Goldengirl

The Kansas girl shook her head. ‘That’s slow. I made eleven-three-six. My best ever, but I’m still quitting. Did you see Heat Three? It was my luck to draw the Serafin dame. What does the G stand for — Giant? It was like lining up with the Statue of Liberty. She wasn’t even trying. Eleven-one. I’ll never go that fast. What’s the pleasure in going on, if you know you can never be the best? I tell you, from now on, it’s nonstop dissipation for me: cigarettes, champagne and S-E-X. I shall burn my letter sweater the moment I get back to Kansas. I want to know the bliss of walking around college without guys giving me the elbow and saying “Hey, stud.”’ She tugged off her damp trackshirt, unfastened the bra underneath, and took the weight of her breasts in her hands. ‘As of now, buddies, you’re going to live a little. You can thank Miss G. Serafin, unattached, for that.’

Midway up the terraced stand along the home stretch of the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field, Dryden was sitting between Serafin and Melody. There was no obligation to sit with the consortium, as there had been in San Diego; Sternberg and Valenti had stayed beside one of the pools at the Jacaranda, claiming they had such confidence in Goldengirl that watching qualifying rounds would bore them. Dick Armitage had a previous arrangement to use the University tennis court for practice. Cobb was standing with Lee and Klugman beside the track barrier, in conversation with Goldine on the inner side. She looked relaxed after her stylish success in the 100-metre heats. The second round was starting in twenty-five minutes, after the finish of the race in progress, the men’s 10,000 metres.

Dryden might have been down there with them, but for a late-night drink he had taken with Cobb. After the disclosures at the meeting, it had been logical to compare notes on Serafin. Cobb’s information had been commissioned from an inquiry agent. There was nothing in the report Dryden hadn’t learned for himself in Bakersfield. But they did agree it was vital to provide Serafin with reassurance. They didn’t want him deciding the meeting had been a takeover. Dryden had volunteered to take first turn.

Melody’s job for the afternoon was listing the detailed results of every heat in the two rounds of the 100 metres, including anemometer readings. As well as the information coming from the public address and the bulletin board, Serafin dictated his own observations on the way each race was run, pinpointing likely rivals in the rounds to come. From the care he took in distinguishing between winners who were fully extended and others with something in reserve, his commitment to the project hadn’t evaporated yet.

The draw for the second round had just been announced.

‘Number one twenty-six. Who was that?’ Serafin asked.

Melody consulted her clipboard. ‘M. Devine, Tennessee State University. The little black girl with Afro hair who won the heat after Goldengirl’s. I’ll tell you her time. Eleven point sixteen. Wind reading point zero eight against.’

‘Mary-Lou Devine,’ said Serafin. ‘That’s strong opposition for the Quarter-Final. How about one hundred three?’

‘J. Pharoah, Valley of the Sun Track Club.’

‘We can forget her,’ said Serafin. ‘She was a poor third in Carroll’s heat. The others I remember. Shadick should be among the qualifiers, but the rest were stretched to survive the first round. This might, after all, be an easier day than any of us planned for. She has a hard one coming up tomorrow.’

Dryden had checked his program. ‘Not the hardest.’

‘Quite a severe test for the second day,’ said Serafin. ‘The Semi-Final and the Final of the hundred, with the qualifying round of the four hundred sandwiched between. Did I show you her schedule for the week?’ He took a card from his pocket and passed it to Dryden.

‘It’s not the most imaginative example of program planning I’ve seen,’ Dryden commented. ‘Two finals, with just a half hour between, on Wednesday — that’s really brutal.’

‘Don’t blame the people here,’ said Serafin. ‘This closely follows the program for the Olympics. If you examine it, you’ll see that the four hundred provides the problems. They don’t envisage anyone combining that with the short sprints. There’s no difficulty for runners doubling in the dash events, because there’s a day’s rest between the hundred Final and the first round of the two-hundred. However, we’ve known about this for months, and planned for it. It’s one of the challenges you take on board when you attempt something nobody has achieved before.’

‘She has to beat the program planners as well as the world’s best athletes,’ said Dryden.