1978 WORLD SUPERSTARS

Bob Seagren returned to defend his World Superstars title, along with the champions from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the top three Europeans and top five Americans. From the very first event, the high level of the competition was obvious. Dwight Stones had won the swimming in the Superstars final and held the record over 100 yards, yet he was unable to qualify for the swimming final. In fact, all ten entrants in the swimming bested 30 seconds for the 50 yards. One other thing was obvious immediately, Canadian soccer player Brian Budd was a force to be reckoned with. Budd won the swimming and while hamming it up and fooling around throughout the competition, he dominated the event. Budd set the 100 yard record for swimming and took second in rowing after having the fastest qualifting time. Budd shattered the record for chin-ups with 46 to take a decisive lead after five events.

The sixth event was the 100 yard dash. Budd took a flyer at the gun and Greg Pruitt, who had run 9.70 in the football preliminaries, was out of the blocks quickly. British rugby league star Keith Fielding had run 11 seconds flat over 100 meters in his European heat and began to close on Pruitt. Fielding kept gaining on Pruitt all the way through the finish line. A controversial decision was given to Pruitt by one one-hundredth of a second even though video evidence appeared to favor Fielding (youtube video of the race). Pruitt then completed an amazing display of speed and strength by lifting 295 pounds to edge Dave Casper in weight lifting. Casper was nursing an injured ankle, which caused him to withdraw from his last three events.

Budd continued to amaze by shattering the Superstars record in the half mile run by over nine seconds, running 1:58.22. Fielding started the race in pursuit of Budd, but the quick pace and the heat in the Bahamas did in Fielding. He suffered from heat exhaustion and had to abandon the race. Wayne Grimditch out kicked Budd to win the bike race. In the obstacle course, Seagren clinched second place overall by running his fastest time ever, 23.24, just eight one-hundredths of a second off Lynn Swann's record.

Freeport, Lucaya, Bahamas

Competition Dates: March 16-17, 1978

Air Date: March 25, 1978 (USA)

Announcers: USA: Frank Gifford, Bill Russell; GBR: David Vine & Ron Pickering: CAN: Tom McKee & Ernie Afaganis.

PLC. NAME, SPORT	SWIM	SCCR	ROW	GYM	TEN	100	WL	HALF	BIKE	OC	TOTAL	MONEY
1. Brian Budd, CAN - Soccer	10	x	7	10	x	4	x	10	7	0	48	$39,400
2. Bob Seagren, USA - Pole Vault	4	x	0	7	7	2	x	7	x	7	34	$25,200
3. Greg Pruitt, USA - Football	x	0	x	1	1	10	10	x	x	4	26	$17,800
4. Wayne Grimditch, USA - Water Skiing	7	2	2	x	0	x	x	2	10	0	23	$11,900
5. Keith Fielding, GBR - Rugby	x	10	0	x	0	7	x	0	1	2	20	$9,000
6. Dave Casper, USA - Football	2	0	10	x	x	x	7	x	x	x	19	$7,700
7. Ties Kruize, NED - Field Hockey	0	4	0	x	10	1	x	1	0	x	16	$4,800
8. Jean-Paul Coche, FRA - Judo	x	7	0	4	x	0	2	x	0	1	14	$4,200
9. Ben Davidson, USA - Football	0	0	4	x	0	x	4	x	4	0	12	$3,600
9. Dwight Stones, USA - High Jump	0	0	0	x	2	x	0	x	0	10	12	$3,600
11. Grant Batty, NZL - Rugby	0	1	1	0	x	0	x	4	x	0	6	$1,800
12. Graham Eadie, AUS - Rugby	0	0	x	0	4	0	1	x	x	0	5	$1,500
12. Jochen Mass, FRG - Auto Racing	1	0	0	2	0	x	0	x	2	x	5	$1,500

INDIVIDUAL EVENT RESULTS

SWIMMING - heat 1 (50 yards)

SWIMMING - heat 2 (50 yards)

SWIMMING - Final (100 yards)

SOCCER TEST - Slalom with 3 shots against Shep Messing

100 YARD DASH - heat 1

100 YARD DASH - heat 2

ROWING (100 yards)

GYM TEST - Chin-Ups + Squat Thrusts = Total

TENNIS

100 YARD DASH

WEIGHT LIFTING

HALF MILE RUN

BIKE RACE - final (Mile)

OBSTACLE COURSE

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