ETHIOPIAN WALTZES THROUGH BOSTON;   MEKONNEN WINS IN 2:09:06; KRISTIANSEN FIRST IN 2:24:33
Out of the horn of Africa has emerged the most devastating and dominant group of marathon runners the world has seen.   Or at least since the last time Ethiopia ventured from its athletic isolation and won three consecutive Olympic gold medals, putting its indelible stamp on the marathon. It appears to be happening again, a generation after Abebe Bikila ran barefoot through the darkened streets of Rome in 1960 to win the first of his two Olympic golds.   Now it is Abebe Mekonnen, who was born the year Bikila won the 1964 Olympic Marathon in Tokyo and a nation named its baby boys after its hero.   Mekonnen, a police lieutenant from Addis Ababa, made a furious rush with a mile to go, passing Juma Ikangaa of Tanzania and winning Monday's Boston Marathon in 2 hours 9 minutes 6 seconds. Ikangaa was second in 2:09:56. It was only the second time an African has won here.   Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway easily won the women's race in 2:24:33 after abandoning her attempt to break 2:20. Kristiansen, the women's marathon world record-holder, started fast but slowed markedly on a hot day. With temperatures in the high 60s during the Patriot's Day race, it was about 20 degrees warmer than it was Sunday and all of last week.   Still, Kristiansen finished 26th overall, believed to be the highest finish for a woman in this race.   Joan Benoit Samuelson, who set a world record on this course in 1983, was beset with physical problems that altered her stride at 11 miles, and she finished ninth among the women in 2:37:52. It was the worst marathon performance of her career.   It also was the first time Kristiansen had beaten Samuelson in a marathon. In an emotional news conference afterward, Samuelson, who won the first women's Olympic marathon in 1984 at Los Angeles, tearfully conceded that she might have run her last marathon for some time.   But the story of Monday's 93rd Boston race was Mekonnen and his nation of 42 million, which has reemerged as a force to be reckoned with in marathon running.   In two days, Ethiopian runners have won three major marathons. In Rotterdam on Sunday, Belayneh Dinsamo won in 2:08:39. Dinsamo holds the world record of 2:06:50, set last year on the same course.   Also on Sunday, in the World Cup Marathon at Milan, Ethiopians finished 1-2. Keleke Metaferia won in 2:10:28, and Dereje Nedi was second in 2:10:36. Ethiopia beat Italy for the World Cup team title with a second-string team.   Nearly a dozen Ethiopian runners have been deployed around the world in this hectic two-week period of spring marathons. Two other Ethiopians were in Monday's Boston race, placing ninth and 18th. And still another, Wodajo Bulti, who has run 2:08:44, is one of the favorites in the London Marathon next Sunday.   Ethiopia's legacy to the world in the last decade has been one of drought, famine and ethnic civil war. More than 1 million people died in 1984-85 during a drought-caused famine. The plight of Ethiopians caught the imagination of the world and inspired rock musicians and others to organize benefit concerts. Because of internal disturbances, however, little of that aid ever reached the needy.   Politically pro-Soviet, Ethiopia's Marxist government ordered boycotts of the Olympic Games in 1976, 1984 and 1988. Had they not boycotted, at least three Ethiopian runners would have been among the favorites in the men's marathon at Seoul.   Despite its erratic participation, however, Ethiopia has a proud Olympic heritage, dating to 1956.   One of the marathon's most enduring figures was Bikila, who won the marathon gold medal in 1960 and 1964. Ethiopia also took the marathon gold in 1968, when Mamo Wolde, 36, won at altitude in Mexico City.   It is the altitude at which the Ethiopians train that enhances their aerobic capacity. Much of the central part of the country is mountainous, ranging in altitude from 6,000 to 15,000 feet.   It was the first time since 1963 that an Ethiopian had run at Boston and Mekonnen, 24, made the most of it. He was among the pack of four African runners that led the 6,418 entrants race for 15 miles. At about mile 16, Mekonnen and Ikangaa took off, running at first side by side, then with Ikangaa holding a slight lead.   And they ran not as strangers, because Mekonnen had beaten Ikangaa in winning last year's Tokyo Marathon.   "I know him very well as a runner," Mekonnen said through an interpreter. "I knew that I should stay with him until the last (two miles). He's a good runner, but he does not have a good finish."   Mekonnen and Kristiansen each earned $45,000.   John Treacy of Ireland, who was third behind Ikangaa here last year, was third again in 2:10:24.   "I knew that they had gone out very hard," Treacy said of the blistering early pace. Until the halfway point, the men were on a 2:04 pace, dangerous in Monday's heat.   The pace got the best of Saimon Robert Haali of Tanzania, who led the race for five miles. He finished sixth.   The women's race had only one leader, Kristiansen. She, too, set an incredible early pace. For the first few miles, before the heat, Kristiansen was running at a 2:17 pace. By the 17th mile, she had added more than 20 seconds to her mile splits.   By her own reckoning, it was at almost 16 miles that Kristiansen felt the heat.   "I decided to just win the race," she said. "It was too hot to set the world record."   Samuelson held on to second place and even ran comfortably until about 11 miles, when she came undone.   "I was prepared for hot weather and it certainly was hot, but the heat wasn't my problem today," Samuelson said. "I felt real easy the first 11 miles, I felt I was right in the groove. I was right where I wanted to be.   "Before I came to Boston, I had a lot of problems with my hip and my back. At about 11 miles, it went very quickly. I lost my stride from that point. Lisa Weidenbach went flying by me at that point. Marguerite (Buist) went shortly thereafter. I kept thinking I'd pull it off. I didn't have the day I really wanted. I was duly humbled."
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