NOTES : Top American Lopez Is a Foreigner to Marathon Officials

With the majority of America’s top marathoners absent because of last month’s Olympic trials, Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon was expected to be a showcase for elite international runners only.

In fact, race officials did not even list an American among their list of 30 men favorites. So imagine their surprise when Hector Lopez of Los Angeles finished seventh in 2 hours, 18 minutes and 20 seconds.

“Who is he?,” said one official when asked if Lopez was available for an interview. “We don’t have anything on him and he was not listed among our elite runners.”

That’s why Lopez was able to walk away without notice despite being the top American finisher in the largest L.A. Marathon ever. The only background information on Lopez said that he was a 28-year-old who lived in Los Angeles. No telephone number was available and his listed address was incomplete.

“All of our top national runners ran in our Olympic trials,” said another race official. “We didn’t expect to have an American finish so high.”

Lopez, however, is no stranger to marathons. A veteran of more than 15, Lopez’s previous best had been 2:20:59. Last August, he won the San Francisco Marathon by more than 10 minutes.

Lopez, who did not run in last month’s Olympic trails, ran his first L.A. Marathon in 1991 and finished 976th in 3:18. Two months later, Lopez bounced back to run 2:38:19 in the Long Beach Marathon and since then has quietly become the Southland’s top marathoner.

In the 1993 L.A. Marathon, run in 90-degree heat, Lopez placed 14th in 2:30:30 and was the top finisher from Los Angeles and the No. 3 U.S. runner. He dropped more than nine minutes off his time in the 1994 L.A. Marathon, running 2:20:59, and last year he placed 11th.

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Marathon wheelchair specialist Heinz Frei of Switzerland was not expected to race Sunday after winning a race in South Africa a week ago.

Frei, however, arrived to Los Angeles late last week and ended a three-year jinx in the L.A. Marathon, winning in a course-record 1:27:10.

“I was thinking about the flat tires that happened to me in my other races in L.A.,” Frei said. “I was [determined] not to have that happen again.”

Frei liked the new L.A. Marathon course.

“It was not too steep on the uphill,” Frei said. “I was able to go at a good pace [uphill] and then take off downhill.”

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A record 19,284 runners and walkers were registered for the race. Officials exceeded the 19,000 entry cap to accommodate the 2,269 entrants who registered Saturday at the Quality of Life Expo.

“We have never before, and we never again plan to exceed our 19,000 entry limit,” race director Bill Burke said. “However, we felt we had to extend the registration period yesterday to accommodate the record amount of people who came all the way down just to enter the race. Some waited for hours to get their bib.”

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In a glitch-filled telecast on Channel 13, maybe the worst thing was missing a crucial part of the race, when leaders Jose Luis Molina and Alfredo Vigueras broke away from the pack.

And when Channel 13 tried to rectify its mistake by showing a replay, that was botched too. Barry Thompkins and Larry Rawson, in the studio, were talking about the replay, but Toni Reavis, out on the course, was describing what was taking place live. Then the replay was interrupted before it showed Molina and Vigueras actually breaking away.

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When Eddy Hellebuyck dropped out of the race, he did so after careful consideration.

His time wasn’t going to be 2:10:45 or lower, Belgium’s standard for making its Olympic team, and he had already fulfilled financial requirements with race officials.

“My contract required me to do the first half in 1:05:30, and I did that,” Hellebuyck said.

“Then, I had bonuses for every mile from 13 through 18, as long as they were run at a five-minute pace. I had driven the course on Thursday and knew that there was a steep hill between Mile 16 and 17 and I wasn’t going to be able to run that in five minutes, so I dropped out.”

No word on the amount of money paid Hellebuyck under the contract or the bonuses he earned, but the important thing to him is that he saved enough to run in the Boston Marathon on April 15 on an easier course, one more conducive to getting that 2:10:45 time.

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Dave Lorne of Ramona ran 14:41 to easily win the 5-K race. Rafii Abdelha of Morocca was second in 15:39. Tania Fischer won the women’s race in 17:30, 2:31 faster than Sindy Herrera of Guatemala.

Times staff writer Jim Hodges contributed to this story.