Friday, October 16, 1998
Premier road
race cancelled
And there's only a '50-50'
By Pat Bigold
chance the Waikiki Mile
will resume in 1999
Star-BulletinThe Waikiki Mile, regarded as the premier mile road race in the world, has been cancelled.
Dr. Jim Barahal, president of the Honolulu Marathon Association, sponsor of the event, told the Star-Bulletin yesterday that the demise of the event is tied to Japan's current economic crisis.
He said there is only a "50-50" chance it will resume in 1999.
The event, which produced the only sub-four minute miles on Hawaiian soil, was held on the eve of each Honolulu Marathon from 1994 to 1997.
"The Waikiki Mile was a great event," Barahal said. "But our primary mission is the marathon because it is so important economically to this community."
The state's Department of Business and Economic Development estimates that the Honolulu Marathon brings in about $100 million in direct spending for the local economy.
"The Waikiki Mile was getting the rep of being the best road mile in the world," said Tom Craig, coach and husband of U.S. 5,000-meter record holder Regina Jacobs. Jacobs won the mile here in 1995 and 1997.
"I would challenge anyone to name another race that assembled a better women's field than there was in Waikiki last December. It was unbelievable."
In the last men's race, there were eight sub-four minute finishers, led by Canada's Graham Hood (3:55.66). In four years, there were 16 sub-four minute times.
Ireland's Marcus O'Sullivan, who ran three sub-four minute miles here, said he was "very disappointed."
"It was one of my all-time favorite events," said O'Sullivan, who is third on the all-time sub-four track mile list with 101 indoor and outdoor clockings.
O'Sullivan is retired, but said he would have come out of retirement to run one last Waikiki Mile.
This decade, the Honolulu Marathon has relied on revenue from travel packages for as many as 20,000 Japanese participants. Revenue from those numbers spawned the Waikiki Mile.
"The marathon totally subsidized the mile," said Barahal, who expected a major sponsor to come in and relieve his association of that financial burden.
"It never happened," he said.
Barahal said that Asatsu, the marathon's advertising and marketing company, is estimating a 15 percent dropoff in Japanese entries for the 26th Honolulu Marathon on Dec. 13.
He said he will have a clearer picture by the entry deadline, which is late this month.
There has been a steady decline in Japanese participation in recent years. Numbers dropped from 18,285 in 1996 to 17,952 in 1997.
Barahal said the association is budgeting for only 14,000 Japanese participants this year.
The Waikiki Mile cost $250,000 to stage. But the event never generated any appreciable revenue as the fields were limited to elite international athletes.
Those athletes were flown in, housed and paid appearance fees by the Honolulu Marathon Association. Prize purse for the 1997 men's and women's elite races totaled $36,000.
Barahal said it might have been possible to eliminate appearance fees and reduce the prize purse and size of the field to stage a fifth Waikiki Mile.
But he said the marathon's board didn't want to rely on personal favors from participants.
"The event could not be self-sustaining that way," he said.
Jacobs said she would've gladly passed on an appearance fee to come back.
"I bet they could get everyone there without appearance fees and just straight prize money," Craig said.
Jacobs, the seven-time U.S. champion at 1,500 meters, expressed shock that no major sponsor has stepped forward to save the Waikiki Mile.
She criticized Nike, which has long been associated with the marathon and mile, for not acting.
"It makes me simply sick," she said. "If it was a basketball event, they would have come to the rescue immediately. But right now, track is not high profile enough for them. I would think they would want to support running in every way possible because of their roots."
Jacobs, who won the Fifth Avenue Mile on Sept. 26, referred to the fact that Nike started as a running shoe company.
She said the Waikiki Mile, which was held three months after the end of the summer track circuit and two months before the start of the indoor circuit, never lacked for intensity.
"The fields just got better every year," Jacobs said. "It was kind of like seeing a prize fight. The runners would go at it because they felt like there was unfinished business for the year."
Last year's field included Jacobs, Irish track superstar Sonia O'Sullivan, Chinese 10,000-meter record holder and 5,000-meter Olympic gold medalist Wang Junxia, British two-time Fifth Avenue Mile champion Paula Radcliffe, nine-time NCAA champion Suzy Hamilton and Chinese 800-meter record holder Dong Liu.
The Nike P.L.A.Y. Mile, which last year attracted some 3,000 local youngsters competing in several heats before the elite runners toed the line, also will be discontinued.
The Honolulu Marathon Association donated a substantial sum to participating schools each year.
Barahal said there was something unique about the mile-marathon weekend.
"We are the only world class marathon that has ever attempted to put on another world-class event the same weekend," Barahal said.
Waikiki Mile marks
Sub-four minute finishes: 16 in four years
