Stacy Dragila broke her world pole-vaulting record for the third time.

I'm not entirely convinced that they were really missed. Those who attended the Championships saw a heck of a meet, from Stacy Dragila's world record in the pole vault to a great dash clash between Jon Drummond and Tim Harden.

Maybe all the MJ fans stayed home and didn't bother to buy tickets. Could be. Attendance in 1996, when Johnson last ran in the event, topped 20,000, compared to this year's 11,000. That's not the same as paying customers, however. USA Track and Field, as far as I know, has never made its ticket sales figures for the meet public. And its attendance estimates, at least in past years, have been considered more art than science.

Whether 11,000 or 20,000 people watch, the immense size of the arena renders such debates trivial. The athletes put on a splendid show, and they deserved a sell-out audience, the kind that Atlanta has never been able to provide. If USATF wants to give indoor track a boost, the organization should put its premier indoor meet in a more intimate setting, where the athletes can be surrounded by fans and showered with the noise they deserve.

Hemingway's sequel
University of Arkansas alum Matt Hemingway seemed poised to make a real name for himself in the high jump after 1996. He had leaped 7 feet and 6.5 inches, placing second in the NCAA meet and a frustrating fourth in the Olympic Trials. The next year, however, his jumping career fizzled with a 7-3 best and an early retirement.

"I was tired of track," he said.

So he walked away at age 24. Marriage and a job followed. Two years later, the hunger returned. Hemingway decided he had unfinished business. This winter, admittedly under-trained, he returned to competition, and the results dazzled the track world.

Hemingway opened with a decent 7-4.5 in Boulder. At the Air Force Invitational a week later, he broke his personal best with a clearance of 7-7.25, losing to Texas star Mark Boswell, who cleared the same height. Three weeks later, at the same site, he improved to 7-8.75, a height only two Americans had ever bettered indoors.

All of the marks came at high altitude, which provides as much aid to jumpers as it does to sprinters. And outside of Boswell, Hemingway hadn't faced much competition. So understandably, when Hemingway got to Atlanta, observers wanted to see just how real the part-time jumper was.

Plenty real. Hemingway dominated the competition, clearing 7-9.75, another lifetime best, and topping defending Olympic champion Charles Austin by 4.5 inches.

Said the winner, "Now the fun is starting to come back."

Runyan getting stronger
She's getting closer, that Marla Runyan. The one-time heptathlete turned miler has stepped up her distance work and emerged stronger yet. Now she's won the national title in the 3,000 meters, leading the competition in a wire-to-wire run from the front.

Her achievements as a runner have come so swiftly and surely that she has to be considered a major contender for the U.S. Olympic team and beyond. Still, I can't be her only fan who hopes that she's also getting closer to the day when she can be featured in an article without "legally blind" being part of the first sentence.

Runyan is a great story, one that has proved inspirational to countless people with vision problems, and many without. Yet I hope the media latches onto her as an incredible story, even without blindness. Never before has a heptathlete, at least one of her caliber, reinvented herself as a top distance runner.

When records don't reflect reality
Once, the national federation of high school athletic associations kept a list of national records for high school athletes. Actually, they still do, only no one pays attention to it anymore. Instead, the source is high school track guru Jack Shepard, who publishes a little annual book called "High School Track."

One reason why the "official" high school records are so routinely ignored by fans and the media is they remain out of touch with reality. Hogtied by outdated rules on the eligibility of athletes and meets, the national records are more of an academic exercise than they are a service to the sport and the media.

Unfortunately, now we have a frightening reminder of just how antiquated our records rules are for the post-high school crowd. A month ago a foursome shattered the world record for the 4-x-800 meter relay, but they will not be recognized as the American record-holders, despite the fact that all are Americans. Instead, that honor will go to the Reebok Enclave, the team that finished second in the race.

The beef, according to records officials, is that the winning foursome, which ran under the banner of their management team, "Global Athletics and Marketing," constituted an all-star foursome put together solely for that meet. If an official club had entered the same team, it would have the record.

I have trouble seeing how that situation is substantially different from the U.S. national relay teams that are put together just for one meet, whether it be the Olympics or another major championship. Yet U.S. national teams can break American records; pick-up teams can't. And those of us who are working to make the sport more interesting and accessible to the general sports fan are left to explain just why the fastest time by an American foursome can't be an American record.

I understand the explanation; I just can't buy it. Depriving athletes of their hard-earned recognition hardly seems to be a good career move for the sport.

Jeff Hollobaugh, former managing editor of Track and Field News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached by e-mail at michtrack@aol.com.