Local News in Brief : Judge Allows 10-K Race

A Torrance Superior Court judge has refused to stop a former business associate of the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce from promoting a 10-kilometer race in Long Beach with a similar name, theme, logo and description as a 9-year-old chamber event.

The chamber is planning its 10th annual “Redondo Beach Super Bowl Sunday 10K Run” for Jan. 31, the date of football’s Super Bowl. A 10-K race also is scheduled in Long Beach that day and is being staged by Hans Albrecht, who had organized and promoted the Redondo race since its inception.

Albrecht said in October that he had severed his ties with the chamber and was moving the race to Long Beach, calling it the “10th Annual Super Bowl Sunday 10K Run.” He insisted that he owned the race, the logo and its accompanying prestige. The chamber made the same claim.

In recent years, the race has attracted about 20,000 runners, has been considered one of the top 25 10-K runs in the country and has been billed as “the nation’s largest pregame party.”

Albrecht’s attorney, Richard Berg, said this week that his client is now considering promoting the Long Beach race under a different name and creating a new advertising campaign “simply to set this apart as a new and better event.” Albrecht could not be reached for comment.

The two sides have traded lawsuits, but it is unlikely that the dispute will be settled before the 1988 races.