Elite class runners
spurning H-3 race

The prize purse has dried up
so America's top male 10-miler and
others decide not to race

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

They said, "Show me the money."

But the Great Trans Koolau Trek could not confirm a $100,000 prize purse it advertised and that has caused almost every elite runner to back away from Sunday's race.

"It was a hoax," said Karen Locke, agent for Eric Polonski, America's top 10-miler of 1996.

Polonski was one of only two elite runners to whom H-3 race director Dr. Jack Scaff promised air fare and hotel accommodations.

Those packages, which he said were guaranteed by an "anonymous benefactor," were sent out to Polonski and Amy (Legacki) Manson.

Manson agreed to come despite hearing that the prize purse had disappeared.

But Locke quickly yanked Polonski's entry.

"We're professionals and it's a money-making venture," Locke said.

"If there's a $100,000 prize purse, Eric Polonski is going to make money. I heard talk of American-only money, too, so he could've double-dipped."

Locke said she read in a newsletter produced by the race and had been told about the money several months ago. She said she tried four times to get confirmation from the Great Trans Koolau Trek that there would indeed be a prize purse.

"Then I had some contact with the great doctor (Scaff) who finally said that he never said there was going to be any money. So I said, 'Don't waste my time.' It was a hoax."

Asked if anyone at the Trek office had ever given her any assurances that a $100,000 prize purse would be offered, Locke said, "Let's put it this way, I have a lot of things in writing.

"I have a ton of e-mail which is on disk. It's all here. I circulated some of it so people would know what's going on."

She said she contacted other sports agents and warned them to beware of the H-3 race.

Locke said she told Scaff she'd like to help him, if he could only come up with an appearance fee for her client. Scaff declined.

"There is no prize money," Scaff said yesterday from his office.

"We can't go taking money out of the runners' pockets and putting it into a group of people the average runner is not really concerned about. The entry fee is already high enough."

Scaff admitted that at least one issue of the newsletter contained information about a $100,000 purse.

He said the idea was developed by ADWorks representative Roger Morey, an agency hired by the H-3 race. Unfortunately it did not materialize, Scaff said.

Morey said last night a major U.S. corporation he refused to name had all but committed to back the purse, then retreated from the offer.

"We originally said $44,000," Scaff said. "But our ad agency came up with $100,000 because they believed we could come up with the kind of company (to sponsor)."

Polonski wasn't the only elite runner who was lured by the promise of a prize purse only to be disappointed.

Veteran Belgian racer Eddie Hellebuyck said he was willing to pay his own way here and bring two world-class Kenyan runners with him: James Bunbei, who broke 28 minutes three times at 10,000 meters last year, and Benson Masya, the three-time Honolulu Marathon champion.

Hellebuyck coaches and trains with Bunbei and Masya.

"There were rumors that there would be $25,000 for first place, so we were really interested to come," Hellebuyck said. "But then we found out a month ago there was no prize money."

But Hellebuyck said he did not find out from the H-3 organization that the prize purse had disappeared.

"I found out through the Internet and from agents," he said. "I spoke to Jon Sinclair in Spokane (Wash.), who heard that there would be a lot of U.S. money, too, and then we come to find out there is no prize money. We were told from the beginning there was no travel budget. That was fine with us. But because we thought there was prize money, I ... had set up a week's vacation. The other guys were planning on going, too.

"But those Kenyan runners are professionals. They're not going to come because it's an exotic destination.

"They have families to feed."