Plushenko establishes favorites role World champion figure skater Evgeni Plushenko of Russia put the men’s field on notice Friday night that he is ready to assume the role of 2002 Olympic gold medal favorite. With a dramatic free skate performance, punctuated by a pair of mighty quadruple jumps, Plushenko captured the Goodwill Games men’s title handily. His program also featured eight triple jumps, seven landed cleanly. The USA’s Michael Weiss, launching his comeback from an injury-plagued season last year, captured the silver medal, and former world champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia clung to the bronze, despite a performance that was below his potential, undermined by a huge crash attempting to land his opening quad jump. Plushenko’s coach, Alexei Mishin, expressed doubt that his student was fully satisfied with the performance: “He feels he did a nearly good job. Not completely perfect.” Weiss called the night “a big start for me” and admitted, “it felt good to be out there.”

For a few moments Friday night, it all belonged to Michael Johnson -- an entire stadium, the whole of Brisbane, a vast land mass called Australia and the universe of track and field, from world-class opponents to wide-eyed youngsters who marvel at his gifts.

An American sensation and a fixture on the elite track scene for more than a decade, the Olympic and world champion closed out his storied career at the Goodwill Games, anchoring a U.S victory in the 4x400 relay at Brisbane’s ANZ Stadium.

A lively crowd of 30,000 fans generated an aura of drama on a mild spring evening in the Southern Hemisphere, and Johnson responded as he has for so many years, securing Team USA’s gold-medal victory in 3:00.52 seconds with a surge in the stretch. After embracing relay mates Leonard Byrd, Derrick Brew and Antonio Pettigrew, the 33- year-old Johnson, led a swarm of photographers around the stadium. Johnson shared the final minutes of his career with as many of the spectators as were able to ring the front row around the perimeter of the track.

Finally, he made his way around to find his wife, Kerry, and their infant son, Sebastian, waiting along with his long time coach, Clyde Hart, instinctively clutching a stopwatch in his hand. It was a moment that has been many months in the making, and Johnson acknowledged later that he knows it won’t be easy to make the transition from supreme competitor to retired athlete.

“I’ll miss everything,” said Johnson, the world record holder in the 200 and 400, and the history-making 1996 Olympic champion in both events. “I’ll miss the competition, the pressure of being at the top. And I’ll miss training, even though it can be difficult and hard. I don’t think there is anything I am not going to miss.”

Pettigrew, the man who handed the baton to Johnson for the final leg, said he is hopeful Johnson’s legacy will be properly celebrated by the American public. “We work just as hard as all those guys in the NBA, the NFL and baseball,” he said. “And still people say, ‘He’s just a runner’. That’s what I was thinking about tonight.”

As for his place in history, Johnson said he will not invest even a moment in anxiety about his world records in the 200 (19.32) and 400 (43.18) some day being eclipsed by a future star. “I have not control over that,” Johnson said. “When they are broken, hopefully I will still be alive and I’ll be there to witness it. I just think I am fortunate to have finished my career with my world records intact.”

FOOT NOTE: If this keeps up, walking is certain to become a global fad of enormous proportions. Russian track athlete Olimpiada Ivanova earned US$120,000 for walking 12.5 miles this week at the Goodwill Games. Of course, this was no evening stroll. She completed the distance in 1 hour, 26 minutes, 52.3 seconds, a world record time, to win the 20km race walk event. Little wonder she is the reigning world champion at 20km.

Hers was the first world record in track and field at the Games. Under the Goodwill Games prize and bonus payment structure, world records at the track are worth $100,000 and gold medals garner an additional $20,000. She also earned $60,000 last month in Edmonton for winning the world title. Income in that range is unprecedented among the walkers.

UP CLOSE: Yours truly will go to any extreme to deliver sights and sounds, as evidenced by the photo. The handsome ones are Rosie, a South American boa constrictor, and her handler, Brendan, of the Australia Zoo,(see photo above) located an hour’s drive north of Brisbane. Rosie is 11 years old, weighs 51 pounds and stretches more than 8 feet from tongue to tail. She does not charge an appearance fee, but her dining requirements are stringent. Brendan says Rosie prefers to feast on rats or small rabbits, served whole. You didn’t think she maintains that slender figure on Aussie meat pies, did you?

SIGHTINGS: Games founder Ted Turner with country singers Lee Kernaghan and Slim Dusty at a dinner in Turner’s honor hosted by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. The four belted out a rousing rendition of Waltzing Matilda. … Members of the U.S. basketball team competing in the Games – including Shane Battier, Kenyon Martin and Mike Miller – encountering crocodiles at Australia Zoo, home base of Animal Planet television personality and renowned croc hunter Steve Irwin. … The omnipresent Australian pole vaulter/supermodel/entrepreneur Tatiana Grigorieva, summoned to accompany the equally visible Premier Beattie at a formal thank-you ceremony for the Games’ 3,500 volunteers.

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