Joy-Petrina first woman to win Bellmore race

Last Sunday at the Bellmore Striders Independence Day Four-Mile Run - considered one of the most competitive races on Long Island - Leonora Joy-Petrina showed a pool of 559 other finishers that a woman not only can compete with a man, but she can beat him.

With a time of 21 minutes, 51 seconds, Joy-Petrina, 27, of Sayville, became the first woman to win the race and only the fourth woman to win a major unisex Long Island race, according to information provided by David Katz, founder of Finish Line Road Race Technicians and a U.S. delegate to the International Amateur Athletic Association.

She also broke a 12-year women's course record by 54 seconds, set by New York City's Gillian Beschross in 1988. The race and its one-mile adjunct had 644 applicants, an all-time high, said Alex Cuozzo, president of USATF-Long Island, the local branch of the U.S. track and field organization.

"It was a last minute decision to race," said Joy-Petrina, who moved from New Zealand to run for Stony Brook University. "I wanted to get in by the 22-minute mark. But I didn't expect this."

Starting in 1983, the flat and fast course takes runners through the streets of Bellmore in an annual test of stamina in the often staggering heat. "It's considered one of the toughest races to win," Cuozzo said.

In fact, coming through the later miles, Cuozzo said Joy-Petrina fluctuated from fifth and sixth place. "It's interesting how she hung on," he said. "She went from sixth to first. She held on when everyone else wilted."

The second-place finisher, Paul Murphy, 46, of West Sayville, ran a time of 22:23.

"It was quite cool when I was passing the last guy," Joy-Petrina said. "He was fighting for it. He didn't want the woman to beat him, but I got this surge and he had had enough."

Joy-Petrina's husband, Michael, also a runner, said he "knew she had those capabilities. I was more excited that she beat all those guys." Both are members of the Sayville Running Company.

Though the race was missing some past favorites, including international runners who sometimes join in, Joy-Petrina's victory was "pretty nice," Cuozzo said. "We are very excited . . . Leonora is very well known in the Long Island running community, but we weren't expecting such a stellar performance."

Much of it was a question of will. Temperatures that day flared to a high of 97 degrees, which stymied runners in the final stretches. "The heat comes at you," Joy-Petrina said. "You just want to get it over with."