Mara Yamauchi
From WikiRun
| Mara Yamauchi | |
| Height | 5'4" (162 cm) |
|---|---|
| Weight | 112 lbs (51 kg) |
| Nationality | Great Britain |
| Born | August 13, 1973 at Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, Great Britain |
| College | St Anne's College, Oxford |
| Club | Harrow Athletic Club/Second Wind Athletic Club, JPN |
Mara Rosalind Yamauchi (born Mara Myers) (1973-) is an English marathon runner, who won the 2008 Osaka Marathon and finished 6th in the marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics. "Mara" was named after the Mara River which runs through Kenya where her parents lived for 25 years. She is married to a Japanese national.
Career highlights
| Meet | Place | Mark | Wind | City | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 Metres | |||||
| 19th European Athletics Championships | 13 f | 32:07.90 | Göteborg | 8/07/2006 | |
| 18th Commonwealth Games | 3 f | 31:49.40 | Melbourne | 3/21/2006 | |
| Half Marathon | |||||
| 14th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships | 18 f | 1:12:40 | Edmonton | 10/01/2005 | |
| Marathon | |||||
| The XXIX Olympic Games | 6 f | 2:27:29 | Beijing (National Stadium) | 8/17/2008 | |
| 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics | 9 f | 2:32:55 | Osaka | 9/02/2007 | |
| 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics | 18 f | 2:31:26 | Helsinki | 8/14/2005 | |
| Long Race | |||||
| 34th IAAF World Cross Country Championships | 23 f | 26:47 | Fukuoka | 4/01/2006 | |
| 33rd IAAF World Cross Country Championships | 27 f | 28:55 | St Etienne - St Galmier | 3/19/2005 | |
Yamauchi was born in England but lived with her family until she was 8 years old in Nairobi, Kenya.[1] She started running with Oxford club, Headington Road Runners, while still at school, but took up running seriously when she was an undergraduate at university, competing mainly in cross-country races. After graduating at St Anne's College, Oxford (Politics, Philosophy & Economics)[2] she studied a one year Master’s degree at the London School of Economics. During this time she joined Parkside AC (now Harrow AC) and was coached by Bob Parker, who coached David Bedford, former 10,000m world record-holder and current director of the Flora London Marathon. After finishing her studies, Yamauchi joined the British Foreign Ministry, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), in 1996. In 1997 she earned her first GB vest, finishing 38th in the European Cross Country championships. In 1998 she won the English National Cross Country championships.
From 1998 to 2002 she took a break from running to focus on her work at the British Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. In 2002, she married Shigetoshi Yamauchi, a Japanese national. After returning to live in the UK in 2002, she started running seriously again, under the FCO’s flexible working scheme which enabled her to job-share and then work part-time. She ran her first marathon in April 2004 at the London Marathon, placing 17th in 2:39:16. She also was selected for another Great Britain national team, running in the Chiba ekiden relay race in Japan in November 2004. In 2005, she ran her second marathon (2:31:52) at London, making the team for the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Finland, where she finished 18th and won a team bronze medal. In November 2005, she ran another personal best at the Tokyo International Women’s marathon (2:27:38).
In December 2005 she was selected for Great Brtain's support plan for elite athletes, the Lottery-funded UK Sport World Class Performance Programme. In January 2006 she took unpaid leave from the FCO to focus on preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympic marathon, and moved to Tokyo, Japan with her husband.
Yamauchi won the bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games 10,000m race and also ran this event at the European Championships of 2006.
In April 2006, she became the second fastest British woman ever behind world record-holder Paula Radcliffe, finishing 6th in the London marathon (2:25:13). On September 10, 2006 Yamauchi won the Rotterdam Half Marathon finishing in 1:10:36.
On April 22, 2007 Yamauchi was the leading Briton in the London Marathon, finishing 6th.
In April 2007 she joined Second Wind AC, a new club set up in Japan by Manabu Kawagoe, the former coach of the Shiseido Running Club. She finished 9th in the World Championship Marathon in Osaka.
She set a personal best in winning the 2008 Osaka Marathon in a time of 2:25:03 and then took 3rd place in the Tokyo Marathon.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Yamauchi equalled the best performance by a British woman in the marathon by finishing 6th in a time of 2 hrs 27 mins 29 secs.
In 2009 she placed second in the London Marathon setting a personal best time of 2:23:12 after earlier setting a half marathon personal best when winning in Marugame of 68:29.
External links
- IAAF profile for Mara Yamauchi
- sports-reference.com profile
References
- ↑ Lots of Experience in the Long Run for Oxford Girl Mara, GNN ref 108302P. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (South East). COI (2005-01-04). Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
- ↑ Demetriou, Danielle. "Mara Yamauchi not in Paula Radcliffe's shadow", Daily Telegraph.