TRACK AND FIELD UC IRVINE INVITATIONAL : Li’s Mark Is Gone With Wind

IRVINE — China’s Tony Li figured he set an Asian record in the 110-meter high hurdles Sunday, only to see it get lost in the wind a few minutes later.

Li won the Nike-UC Irvine Invitational race in a wind-aided 13.35 seconds, two-hundreths of a second faster than his Asian mark set in 1991 in Japan. But it didn’t count as a record because Li was backed by a wind of 3.3 meters per second, 1.3 over the allowable.

Meet officials originally questioned the wind speed but upheld the ruling after consulting with the official operating the wind gauge.

Li, a 1992 Olympic semifinalist, was disappointed that he didn’t set the record but was pleased with how he ran.

“I’ve run 13.31, 13.34 and now 13.35,” said Li, a former NCAA indoor champion from Washington State. “All of them were wind-aided. I think I’ll run better later in the season.”

Still, Li was pleased with his time. He got a good start and cleared all but the second to last hurdle.

“I was a little bit tired by then,” he said of hitting the hurdle.

Li won easily. Former USC standout Robert Reading, the NCAA runner-up in the hurdles last year, was second in 13.80.

Li said he used the Irvine meet as training for a meet in Modesto in two weeks.

“I’ve had two weeks of hard workouts,” he said. “This was just a training run. But when I got here, I saw the conditions were good, so I was hoping for a good time.”

Li also was a distant second to Great Britian’s Roger Black in the 200. Black, one of the world’s top quarter-milers, finished in 21.02. Li ran 21.18.

UC Irvine’s Mike Nielsen finished second in the 1,500 in 3:51.45, about three seconds slower than his Big West-leading time last week at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays.

Nielsen, a former Mater Dei standout, led from the start but was caught by Jim Sorenson with about 200 meters left. Irvine’s Brian Hild was sixth in 3:58.75.

In other results, Cal State Fullerton’s Albert Avila finished third in the discus with a throw of 151 feet 11 inches, three feet shy of his season best. Australia’s Simon Arkell won the pole vault by clearing 18- 1/2 but missed on three attempts at 18-5.

The next meet at Irvine’s track stadium will be the Big West championships May 7-8.