By Timothy Carlson

KAILUA-KONA Hawaii -- The greatest Ironman athlete of all time, in her swan-song effort here, got knocked off her feet Saturday like a boxer KOed in the final round.

It was the most shocking finish in the history of the Gatorade Ironman Triathlon World Championship. Seven-time Ironman champion Paula Newby-Fraser of Zimbabwe, 33, collapsed while leading with just half a mile to go. Hard on her heels was Karen Smyers, whose relentless pursuit wore down the defending champion for her first Ironman crown.

Mark Allen, 37, won the men's Ironman, his sixth. He was followed by Germans Thomas Hellreigel and Rainier Mueller, in second and third place, respectively. Defending men's champion Greg Welch was fourth. Smyers was followed by Isabel Mouthon of France in second, and Fernanda Keller of Brazil in third.

Newby-Fraser, who won the last four triathlons in a row and vowed this competition would be her last, held a one-minute lead and had only half a mile to go when her body just shut down, echoing the famous collapse of Julie Moss near the finish of the 1982 Ironman.

She had built a formidable 11.5-minute lead during the 112-mile bike leg, riding into ferocious 40-mph gusts. Running behind only about 40 of the men, she surrendered almost nothing to Smyers until the second half of the run, when her lead shrank to six minutes in six miles.

Newby-Fraser, who won her first Ironman in 1986 and had built a personal empire based on her domination of the event, said she went into this race healthy and in the shape of her life. Few experts gave the 33-year-old Smyers--a Lincoln, Massachusetts native and the 1990 world short-course triathlon champion--much of a chance.

Newby-Fraser had a one-minute lead when she rounded the last corner, but then collapsed with cramps, clutching her legs. She was sitting on a curb, agonizingly close to the finish on Alii Drive, when the 34-year-old Smyers cruised past and the crowd, few knowing that the champion had been felled, erupted in cheers. Newby-Fraser was the prohibitive favorite in this, her 11th and final Ironman.

Newby-Fraser, looking back over her shoulder for Smyers, refused liquids at the last three aid stations and many speculated that this was the straw that pushed the champion to the point of collapse. Smyers literally caught the staggering champion, and prevented her from falling to the pavement as she stumbled toward the finish. Smyers then sprinted on to win the epic race.

Newby-Fraser spent the next 20 minutes sitting on the curb, summoning enough energy to walk the remaining 300 yards to her fourth-place finish.

France's Isabel Mouthon was second, about eight and a half minutes back. Fernanda Keller of Brazil, last year's third-place winner, took third once again when she elbowed past the swarm of photographers around Newby-Fraser, who was wobbling to her feet.

Newby-Fraser, called the finest endurance athlete in the world, came in fourth--three seconds behind Keller--and was hugged at the finish by her fiance, triathlete Paul Huddle, who was announcing the race live for local television in Hawaii.

Ironically, Huddle had predicted his fiancee would triumph. After breaking to an eight-minute lead after her torrid bike leg, Huddle said on air: "It's the Ironman so it's never over. But realistically, with Paula having this kind of a lead on the run, it's over." Newby-Fraser sat for nearly 20 minutes before gathering enough strength to walk to the finish.

The dramatic women's finish overshadowed an unexpectedly dramatic battle between five-time champion Mark Allen, 37, and newcomer Thomas Hellriegel, 24, of Germany.

Troubled by choppy waves on the 2.4-mile swim and blasted by fierce 40-mph headwinds on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, Allen watched as Hellriegel extended a 12-minute lead after a blazing bike split. Allen, a true Ironman icon, ran the rookie down just three miles from the end to claim the championship. It was his closest finish since his first Hawaiin Ironman win in 1989, when he inched ahead of six-time champion Dave Scott and won by two minutes and 25 seconds.

However, Hellriegel stubbornly resisted Allen's first pass and broke back briefly into the lead on the next aid station before Allen took over for good. Allen obviously was tested to the limit in his victory in 8:20.34--he threw up several times just after finishing.

German doctor Rainier Mueller finished third, nearly five minutes back. Defending champion Greg Welch of Australia was fourth in 8:29.14.

Top Philadelphia-area triathlete Ken Glah was fifth in 8:30.40. Glah, who has finished in the top 10 five times during his 11-year Ironman career, dedicated this Ironman day to his mom, Betty, who is suffering from lymphatic cancer. Betty flew 6,000 miles from West Chester to see the fiery redhead compete.

Glah, like the rest of the field, fell short of expectations due to the ferocious headwinds. He rallied from 12th after the biking leg with his best-ever Ironman marathon in 2:51.59. "The winds were too hard to really make a move on the leaders," he said. "I'm happy to take fifth in this field and run my best marathon here. I think I gave my mom and dad a good present."

Glah explained why he was so emotional going into the race: "My mom Betty is very sick with lymphatic cancer and my dad Bill has prostate cancer but they made the trip just to see me," said Glah, who finished third in 1988, fourth in 1993, and led the Ironman last year in a kamikaze rush until he blew up on the run and finished 9th. "It's quite a long way to come, especially the way she's feeling."

Ken Glah started off 1995 with a big win at an Olympic distance event in Santos Brazil in January, topping a tough field. But soon thereafter he was felled with cytomeglia virus and had to stop training until late May. Glah had to skip his planned German Ironman race in July, but recovered quickly thereafter.

Chile's popular Cristian Bustos, who just recovered from a life-threatening bike/car crash in January 1994, ran a 2:48.05 marathon, third best behind Allen's sparkling 2:42.09 and Rainer Mueller's 2:47.17. He rallied from 15th to take sixth in 8:33.29.

Bustos, who battled Mark Allen to the end in the 1992 race and took second that year, had a huge smile of relief at the end after suffering through a sub-par bike and a slow 55-minute swim. The feared German bike specialist Jurgen Zack never hooked up with Hellriegel, who had been his partner in a breakaway at Ironman Germany in July, and faded from second after the bike to seventh overall in 8:34.13 with a 2:59.59 marathon.

Hellriegel--nicknamed "The Triathlete from Hell" based upon his fearless attacking style that landed in victory in the Lanzarote Ironman earlier this year and his close second to Zack in Ironman Germany--briefly threatened Zack's 4:27.45 Ironman Hawaii bike record set in 1993. But the winds held him back to a shocking 4:29.37, 16:58 faster than Allen and seven minutes up on Zack, who clearly had an off day.

Jeff Devlin, 31, of Downingtown, Pennsylvania,--who might have won the race last year except for a horrible 58-minute swim--improved slightly this year to a 56-minute 17-second swim, but the headwinds knocked him to 14th on the bike.

Devlin, who stormed to the fastest bike split of the race in 1994, planned to have enough left over this year for a marathon faster than 2 hours and 50 minutes. But spent energy reserves caused him to drop out for some time in the medical tent--a bitter finish to a hopeful day. He later claimed that leaders were at an advantage, having drafted behind media vehicles and each other.

Peter Kropko of Hungary, a pre-race favorite for his 2:39 Ironman marathon best, hit a dog on the 110th mile of the bike and broke his collarbone.

Some 1,500 triathletes took off from Kailua Pier in Kailua-Kona at 7 a.m. for the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run.