Ethiopian Favored in Featured Event : Redondo Beach run: Although he is not accustomed to running long distances, Alamayehu Roba Jimma appears to be the class of the 10-K field.

The Gardena track club has a tradition of producing top distance runners, but none of the runners have ever won the Redondo Beach Super Bowl Sunday 10-K.

When the 15th annual race begins Sunday, the Gardena track club could be in for a first.

Ethiopian Alamayehu Roba Jimma, a 20-year-old Riverside City College freshman who will run for the club, is favored to win the race, which is expected to have a field of 70 elite runners.

“We have a great field, but he’s very good,” promoter Deke Houlgate said.

Roba Jimma, an Ethiopian national team member, is that country’s top 1,500 and 800-meter runner. In 1990 he won the 1,500-meter title at the junior world championships in Bulgaria.

He placed third in the 1,500 meters at the 1991 All-African games in Cairo and eighth at the 1991 world championships in Tokyo.

At Riverside College he went undefeated in cross-country as a freshman and easily won the community college state title by finishing the four-mile course in 19:15.

Last month he placed second in the mile at the American Grand Prix in Canada.

“This kid has beaten everybody here,” said Ron Gee, who is in charge of the elite runners at the Gardena club. “He really hasn’t been tested and he hasn’t done much road racing. He has world-class potential written all over him.”

Roba Jimma also led Riverside to the team state championship, but the Tigers were stripped of the title when officials determined their top five runners committed a boxing-out violation that impeded the progress of other competitors.

Roba Jimma was also stripped of his individual title. The school has appealed the ruling, but it is expected to stand.

“I can’t believe that one,” said Roba Jimma, who grew up in central Ethiopia. “From the beginning to the end I was in front of everybody. I have half a minute ahead of anybody. I win. What is the problem?”

Riverside, with five of the top six finishers, had scored a state-record 17 points. El Camino, which finished second, was awarded the title.

“(Roba Jimma) isn’t challenged too much in the (community college) ranks,” El Camino Coach Dean Lofgren said. “He’s not world-class yet, but he’s definitely an elite athlete with the potential to be world-class.”

Roba Jimma joined the Gardena runners because his coach at Riverside, Ted Banks, has strong ties with the club.

“It’s good for me because I don’t know anybody here,” Roba Jimma said. “I don’t have anybody to run with. I just run by myself and it’s good to train with top runners.”

The club’s members include Matt Ebiner, who placed 19th in the marathon at the 1992 Olympic trials; Angel Martinez, the 1992 high school cross-country and two-mile state champion from San Gabriel High, and Mark Junkerman, who competed in the 5,000 meters at the 1992 Olympic trials.

Roba Jimma has only participated in one race (the November, 1992 Turkey Trott in Torrance) with the Gardena club and he won the three-mile event.

“This guy is different because he can run a mile and he can run short distances really good,” said Gee, who placed 20th in the marathon at the 1988 Olympic trials in New Jersey. “Speed-wise he’s real deceptive. He doesn’t look fast but he can really move.”

Banks, who has won three state titles (two in track and one in cross-country) at Riverside in the last five years, says Roba Jimma has unlimited potential.

Before taking over Riverside’s track and cross-country programs, Banks won 16 NCAA titles at Texas El Paso.

“He’s a great talent,” Banks said. “He just doesn’t realize what he has to do to run with the best.”

Roba Jimma, a physical education major, says he is looking forward to Sunday’s race, although long distances are not his forte.

“I’ll tell you 10-K is a little hard for me,” he said. “It’s a hard position for me.”