Olympic Track Star Runs Into Law on Boardwalk

An Olympic gold medalist and former Long Island track star was arrested for an incident on the Long Beach boardwalk last week.

Derek Adkins, a standout track athlete at Malverne High School and Georgia Tech before winning the 400-meter hurdles at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, was arrested and charged with obstructing governmental administration at Riverside Boulevard boardwalk after police say he refused leave the bike safety lane at about 12 a.m. on Sept. 12.

A police officer during two separate patrols on the boardwalk spotted Adkins, 43, in the bike lane and on both occasions asked him to move out of the lane, the second time warning him that he would issue a summons, Lt. Ed Ryan, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department, told Newsday.

When the officer made a third patrol on the boardwalk, he again asked Adkins, a West Hempstead resident, to leave the bike lane or he would issue the summons, and when the officers went to take that action, Adkins fled the scene but police apprehended him. Said Ryan:

"I don't know if his track days are behind him but he was caught down the boardwalk.”