1989

Simon Robert Naali of Tanzania won the 17th annual Honolulu Marathon yesterday by a comfortable margin.

Naali, a 23-year-old policeman and father of three, broke away from Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya, three-time winner of the race, on the 12th mile of the 26.2-mile event and was never challenged after that. He crossed the finish line at Kapiolani Park in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 47 seconds, just missing Hussein's race record of 2:11:43 set in 1986.

"At that point (when Naali broke away), there was a strong head wind and I thought he was going to come back to me," said Hussein, who held off Gidamis Shahanga, another Tanzanian, for second, 2:14:02 to 2:14:05.

Two more Tanzanians, Suleiman Nyambui (fourth in 2:15:47) and Agapius Masong (fifth in 2:16:40) made it an African sweep of the five prize-money places.

The women's race was won by 37-year-old Carla Beurskens of the Netherlands in 2:31:50, less than a minute short of her race record of 2:31:01 in 1986. It was her fourth Honolulu Marathon championship, tying her with Patti Lyons Catalano for the most victories in the race.

Janice Ettle of Minneapolis, Minn. took second (2:43:54), followed by Weather Tolford of Tillamook, Ore. (2:44:35).

Approximately 10,000 runners began the race in front of Aloha Tower at 5:30 a.m. Although it was not as cool as it was in 1986 when Hussein set the record, the humidity did not even seem high and most runners were thankful that conditions did not resemble those of Saturday morning when heavy rains hit Oahu.