Rukosuev Doesn’t Waver : Triathlon: Native of Siberia overcomes Jacobs, Hill to win Port of San Diego International Triathlon. San Diego’s Michellie Jones wins women’s competition.

Alec Rukosuev, a native of Siberia who moved to Florida five months ago to continue his budding career as a triathlete, experienced two firsts Sunday morning.

At about 5 a.m. he awoke to see the walls of the house he was staying at waver. He thought nothing of it.

“The people I’m staying with ran down the stairs from the second floor, and I thought that caused the shaking,” Rukosuev explained in broken English.

A few hours later he was running second during the final leg of the Port of San Diego International Triathlon when he noticed the lead runner, Cam Hill of Scottsdale, Ariz., begin to waver.

This time he knew what was happening and took advantage of it.

Rukosuev, whose working visa expires in a few weeks, kicked by the tiring Hill with a little over a mile to go in the 6.2-mile run, then maintained a lead all the way to the finish line for a first-place time of 1:27:38 in the swim-bike-run event.

It was Rukosuev’s first victory since he moved to Florida, and it might lead to an extension of his working visa.

Todd Jacobs of Leucadia finished second at 1:27:43, and Hill ended up third at 1:28:13.

In the women’s race, Michellie Jones of San Diego cruised to an easy victory in 1:35:26. Second-place runner Joan Hansen of Westchester, Pa., crossed at 1:38.25, and Katie Webb of Escondido was third at 1:38:55.

After his victory, Rukosuev, 25, displayed a lack of concern for his visa. That will take care of itself, he thinks. He has a more pressing problem.

“I need money to stay here,” he said.

By necessity then, the budding triathlete has become a budding capitalist as well and will have no trouble figuring out what to do with the first-place prize check of $2,000.

He’ll siphon it off slowly while he keeps training.

Rukosuev also will consider himself lucky. The breakup of the Soviet Union also caused the breakup of that former country’s triathlon team that gave Rukosuev, a former swimmer, his start in the sport.

He doesn’t like to think about his fate had he not moved to Florida when fellow triathlete Jeff Cuddebeck invited him to share a home in Longwood, Fla.

“I don’t know what I would be doing,” Rukosuev said. “That’s a difficult question. It is hard to train there--it is winter six months of the year. The food is not so good. The equipment is not so good.”

Rukosuev’s victory did not come without controversy. During the 30-kilometer bicycle phase, Rukosuev fell into a pack of about six riders that stayed tightly grouped. Well off the front of that pack was Hill, and just off the front of the pack trying to chase Hill was Jacobs.

There was some question whether the group of riders was guilty of drafting, a basic strategy in cycling, but illegal in triathlons. There were few race officials on the course, none of whom were paid.

“No one guy can ride faster than a group of riders,” said Jacobs, 31. “And they have a volunteer official here who’s supposed to monitor drafting. He’s going to take money out of someone’s pocket? I don’t think so. . . . I don’t want to come across as saying Alec didn’t ride clean because I didn’t see him.”

While not admitting to drafting, Rukosuev said it is hard not too when you are part of a pack.

“Everybody is just so close, you know?” he said.

Hill finished the bicycle phase with what looked to be a comfortable 56-second. But Hill knew it was anything but.

“I pushed it (on the bike) as hard as I could because I knew I needed a big lead for the run,” he said.

When he left the sight of the other leaders, he caused some worry. At one point, Jacobs yelled to the press truck, “Who is that guy up there?”

Hill, 25, was racing in only his third professional triathlon and making quite an impression by doing so incognito.

“I needed to know if it was a really fast runner up there,” Jacobs said. “Because if it was, we were in big trouble.”

But Hill burned up most of his reserves in the one-kilometer swim (he came out of the water second to Rukosuev) and the bicycle race and had little left for the run.

“I was just trying to hang on in the end,” Hill said.