Kenyan blows away half-marathon field

By Patrick Everson
Review-Journal

      Kenyan runner James Bungei was anything but pleased with the 6:45 a.m. start of the Las Vegas international Marathon's half-marathon event Sunday.
      "It was very cold -- my hands were freezing," Bungei said, alluding to temperatures in the 30s at the starting line 3.5 miles south of Sloan on State Road 604.
      But he couldn't have been much happier 13.1 miles later when he crossed the finish line at Vacation Village Hotel in 1 hour, 1 minute, 12 seconds to win easily. With every mile coming in sub-5-minute clips, including many in the 4:30 range, the 29-year-old Albuquerque, N.M., resident whipped the field of 2,850.
      Hiromi Taniguchi of Japan was a distant second in 1:02:54.
      Bungei, 28, spent the first four miles with Malcolm Campbell of Scotland before Campbell fell off the pace, and Bungei went unchallenged from there to earn top prize money of $600.
      "I still maintained the same pace, but he wasn't keeping up," Bungei said of Campbell.
      In fact, Campbell, 27, fell to fifth by the end, finishing in 1:04:24.
      Craig Young of Colorado Springs, Colo., was third in 1:03:33. The 41-year-old won the masters (over-40) division with that effort and set a world masters record for the half-marathon. Michael Bilyen of Portland, Ore., was fourth in 1:04:17.
      Nadezhda Ilyina of Russia was the top woman, overcoming a strained right hamstring 10 miles in to win in 1:11:28 and earn $600.
      Lynn Fitzsimmons, from Mequon, Wis., was the top American finisher in either the half-marathon or full marathon, taking second in 1:12:17. And she was one of the few runners not complaining about the weather.
      "I had heard it was a great course -- fast and fun," the 31-year-old said. "And it was perfect weather."
      Hafida Gadi of France was third in 1:12:30.
      -- RECORDS UNTOUCHED -- With the exception of the aforementioned Young's world masters record, none of the Las Vegas international Marathon's marks were approached Sunday.
      Zoltan Holba of Hungary won the marathon in 2:14:15, his best time ever and the third straight year he's won it, but that time was still well off the record of 2:12:37 set in 1986 by Las Vegan Frank Plasso Jr.
      The women's winner was much further off record pace. Joanna Gront of Poland clocked 2:43:32, more than 10 minutes off the 2:32:22 set last year by Marzena Helbik of Poland.
      In the men's half-marathon, Bungei's time was more than a minute off the record of 59:53 set last year by Belgian Benoit Zwierchiewski. And Ilyina's winning women's time was more than three minutes off the 1:08:12 posted by Germany's Claudia Metzner in 1995.