Monday, Feb. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
In an event still struggling to establish itself 31 years after its founding, the Las Vegas International Marathon made lengthy strides in enriching its tradition.
Hungarian Zoltan Holba become the first LVIM runner in more than a dozen years to successfully defend his title Sunday, easily winning in 2:14:23, while Poland's Marzena Helbik led from pole to pole and obliterated the women's record by nearly five minutes in 2:32:22.
Holba and Helbik outdistanced nearly 1,500 marathoners who answered the 7:30 a.m. gun to run the mostly downhill course on the old Los Angeles Highway between Jean and Vacation Village, competing for $40,000 in prize money.
But history nearly was made in the half marathon as Benoit Zwierzchiewski, a Belgian who trains in Albuquerque, N.M., flirted with a world record in his first race of such a distance. The 20-year-old 10-kilometer specialist turned in a blazing 59:53, three seconds off the world mark and 1:10 better than the former course record.
Only a handful of half-marathoners around the world ever have eclipsed one hour.
"This is a test for me," said Zwierzchiewski, who prefers track courses but ran the race simply out of curiosity. "Now I will think about the marathon, no problem. I will run it (in the Sydney Olympics) in 2000."
Running without a watch, Zwierchiewski was oblivious to his near-record time. He ran an average one-mile split of 4:34.
"I go to the race and, boom, I run," he said.
Holba appeared to be in a race until, boom, he ran away from the field.
Running the first 21 miles with Paul Mbugua and Simon Sawe, Holba appeared to have formidable competition as they turned in 10 consecutive sub-five-minute miles between mile markers 12-22.
But with the 22nd marker and the Las Vegas skyline ahead, Holba picked up the pace and left his challengers behind for good. Between mile 22 and 23, Sawe was 80 yards behind and Mbugua was barely in sight, even though Holba's split tailed off considerably at 5:20.
Prior to that disappointing split, Holba, 28, was contending for the course record of 2:12:37, set in 1986 by Las Vegan Frank Plasso Jr.
"I didn't know what was the record," Holba said through interpreter and coach Laszlo Tabori, a great runner in his own right. Tabori was the third man in world history to run a four-minute mile and once held the world record in the 1,500 meters.
"Like every other runner, once you pull away, all you can see is the finish line. You don't think about the time so much. You just want to see the finish line."
Holba's only objective was to improve his personal best time of 2:15:20. He did so easily with a per-mile pace of 5:08. He received $3,000 for the victory and an additional $200 for breaking the 2:20:00 barrier.
"You're just out to be No. 1," he said.
Despite their attempts to hang with Holba, Mbugua came in third at 2:16:25 and Sawe finished sixth at 2:17.40.
The most impressive finish of the day was turned in by second-place finisher Sergei Shalomeev. The 29-year-old Russian wasn't even a dot on the horizon for most of the race, falling out of the lead pack about 12 miles in. He charged to the finish in 2:15:47.
"They ran really fast, but I just tried to stay smooth and tried to pace myself," Shalomeev said through a translator. "Really a marathon doesn't start until the 35-kilometer (21.7-mile) mark. Then I started running really fast."
The race wasn't nearly as dramatic for the women, as Helbik dominated in just her second marathon on U.S. soil, earning $3,000 for the victory and $1,000 more for coming in under 2:34:00.
Hail and freezing rain forced Helbik, 36, to quit 14 miles into the Houston Marathon Jan. 12. She originally planned to run the half marathon Sunday, but changed her mind because of the disappointment in Houston, where her goal was to run under 2:36:00.
In the women's half marathon, Petra Wassiluk, a European who lists California as her home, missed the course record by one second. Wassiluk finished at 1:08:13, barely off the pace set by Claudia Metzner in 1995, which at the time was the fastest women's half marathon ever run in the U.S.
All times were unofficial.
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