Copeland Surprise Winner -- San Diego Cyclist Upsets Sundquist

EVENTS

-- Tonight: 7-7:10 p.m., women's sprint, semifinal, first ride; 7:10-7:15, men's sprint final for third, fourth places; 7:15-7:20, men's sprint final for first and second places; 7:20-7:25, Women's sprint, 5th-8th places; 7:35-7:50, 4,000-meter team pursuit, semifinal round; 8-8:10, women's sprint, seminifinal, second ride; 8:10-8:15, men's sprint final for third, fourth places; 8:15-8:20, men's sprint final, first and second places; 8:25-8:30, men's sprint final for third and fourth places (third ride, if necessary); 8:30-8:35, men's sprint final for first and second places (third ride, if necessary); 9-9:25, women's 20 kilometer points race final; 9:50-10:20, men's 40-kilometer points race, qualifying heat.

REDMOND - When Dirk Copeland arrived from San Diego earlier in the week at the U.S. Track Cycling Championships in Redmond, he thought he'd be happy to place in the top 10 in the 4,000-meter pursuit.

At 18, and with barely two years of track-racing experience, the logic he learned from computer and engineering courses at the University of California at San Diego should have told him that even a 10th place would have been an unrealistic goal.

He went all out, anyway, summoning every dram of energy he had developed winter and fall in 500-mile training weeks to whip Miami's Carl Sundquist, three-time national pursuit champion, by 12 seconds in a semifinal heat yesterday morning. His time was 4 minutes 51.52 seconds.

Fans were surprised. Sundquist was stunned.

"I'd never heard of the kid. Of course, I am disappointed," Sundquist said later in the day, after losing his bid for a third-place bronze medal to Matt Hamon of Colorado Springs, Colo.

"Once I lost the chance for the gold, I lost the motivation," Sundquist said. "Yes, I will try again for the gold next year, but I might retire after '92."

Then last evening, Copeland, the young Boris Becker of bicycling, returned to face Tim Quigley of Topton, Pa.

It mattered little that Copeland's time of 4:52.50 was slightly slower than his morning's run and less than three seconds faster than Quigley's. He won, and he won a national gold medal, his ticket to the Pan-Am Games next month in Havana, Cuba.

"Really, I came here thinking I'd be happy to place in the top 10. I never expected this," Copeland said.

The Copeland-Sundquist match provided the major upset so far in the week-long track championships, which wrap up Sunday.

Cycling records are made to be broken - even the Marymoor Velodrome's women's 3,000-meter pursuit time of 3:52.39, set by Seattle's Rebecca Twigg during the national championships in 1986.

San Diego's Janie Eickhoff did just that in yesterday morning's pursuit semifinals, completing the run in 3:49.24.

Then, in the evening's final match for the gold medal against Kendra Kneeland of Cupertino, Calif., she shattered her record, posting a time of 3:49.46, almost six seconds ahead of Kneeland.

"I am not complaining. I've had four years of high-school German that I have yet to use, and this is my chance to do it," Eickhoff said, referring to her trip later this summer to the world championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Eickhoff is considered to be America's top woman track cyclist overall and the heir apparent of Twigg, who has retired from racing and now lives in California.

Twigg won gold medals in all four women's events in the 1984 nationals.

Eickhoff, who, like Twigg, began racing on the track at 14, will defend her national points-race title tomorrow, giving her a chance to win at least two golds this year at Marymoor.

"Rebecca was my idol," she said.

In other morning action, Bellevue's Renee Duprel, as expected, posted the top time, a 12.22, in the 200-meter sprint time trial. Less than half a second behind, for second place, was Julie Gregg of Kirkland.

Duprel is expected to be a shoo-in to retain her national sprint title tomorrow evening. Her staunchest track rival, Connie Paraskevin-Young, 29, was forced to bow out of this week's races because of a pulled leg muscle suffered while training last week in Trexlertown, Pa.

Paraskevin-Young told U.S. Cycling Federation officials she expects to be fully recovered in time for the world championships. Paraskevin-Young, of Indianapolis, won the world sprint title in 1982, '83, '84 and again last year over Duprel, who garnered a world's silver.

The six-time U.S. sprint champion was a no-show at the national sprint finals last year, so the gold medal was awarded to Duprel.