo Magni, 44-1 1/2 in the shot put; Joe Carnegie, 1:56.2 in the 800; Don Anderson, 1:56.5 in the 800; and Tom McGraw, 129-3 in the discus.
Plummer, fifth in the women's 5,000 meters in the 1992 Olympic Games, recorded impressive marks in women's competition in the All-Comers summer series.
Plummer stopped the watch at 58.9 in the 400, 2:02.2 in the 800, 4:17.9 in the 1500 and 5:00.7 in the mile at Los Gatos this summer.
Demesha Craig, the daughter of former San Francisco 49er great Roger Craig, clocked in at 24.88 in the 200 meters. Craig was the CCS champion in the 100 and 200 at St. Francis this past spring.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, September 4, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.