There’ll Be Races Within the Race

Two weeks ago, three of the top female distance runners in Belarus arrived in Southern California to train for Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon.

The runners hoped to find a few weeks of sunshine as they aimed for a spot on their national Olympic team with a strong performance in this year’s race.

So, why weren’t they disappointed to find the Southland going through a stretch of rain?

“Rain is much, much better than snow,” said Belarus distance-running coach Nicolai Snessarev. “You must imagine that when we leave our country, we had three weeks of training camp in temperatures 10 to minus 17 degrees. We had very, very much snow. So, in L.A. when it rains, it is still better than snow.”

Snessarev has been a successful international coach for nearly 20 years, including 10 spent coaching distance runners for the former Soviet Union. He began coaching Belarus runners when the country formed its own national team after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

“Our training has been very good, we’ve been training around USC, and everything has gone well for us,” Snessarev said. “The girls don’t speak English, but they have not had any problems.”

Natalya Galushko, Galina Baruk and Elena Vinitskaia are the three runners for Belarus; only the top finisher will be guaranteed a spot in this summer’s Olympics at Atlanta. The International Olympic Committee could grant Belarus another spot with a good showing Sunday from one of its runners-up.

Belarus will not be the only nation using the L.A. Marathon as an Olympic qualifier. Other countries include Ukraine (the top three finishers will qualify), Mexico (top two) and Guatemala (top finisher).

“There are going to be several races within the race,” said John Tope, the L.A. Marathon elite runners official. “That makes this year’s race so interesting with most of our top Americans not running due to our own Olympic trials Feb. 10.”

Last year, Nadia Prasad of New Caledonia--a South Pacific French territory--won the women’s race in 2:29.49, the fourth-best winning time and the seventh-best women’s time overall.

With Prasad not running this year, Anna Rybicka of Poland is considered the race favorite after finishing second last year. Rybicka, whose personal-best time is 2:31:43, will be challenged by Lyubov Klochko of Ukraine, who finished third in last year’s race.

Two Canadians, Danuta Bartoszek and May Allison, are also expected to run near the front of the pack. Bartoszek, a veteran road racer who has run a 2:31:46 marathon, will represent Canada this summer in Atlanta.

Isabel Tum is the top competitor for Guatemala, while Maricarmen Diaz is the top runner for Mexico.

Lorraine Moller of New Zealand, bronze medal-winner at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, will compete here and in Atlanta.