Kenyan Sets World Mark at Carlsbad : Running: Mutwol betters previous men’s record by 14 seconds. Huber sets American record in women’s victory.

CARLSBAD —  Kenyans William Mutwol and Richard Chelimo ganged up on the world record in the 5,000 meters Sunday.

Poor thing didn’t have a chance. Only question was, who would get it?

In front a Carlsbad 5000 crowd that could be described as ballistic, Mutwol did, finishing in 13 minutes 11.7 seconds, and shattering the standard of 13:26 set by countryman Yobes Ondieki here in 1989.

Had Mutwol, 24, not gotten the record, his training partner, Chelimo, would have. When they weren’t running abreast, Chelimo was nipping at Mutwol’s heels, and still finished no more than two body lengths behind, in 13:15.

“I knew I felt strong, but I didn’t know I could break the world record,” said Mutwol. “I was not after somebody’s record. Besides, maybe that record can not stay there forever.”

The women’s though, will have to wait. Delaware’s Vicki Huber, heading a well-credentialed field, covered the mostly flat course in 15:13.2. She barely missing the world mark of 13:11 set here last year by Scotland’s Liz McColgan. But Huber’s efforts weren’t for naught, as she settled for an American record.

“An American record never crossed my mind,” Huber said. “I just wanted to run a good race. I was concentrating on how I felt.”

Huber, the former Villanova middle-distance track specialist who has little road racing on her resume, clinched the record and erased the 15:30 standard set here in 1986 by PattiSue Plumer. At the time, Plumer’s mark was a world record. Huber turned a three-way race with Shelly Steely and Annette Sergent into a one-woman show when she broke away at the two-mile mark. France’s Sergent faded to a distant second in 15:27, and Steely clocked in third at 15:29.

“I felt great and I figured if I was going to die, I wouldn’t have to much longer to die, I was almost there,” she said.

This little road race sounded like a broken record before Sunday--with seven world records by elite runners and another 44 in age-groups--but Jim Knaub of Long Beach continued the tradition when he shaved more than a minute off the wheelchair world record. Knaub, who already owns world bests in three distances, finished in 10:55, which bettered the 12:02 mark set here last year by Raphael Ibarra.

“It’s an Olympic year, people are really pushing for good times,” Knaub said.

But the better the time didn’t mean the happier the runner, at least where the elite men were concerned. Mutwol could have broken a fingernail, not a world record, and no one would have known the difference.

“Yes, it feels nice,” he said of his new record. Eager reporters rephrased the question a dozen ways in hopes he would elaborate, but Mutwol didn’t stray from his initial response, until he hinted that the origin of his humbleness might be traced to the competition back home.

“There are so many long-distance runners in Kenya, so many good athletes,” said Mutwol, who hopes to make it to Barcelona this summer as a steeplechaser. “There are about 15 runners who can do the steeplechase (3,000 meters, 28 hurdles) in under 8:12.”

It was almost as if the men’s field was divided into the Kenyan Invitational and the Carlsbad 5000. Mutwol and Chelimo, both racing on the road at this distance for the first time, were in a class by themselves from start to finish.

As the runners lined up, American record-holder Doug Padilla, who dropped out near the two-mile mark, shot a friendly “hi,” to the Kenyans, which may as well have been “bye.” Because after the gun sounded and the pack rounded the first turn at Grant Avenue, Mutwol and Chelimo were gone for good.

“They just took off at the start,” said Shannon Butler, of Bozeman, Mont., who finished third in 13:32. “It was definitely their day. No one had a chance of catching them.”

Mutwol’s and Chelimo’s blistering pace delivered them to the one-mile mark in 4:10, seven seconds faster then it took Ondieki to get there in 1989. Their second-mile split was 4:16, which increased slightly as they headed for the finish, but clearly on a record pace.

Even those on board the media truck were hard-pressed not to cheer. “Unbelievable,” was a word thrown around a lot. And give the crowd an assist on the effort, for it was the people lining the streets who helped stir Mutwol to the record.

“At the last half a kilometer, I heard someone say I could get a course record, so then I started (pressing),” said Mutwol, who added that this is the longest race he’d care to run.

Chelimo, an 18-year-old likely to continue his ascent on the running world, and Mutwol have been training together for three years, and will fly today to London, where they will check out European racing possibilities before they return to Kenya to begin the final countdown toward the Olympic trials in June.

For the victory, Mutwol earned $5,000, with a $2,000 bonus for the world record. Chelimo, 18, earned $3,000 as the runner-up. Huber took home $5,000 for her first place and an extra $1,000 for the American record.

Coming off the cross-country championships recently in Boston, where she finished fourth, Huber entered this race at the prodding of Butler, her boyfriend. Her finish didn’t surprise him.

“She’s having a heck of a season,” he said. “We’ve been training together the last two months and she’s been running my butt into the ground.”

Race Notes

Doug Bell took a pretty impressive field to task in the masters’ race. Bell, of Boulder, Colo., defeated former world record holder Henry Rono and former NCAA champion Wilson Waigwa, both of Kenya, to win the men’s 40-over division. Bell’s time was 14:50, 10 seconds slower than John Campbell’s American record . . . Race director Tim Murphy didn’t have an official tally, but estimated that 100 more runners participated in this year’s race. There were 8,318 participants in 1991 . . . Ken Velasquez of Chula Vista was the overall 39-under men’s winner in 14:14, and Encinitas triathlete Paula Newby-Fraser won the 29-under women’s division with a time of 17:10 . . . Local biathlete Ken Souza was 27th in the men’s invitational.