1992

To hear Benson Masya tell it, he won the 20th annual Honolulu Marathon yesterday morning while running on one leg.

"This knee was bothering me," said Masya, rubbing his left leg, "so I had to change over to running on my other leg."

Masya, a 22-year-old postal clerk from Kenya, certainly didn't hop over the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours, 14 minutes, 19 seconds, a 5:07.4-per-mile pace.

Running his first marathon, Cosmos Ndeti of Kenya yielded on the 24th mile, remained close and finished nine seconds behind Masya. David Tsebe, South Africa, fell back on the 23rd mile and finished third in 2:16:45

Carla Beurskens of the Netherlands won her sixth Honolulu Marathon in 2:32:13 while finishing 26th overall, more than six minutes ahead of runner-up Lisa Weidenbach of Gig Harbor, Wash., and seven minutes ahead of defending champion Ritva Lemettinen of Finland. Beurskens, 40, now owns the top three women's times in Honolulu Marathon history.

It was by far the largest Honolulu Marathon and one of the largest marathons in the world. The final count of entrants was 30,905 with 23,515 finishers. Yesterday's weather was not as cool as when Hussein set the record. There was no rain and little wind. The humidity, however, slowed the pace after the first 10 miles and it soon became clear that a record was not possible.