New York City Marathon : A Strong Field Is Entered, Even in an Olympic Year

Most marathons in this country suffer during an Olympic year. Typically, athletes who excel at the 26.2-mile distance must point toward the trials, and then they cannot be at their competitive best with less than 3 months after the Games.

Thus, today’s New York City Marathon (Channel 7, tape delay, 10:30 a.m., PST) could have been expected to boast less than a glittering field, because it is taking place only about 5 weeks after the end of the Seoul Games.

But that’s not the case.

“So many good marathon runners either didn’t run in Seoul or just didn’t have a good race, and they are coming here,” said Fred Lebow, president of the New York Road Runners Club. “It’s surprising that in an Olympic year I can still say it’s the best field we’ve ever had. I know I say that every year. But this year, I don’t even have to say it.”

Money also has played a big role in luring top runners here.

The John Hancock Insurance Co., whose sponsorship revived a dying Boston Marathon in 1986 when organizers of that race finally decided to abandon its amateur status, in recent years has pumped millions of dollars into big-city marathons, including those in New York and Los Angeles, ensuring the appearance of top athletes. These multi-year contracts also require appearances at clinics and other events.

“They make various arrangements with the athletes,” Lebow said. “Through them, we got about five or six athletes we otherwise wouldn’t have gotten.”

Lebow refused to elaborate, but he scoffed at reports that top athletes were receiving fees well into six figures. “It’s not more than the market commands,” he said. “You can only pay so much.”

Whatever the motivation, the field is strong this year.

There is Great Britain’s Steve Jones, 33, whose personal best of 2 hours 7 minutes 13 seconds in Chicago in 1985 makes him the fourth-fastest marathon runner in history. He chose not to run in Seoul, saying he wasn’t fit enough.

There is Ireland’s John Treacy, 31, the surprise silver medalist in Los Angeles in 1984, who dropped out of the Seoul marathon at about 18 miles, suffering from a cold.

And there are Wodajo Bulti, 31, a 2:08:44 marathoner, and Dereje Nedi, 33, whose best is a 2:10:32, both from Ethiopia. They were unable to compete in Seoul because their homeland boycotted the Games.

Poland’s Antoni Niemczak, 32, is back. He finished second here in 1986 but was later disqualified when he tested positive for a steroid. He said it was given to him without his knowledge by a doctor in a Polish dental clinic to speed the healing of a mouth wound. He will be running here 4 days after the end of his 2-year suspension.

The strength of the lineup extends to the women’s race as well.

In recent years, this marathon has been dominated by Norway’s Grete Waitz, who has won the race 8 times, usually with little or no challenge. This year, however, Waitz--who dropped out of the Olympic marathon after the 18th mile--will be facing 1984 Olympic gold medal champion Joan Benoit Samuelson, who is running her first marathon in 3 years. It will be their first matchup since the 1984 Olympic race in Los Angeles, in which Waitz was second.

In most of her New York victories, Waitz has run with the men for the final 10 or more miles, because there has has been no pack of women running together.

“I don’t think that will happen this year,” Waitz said. “This year, I see the women’s division as a group that will run together for a long, long time.”

Samuelson, 31, plagued with physical problems that did not clear up in time for her to run in the women’s Olympic marathon trial, is said to be fit again, although she is not expected to equal her personal best of 2:21:21--the second-fastest women’s time in history--achieved in the 1985 Chicago race.

In October, 1987, she gave birth to her first child, daughter Abigail, and has competed only in shorter races since then, with erratic results. Friends say she needs to run another solid marathon soon to prove to the world--and to herself--that she is back.

“If Joan weren’t in shape, she wouldn’t be here,” Lebow said.

The women’s field also includes defending champion Priscilla Welch of Great Britain, who turns 44 this month, and who holds the world masters record for women, 2:26:51. The oldest New York City winner of either sex, she won the women’s title last year when Waitz, who was injured, did not compete. Welch, recovering from a stress fracture last summer, did not run in Seoul.

Several women who ran well in Seoul also have decided to run New York, hoping they can overcome the physical odds against running two marathons within such a short time. They include Tatyana Polovinskaya, 23, the Soviet runner who placed fourth, and Italy’s Laura Fogli, 29, who ran sixth.

“We’ve never really had competition with the women before,” Lebow said. “All those years that Grete ran, no women really entered.”

Waitz described herself as pretty well prepared, saying she ran in Seoul on less than 5 weeks’ training after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery.

“Even if your name is Grete Waitz, you need more time than that to practice on the roads,” she said.