Running -- Spokane's Jones Wins Bloomsday On 12Th Attempt

SPOKANE - Lazarus Nyakeraka came from Kenya to win the Lilac Bloomsday road race. Women's winner Kim Jones came only across town.

But the victory was sweeter for Jones, a Spokane runner who yesterday won her first Bloomsday in 12 tries. Since her first attempt at age 26, she had never finished higher than fifth.

"I'm 39 now, and I ran faster now than I did then," she said. "It's wonderful. It encourages me to go on and continue to train and run races.

"This is the biggest thrill of my life."

Hometown fans cheered her along the 12-kilometer course to a time of 40 minutes, 34 seconds, six seconds ahead of runner-up Carole Zajac of Wellesley, Mass.

Bloomsday, billed as the largest race in which all finishers are timed, drew some 55,000 runners, joggers and walkers. The turnout fell short of last year's record of 61,298.

In the men's competition, defending champion Nyakeraka beat countryman Hezron Otwori by five seconds to win in 34:19. Kenyans took six of the top eight spots. Breezy conditions helped keep Nyakeraka from beating his 1996 time of 34:07.

Nyakeraka won $7,000. Jones earned $14,000 because race organizers doubled the prize money for U.S. citizens to promote more entries from top domestic runners.

Notes

-- Dave Scudamore, running his first marathon, qualified for the 1997 World Track and Field Championships in Athens, Greece, by winning the Pittsburgh Marathon, which doubled as the men's national

championship. Scudamore finished in 2 hours, 13 minutes, 48 seconds, beating runner-up Ed Eyestone by nearly three minutes. Tatiana Ivanova of Russia as the women's winner in 2:37:41.

-- Juan Gonzalez of Mexico won the Vancouver (B.C.) Marathon for the second straight year, in 2:22:53, and Eniko Feher of Hungary was the women's winner for the third time, in 2:49:56.

-- Sammy Maritim of Kenya (2:11:58) and Tatiana Pozdniakova of Ukraine (2:33:27) were the men's and women's champions of the Cleveland Marathon. Joseph Kimani of Kenya (27:50) and Maria Luisa Servin of Mexico (33:43) won the accompanying 10K.

-- John Mwai of Kenya (47:42) and Elaine Van Blunk (54:45) were winners at the 10-mile Broad Street Run in Philadelphia.