LOS ANGELES MARATHON : TV Coverage Improves, Despite Breaks

If there’s anything as tough as running in a marathon, it’s televising one.

Channel 13’s coverage of Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon was vastly improved from a year ago, but there were still glitches.

For one thing, there were some ill-timed commercial breaks.

The key moment of the race came during the 25th mile when Mark Plaatjes dropped off the pace, allowing eventual winner Martin Mondragon of Mexico to pull away. But the station was away on a 2 1/2-minute commercial break at the time.

Didn’t the station take note of what happened to ABC in the Winter Olympics at Calgary last month, when misplacement of commercials riled viewers nationwide?

OK, Channel 13 got a little unlucky on the call, but still it was no time to go to a three-minute break.

Of course, intrusive commercials weren’t the only problems.

At the finish, a camera caught Jesus Herrera of Mexico passing Plaatjes to get second, which was good, but viewers were not informed of either’s time. Then the other men finishing, fourth place and beyond, were ignored as the station stuck with the women’s race leaders.

The emergence of winner Blanca Jaime of Mexico City seemed to catch everyone off guard, even though the station’s communication system was working well.

Rick Feldman, Channel 13’s station manager, said: “Any problems we may have had with late information wasn’t do to any problems with the communication system.”

Not everything went smoothly, though. The Goodyear blimp, because of low clouds, did not fly. So there were no overhead crowd shots, as planned.

But the station’s five helicopters, used to transmit microwave signals, were able to fly because producer Phil Olsman had to foresight to park them at the Coliseum overnight.

One of the developing stories of the race was Magda Ilands of Belguim, who finished second. She appeared to be straining terribly for almost 10 miles.

Interviewed by Channel 13’s Mike Chamberlin after the race, Ilands looked fine, but what needed to be asked was: “How do you feel?” This was one time when that question would have been appropriate.

Barry Tompkins, the host of the telecast, and running expert Larry Rawson, for the most part, did fine work. But they got a little carried away with Mondragon’s chance of breaking 2 hours 10 minutes and winning a $25,000 bonus. His winning time was 2:10:19.

Nancy Ditz, who won the first two L.A. Marathons, let her mouth do the running this time. She talked a lot without offering much insight. And she seemed to miss the point when Tompkins flippantly said Mondragon was probably thinking about the interior of the Mercedes he was about to win after he clearly had the race wrapped up.

“That would be a big mistake,” she told viewers. “Now is the time he has to really focus or someone might sneak up on him.”

Come on, Nancy, loosen up. Tompkins was just being witty.

No, it was not a perfect telecast for Channel 13, but, overall, considering how difficult it is to cover a 26-mile, 385-yard road race, it was a pretty good.

At least Channel 13 didn’t miss the winner crossing the finish line, as ABC did at last year’s New York City Marathon.