LOS ANGELES MARATHON : Front-Running Strategy Catches Up With Poli

Gianni Poli, Italy’s top marathon runner, set a killer pace in Sunday’s third running of the Los Angeles Marathon.

Poli, a two-time winner of the New York Marathon, left the field of 17,040 participants in the dust as he quickly sprinted to the front.

Was Poli crazy?

“I run easier by myself,” said Poli, who isn’t usually a front-runner but established an early 18-second lead. “I prefer to run alone. Running in a pack is difficult for me.”

Runners in a pack are subjected to jostling and bumping for position. Poli, the Italian national record-holder in the marathon, avoided all that by avoiding the pack, but he also lost the advantage of drafting while others in the pack maintained the pace.

And the strategy may have cost him a shot at the Olympics.

Poli, who wore No. 1 on his chest, led for the first 10 miles before dropping back in the pack because of a hamstring injury and finishing seventh with a relatively disappointing time of 2 hours 13 minutes 54 seconds.

Martin Mondragon of Mexico won in a course-record time of 2:10.19, followed by fellow countryman Jesus Herrera (2:10.40) and Mark Plaatjes (2:10.41), a former South African citizen who recently applied for asylum here.

It appeared that Poli was going to run away with the race, but he faded from contention in the 19th mile on an uphill portion of Wilshire Boulevard.

Poli hit the wall, looking as if he was carrying a grand piano on his back as he struggled to complete the 26.2-mile race.

“I had a problem with my (upper left hamstring) because the road is not flat and it was very hard,” Poli said. “Without this problem, I probably could have won the race, but it was too much for me to overcome.

“I was fine until the 20K (12.4-mile) mark. But at 20K, I started to listen to it (the injury). And I started to run tilted to one side.

“I don’t think I was running that hard. I started out very easy. I ran the first eight miles pretty easy, but then I began to think about the pain.

“Without the problem, I think I could have run under 2:10.”

Michael Miller, a member of Poli’s entourage of coaches, massaged Poli’s muscles as he spoke with reporters after the race.

“I could see there was something different when he was running,” Miller said. “It looked like he was hurting.”

Poli’s front-running tactics were questioned by the other elite runners, who thought that he may have burned out because of the fast early pace.

“I thought Johnny was pretty stupid to do that,” Plaatjes said of Poli’s tactics. “He’s a very experienced competitor. But even I don’t do that. He’s never done it like that. He always comes from behind.

“I don’t think it was a clever move.”

Mondragon also felt Poli made a mistake by going to the front.

“I didn’t know who it was (in front), but I knew he couldn’t sustain it,” Mondragon said.

Said Filemon Lopez of Mexico, who finished eighth: “He (Poli) was running too fast at the beginning.”

Said Herrera, the runner-up: “I knew that he’d never make it. I knew that we’d catch him because he couldn’t keep it up.”

Poli, however, maintained that he could have stayed on his pace if it hadn’t been for the injury.

Last week he had boldly predicted that he would run away with the race.

Poli, 30, is a tile maker from Brescia, Italy, a small village just outside Milan. He didn’t develop into a world-class runner until two years ago.

But he doesn’t have a confidence problem.

Before the race, he said: “I know there are other good athletes who want to win, but I think it would be very difficult because my condition is very good.”

Poli was hoping to run an impressive time here, so that he would be selected to Italy’s Olympic team.

“Only three will go to the Olympics,” Poli said. “I don’t know if my federation will seed me after this race. To make the Olympics, I needed to run a 2:10 today, and I ran 2:14, but it’s still the best time in Italy this year.”

Although he didn’t run 2:10, Poli still has a chance because the Italian Olympic team is determined by a selection process rather than a trial race. He said he plans to run in either the Boston or London marathons next month.