Track teams try to overcome mounting obstacles

Men will be without Johnson for remainder of season Reaching, maybe surpassing his goal of 18 feet, 6 and 3/4 inches. Winning both the indoor and outdoor Heptagonals again. Setting new records in both. Not only qualifying for the NCAAs, but contending for the National Championship. That was how things were supposed to unfold for Penn's star pole vaulter. That was how Mamadou Johnson envisioned his senior year. Instead, he is now out for the year. He won't be participating with the rest of the men's indoor track team at Boston University this weekend, or in any other meet during the indoor season. No outdoor season either. He is left to sit on the sidelines and wait for his wrist to heal. Johnson himself was dejected and did not wish to discuss the injury. "I'd rather not talk about it," he said. "It's been a rough week." But while sounding upset, he also managed to be positive about his recovery. He did say he would be back next year for the outdoor season. And he added that he can work out normally except for his wrist. He considers this only a temporary setback. It happened last Saturday at Princeton, during the seemingly innocuous warm-up jumps. "He was running down the runway in a warmup jump," assistant coach Nathan Taylor said. "He took off too far inside. It was like running into a telephone pole, it doesn't move. "The [vaulter's] pole doesn't go all the way through toward the pit. He came down from about 16 and a half feet and tried to break his fall by putting his hand out. It was either his hand or his head or his face." The fall took its toll: a dislocated wrist, two broken bones and ligament damage. Johnson underwent three-and-a-half hours of surgery Monday. A screw was inserted in the scaphoid bone, just below the thumb, and pins were placed in the rest of the wrist bones to keep them properly aligned for healing. "If he has a 100 percent recovery, he will still lose some flexibility on a permanent basis," Taylor said. He added that the potential for re-injury of the wrist is higher than it would be for other bones, since there is a lack of blood flow to the area. Johnson's wrist will be in a cast for eight to 12 weeks, after which the pins will be removed. The screw is permanent, however. "It's completely immobilized," Taylor said. "The only thing he'll be able to do is wiggle his fingers." The immediate result of all this is that Johnson, one of the team's four captains, will "definitely" miss the remainder of the Quaker indoor season and all of the outdoor season. "We would hope that he would be able to return to competition sometime during the summer," Taylor said. "But the NCAAs and competitions where he would represent Penn are out." It's a major disappointment for such a talented vaulter as Johnson. He won both the indoor and outdoor Heps in the event last year, setting records both times. He is tied with three others for 23rd on the American list and is ranked near the top 50 in the world. And amazingly, Johnson is still improving rapidly. "Of the top 50 pole vaulters in the world, he has improved at the most dramatic rate of any of them," Taylor said. "I've seen him have clearances in practice that would put him in the top 15 in the world." Oddly enough, Johnson's leaps in performance over the last few years may help him eventually overcome the injury with no ill effects, according to Taylor. "It's not completely gloomy. He has improved so quickly that his performance skills aren't permanent motor patterns yet." Because of this, Taylor explained, Johnson might not be hampered by any loss in flexibility when he begins vaulting again. When will that be, no one knows for sure. According to Taylor, Johnson will "be able to start training, not vaulting, but working out hopefully come the first of April. He'll have a lot of flexibility and muscle training before he can even think of vaulting." The bar is now set higher than ever before for Mamadou Johnson. But you sense that he will clear it with ease.