New Jersey hurdlers advance

By ELLIOTT DENMAN

Gannett New Service

ATHENS, Greece - Two thirds of the New Jersey connection to the Olympic 110-meter high hurdles race is hanging in there with the world's best at Olympic Stadium.

Dudley Dorival, the former Ewing, N.J., High School and University of Connecticut star, blazed to a 13.39-second victory in his first-round race Tuesday morning and breezed into the Wednesday night quarterfinals.

Moving up with him was Todd Matthews Jouda, a standout in his days at Notre Dame High School of Lawrence Township, N.J. and Clemson University, who ran in the next lane to Dorival and advanced with a 13.47 clocking in fourth place.

But Sultan Tucker, the former star at Delsea, N.J. Regional High School who was Matthews' teammate at Clemson, had no such luck. Running in the sixth and final first-round heat, Tucker wound up fifth at 13.76, which left him just a tenth of a second shy of qualifying. Tucker runs for Liberia.

Both Dorival and Matthews Jouda seem ready to do some major damage in upcoming confrontations with the international elite of their event.

``I was running in lane one, so I had to get out fast,'' said Dorival. ``I hadn't run a race in awhile. I think my last meet was six weeks ago, so it was important to get through this first one.

``Now what I have to do is rest up for tomorrow. Things are going to get a lot tougher each round.''

For Dorival, a multi-Big East Conference champion in his UConn days, a 2000 Sydney Olympic seventh-placer and bronze medalist at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, his time was just 14/100ths of a second off his personal best, which also happens to be the Haitiian national record.

Born in Elizabeth, N.J., Dorival opted to run for Haiti - where his parents were born - after untimely injuries precluded him from running in the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials, his original plan.

Matthews Jouda's 13.47 was both his best for the year and a national record for Sudan. He'd run a 13.59 at a pre-Olympic warmup meet in Hungary.

A close call back in New Jersey in January slowed his Olympic-year progress.

``I was driving my truck, my Chevy Blazer, near Trenton when I got hit in the rear by another truck, a bigger truck, and it sent me sliding on the black ice.''

He wound up with severe groin injuries and lost critical training time as he went through the rehab process. Meanwhile, he was establishing his eligibility to run for Sudan.

``I found out that my family, my grandparents, I think, was originally from (that part of) Africa and started looking into it,'' he said.

``When they heard about that, they gave me citizenship, dual citizenship, and the opportunity to run for them.

``So here I am at the Olympics.''

400 hurdles

Michael Aguliar, 24, a graduate of Lakewood (N.J.) High School and the University of Pennsylvania was entered in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles for Belize.

He ran a 51.21 in the first round of the race Monday night. In a heat won by the U.S.'s James Carter in 48.64, Aguilar placed seventh and did not advance.