Kazakhs Take 'Berry Blast'
Linh Nguyen, a Lynchburg College sophomore who is among the standouts on that school's cross-country team, was asked following Sunday's Berry Blast 5K in Amagansett if he had won, as was expected.
No, said Nguyen, good-naturedly. He finished fourth. He had been passed, he said, "by a little guy in a hat," and then not long after by another little guy without a hat.
The little guys, as it turned out, were two speedsters from Kazakhstan, a state that had formerly been part of the Soviet Union, who are based for the summer in Riverhead. Neither the winner, Sergei Polikarpov, nor the runner-up, Yury Tarasov, speaks English, but a third runner in their group, Gennady Sivitsky of Moscow, relayed the news that Polikarpov is Ka zakhstan's champion in the 5K, the 10K, and the marathon, and that Tarasov is the former world junior cross-country skiing champion.
Race To The Swift
Polikarpov's winning time of 15 minutes and 47 seconds was, said the race director, Bob Beattie, "incredible," though not unique for this neck of the woods. Bob Nugent, who now lives upstate, Kevin Corliss, who now lives in Minnesota, and Keith Field, who won the recent Potatohampton 10K, were all capable of a similar 4:55-per-mile pace, he said.
"The thing was," Kevin Barry, Nguyen's former coach at East Hampton High School, said later, "Linh said those guys weren't really pushing."
The race, which drew 275 entrants - a large crowd for a first-time event - grossed about $10,000 for Cancer Care Inc., the Woodbury-based service agency that works with cancer patients and their families. "It looks like East Hampton will get a Cancer Care office," Beattie said with satisfaction.
Koncelik Tops Women
The women's winner Sunday was Burke Koncelik, a top masters competitor from East Hampton, who finished 10th over all in 18:08, topping Maria Sacani (18:58) of Hampton Bays.
Two of the race's senior runners - John Conner, of Springs, who topped the 60-to-69-year-old division in 19:51, proof positive, he said, that he'd ridded his system of Lyme disease, and Andy Neidnig, a 77-year-old Sag Harborite - have on their summer agendas national and international competitions. Conner will compete in the 800 and 1,600-meter races in senior regional and national meets, and Neidnig has signed up for several events in the world veterans games, which are to be held in Durban, South Africa, next month.
"If I can't run," said Neidnig, who has been plagued with numerous physical problems in the past several years, "I'll have a good time."
Fifth Avenue Goal
Conner's ultimate goal this year, he said, is the George Sheehan Memorial mile, one of the Fifth Avenue Mile events in New York City at the end of September. "I finished fifth last year, and third the year before that. I want to win it this time."
Another sexagenarian runner, Howard Lebwith, the Springs dentist who bicycled across the country last summer, is planning to run the 7.7 miles up New Hampshire's Mount Washington later this month. "But I'm a little worried," said Lebwith, as, before the race, he perused some recent newspaper articles from that state reporting snowdrifts on Mount Washington of from 15 to 20 feet and the road as being impassable beyond the halfway point. He would ordinarily be happy to plant the Peconic County flag at the summit, he said, in reply to a question, but, citing the very real possibility of hypothermia, added that "I won't be able to carry any extra weight."
Age-Group Winners
Besides Polikarpov, Koncelik, Nguyen, Sivitsky, Conner, and Neidnig, other age-group winners Sunday were Craig Gaites (17:33), 16-18 males; Tony Venesina (18:47), 50-59 males; William O'Donnell (18:01), 40-49 males; Chris McLaughlin, 12-and-under males; Jane Jansz (20:47), 19-29 females; Erin Brown (20:59), 30-39 females; Jean Weinberg (21:20), 16-18 females; Kathleen McGuiness (21:45), 40-49 females; Jean Wolfe (25:23), 50-59 females; Caitlin O'Donnell (30:24), 12-and-under females, and Judith Opshal (34:42), 60-69 females.