O’Mara Sets Pace, Then Runs Away to Win the Fifth Avenue Mile in 3:52.28

NEW YORK — Ireland’s Frank O’Mara, essentially in the race to be a “rabbit,” stole the men’s elite race in the Fifth Avenue Mile Saturday, beating a star-studded field that included Steve Ovett, the 1980 Olympic 800-meter gold medalist.

O’Mara, a 25-year-old graduate student at the University of Arkansas, outkicked the other 15 runners over the last quarter-mile down one of the world’s most renowned thoroughfares to win by .53 of a second in 3:52.28 as Ross Donoghue duplicated his second-place finish of 1983.

Ovett, running in the United States for the first time since the 1984 Olympics, was third in 3:53.36. He was followed by Ireland’s Eamonn Coghlan and Switzerland’s Pierre Deleze.

Canada’s Lynn Williams, the Olympic 3,000-meter bronze medalist, pulled away in the final 300 meters to win the women’s elite mile in 4:25.03. Christina Boxer of Britain was second, Diana Richburg third.