San Diego Roundup : Tooby Is the Favorite in 10K Race on Saturday

Susan Tooby, the fourth-ranked 10,000-meter runner in Great Britain, will run in the Heart of San Diego 10K Saturday.

The race precedes the San Diego Marathon, which will be held Sunday.

Tooby, 27, from Wales, has run a personal best of 32 minutes 49 seconds in Great Britain. Tooby was sixth in the 10,000 in the 1987 Commonwealth Games last summer.

This is the first time Tooby, who is heavily favored to win the women’s race, has competed in the United States.

Steve Plasso of Las Vegas is the favorite in the men’s race. His personal best in the 10K is 28:45. In 1986, Plasso was the sixth-ranked marathon runner in the United States with a personal best of 2:12.0.

Willy Ayyad, 26, of San Diego is the top local runner. Ayyad, who competed in both cross-country and track at UCLA, won the Grossmont 10K in September with a personal-best time of 29:45.

The 10K begins at Cabrillo National Monument at 7 a.m. The course winds down through Point Loma and ends at Spanish Landing near Lindbergh Field. The 10K course is considered to be very fast because it has a 300-foot drop in elevation from start to finish.

Shuttle buses will take competitors from the Naval Training Center Gate 3 to the start line beginning at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. The last bus is at 6:15 a.m.

Registration is limited to the first 6,000 runners for the 10K. Space was still available as of late Thursday.

Runners can register for the 10K at the Runners’ Expo at the Omni Hotel from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. There will be no race-day registration.

Ron Tabb of Pacific Beach, who has run the fifth-fastest marathon in U.S. history (2:09:31), will probably not complete Sunday’s San Diego Marathon.

Tabb had been expected to compete in the race, which would be his first marathon in two years. Dr. Keith Jeffers, who treats Tabb, said that injuries to Tabb’s hamstring and back will probably keep him from completing the race.

Jeffers said Tabb plans to run the first 5.2 miles of the marathon as the lead runner of the San Diego Track Club relay team. Whether Tabb decides to run the rest of the marathon will depend on how he feels. Hamstring problems have prevented him from running in the past.

With Tabb out, that opens the race for Jeff Woodland of La Jolla, Doug Nelson of Colorado Springs and John McCracken of Lincoln, Neb. Woodland has completed only one marathon before, but he has run a 1:06:03 in the La Jolla half-marathon. McCracken has already qualified for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials by bettering the 2:20 qualifying mark with a time of 2:19:15. Nelson placed fourth in the Albuquerque half-marathon in September.

Jeffers also announced that Jeanne Lasee-Johnson will compete in the women’s division of the marathon. Johnson has run a 2:40 in the marathon, making her 15 minutes faster than the next-best competitor. Lasee-Johnson moved to San Diego three weeks ago.

The marathon begins at El Prado in Balboa Park and ends at Mission Bay Park.

Five freestyle skiers who are former members of the U.S. Ski Team will perform periodically at the San Diego Ski Show, which begins today and runs through Sunday at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Tom Talmon, Mark Low, Bob LaGasa, Don Savorita and Dan Herby will use specially lubricated skis to go down a 29-foot ramp and land in a large air bag.

The show will be open from 5:30 to 8 tonight, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Phil Mickelson of San Diego and Christy Erb of Bonita have been named the boys’ and girls’ golfers of the year by the San Diego County Junior Golf Assn. They will receive their awards at the SDJGA banquet Nov. 13 at the Stardust Country Club.

Mickelson, 17, was also the golfer of the year in 1985 and ’86. He is the second player to win the award three years in a row. Mike Riley won the award each year from 1958 to ’62.

Mickelson won the American Golf Assn. Junior Tournament of Champions at Boswell, Ga., by nine strokes with a 16-under-par 272 for four rounds.

Erb, 16, also won the AMA Junior Tournament of Champions. Her four-round total of 282 was 15 strokes better than the second competitor. Erb finished fifth at the Optimist Junior World tournament at Torrey Pines South.