First Loss for Moses in 10 Years

The last time Edwin Moses had lost in the 400-meter hurdles was nearly 10 years ago, on Aug. 26, 1977, at West Berlin.

He had run three races in five days in three countries and was thinking ahead to the World Cup less than a week away. He was beaten that day by West Germany’s Harald Schmid, whom he had defeated the year before to win the gold medal in the Olympic Games at Montreal.

Thursday in Madrid’s Vallerhermoso Stadium, Moses lost again--exactly nine years, nine months and nine days later.

In almost a decade between those losses, Moses, 31, of Laguna Beach, had won his second Olympic gold medal, a world championship and 107 consecutive races (plus 15 preliminary heats). He also set the world record of 47.02 seconds in 1983.

In an anxious moment Thursday, Moses tripped on the 10th and last hurdle and lost to Danny Harris, a three-time NCAA intermediate hurdle champion from Iowa State.

Harris won the race in a time of 47.56 seconds, and Moses finished in 47.69. American Nat Page was third in 50.12.

“I lost because I’m not in great shape right now, and Danny had the run of his life,” Moses told United Press International. “I ran a good race, but I lost my balance on the 10th hurdle, and that upset my rhythm. If I wouldn’t have hit that hurdle, I think I could have won. And I do think that maybe I would have set a record on the track of successive wins that will never be beaten.”

Moses had started quickly and led through the first half of the race before Harris, 22, caught him by the fifth hurdle. Moses made a move at the end before his mishap. He was leading the race when he hit the hurdle.

“I was convinced that today (Thursday) would be the day that I would beat him and end his run of victories,” Harris, of Perris, Calif., told UPI. “This is a great day for me. You must realize that beating him was the challenge we all faced.”

Harris, who won the 1984 Olympic silver medal in the event, had not faced Moses since the Los Angeles Games.

“I wasn’t looking for him in the race or worrying about what he was doing,” Harris said. “I was running my own race, and that’s why I beat him.”

After the race, Moses walked around the track waving to the 16,000 fans.

Gordon Baskin, Moses’ agent, said the crowd applauded Moses for 20 mintues after the race.

“They poured out in the middle of the field and mobbed him,” said Baskin when contacted in Madrid early this morning. “It was beyond anything we had ever seen.”

With the streak behind him, Moses said he can get on with the rest of the summer season, which includes the World Championships at Rome in August.

“He’s a free man now that the streak is over,” Baskin said. “The fact that it was such a close race made a big difference to Ed.”

Moses is expected to meet Harris in The Athletics Congress Championships at San Jose June 23-27, Baskin said.

Other results in the Madrid meet included two victories by Carl Lewis, who had outstanding times of 10.12 and 19.92 in the 100 and 200 meters, respectively.