Women to Watch

#F1 Adriana Fernandez

Mexico
Defending Champion
Age: 29 Date of Birth: April 4, 1971
Residence: Mexico City, Mexico

Personal Bests:
Marathon: 2:24:06, London, 1999
10K: 31:10.12, Brunswick, ME, 2000

2000 Results:
London Marathon, 2:25:42, 4th place
McGill International, Montreal, 5000, 15:16.45, 1st place
Maine Distance Festival, 10,000, 31:10.12, 3rd place
Olympic Marathon, 2:30:51, 16th place

NYC Marathon History:
1998: 2:26:33, 2nd place
1999: 2:25:06, 1st place

Career Highlights:
When Adriana Fernandez pulled alongside leader and defending champion Franca Fiacconi at the 11-mile mark of the 1999 New York City Marathon, her coach, Rodolfo Gomez, who had finished second to Alberto Salazar here twice in the early 1980s, "thought she had it won for sure." And in powerfully assured, almost metronomic fashion, Fernandez covered the second half of the course a minute faster than the first half, and reached the tape in 2:25:06, the second fastest women's time in the Marathon's history. Fernandez was a virtually solitary figure, without even male stragglers for company, as she headed in and out of the Bronx and back into Manhattan. "I was surprised I was alone," she said later. "I just concentrated on my own pace."

Fernandez finally gave Mexico a female champion in New York City, to join the ranks of her countrymen Salvador Garcia, Andres Espinosa and German Silva. She emphatically believes, however, that her victory "is going to encourage more women to run" in Mexico.

The Mexico City resident had been second to Fiacconi in New York in '98 and had improved her best time to 2:24:06 with a runner-up finish to Joyce Chepchumba in London in April 1999. She ran 15:56.57 to earn the 5000-meter gold medal at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, defending the title she'd won in 1995. Her early important victories came at the 1996 Houston Marathon, her debut at the distance with a 2:31:59, and in a gold-medal effort in the 10,000 at the Central American & Caribbean Games in 1998.

Personal Notes:
At age 15, Fernandez started running at a local Mexico City park to keep company with her father, Daniel, a one-time amateur boxer. She soon shed 10 pounds and uncovered her special athletic ability.

#F2 Tegla Loroupe

Kenya
Age: 27 Date of Birth: May 9, 1973
Residence: Kapsoit, Kenya/Detmold, Germany

Personal Bests:
Marathon: 2:20:43, Berlin, 1999
Half Marathon: 1:07:12, 1996
10K: 30:32.03, Seville, 1999

2000 Results:
Avon Global Running Championships 10K, Milan, 31:20, 2nd place
New York Mini Marathon 10K, 31:37, 1st place
London Marathon, 2:24:33, 1st place
Rome Marathon, 2:32:04, 1st place
Olympic Marathon, 2:29:45, 13th place
Olympic 10,000 meters, 30:37.26, 5th place

NYC Marathon History:
1994: 2:27:37, 1st place 1995: 2:28:06, 1st place
1996: 2:37:19, 7th place 1997: 2:32:07, 7th place
1998: 2:30:28, 3rd place

Career Highlights:
To Tegla Loroupe, “New York is like home. It’s like family.” In New York City in 1994, at the age of 21, the Kenyan debuted at the marathon distance in 2:27:37 and became the first female African winner of a major marathon. She returned to New York in 1995 and won by two and a half minutes in 2:28:06.

Loroupe is arguably the greatest half marathoner in the world; she has won the Lisbon Half Marathon six times. She has been a bronze medalist in the 10,000 meters at the World Championships twice and consistently runs under 15:00 for 5000.
But the marathon is where she has left her indelible mark. In April 1997, Loroupe shocked the road racing world with a victory at the Rotterdam Marathon in 2:22:07, the fastest woman’s 26.2-miler in three years. A year later, she broke Ingrid Kristiansen’s 13-year-old world record by 19 seconds, running Rotterdam in 2:20:47. She brought the standard down to 2:20:43 in Berlin on September 26, 1999.

Loroupe, who weighs less than 90 pounds, admits, “It’s difficult for me to believe how strong I am. I worked very hard when I was young. Running is just a minor thing for me, compared with what I was doing with my family. I carried a lot of water and firewood, from age five. I had a lot of strain on my shoulders.” She also demonstrated her running talent at a very tender age. “I was nine years old. Our school district had the 800, 1500, 5000 and 10,000, all in the same day. I won three. I lost the 800. I didn’t have the speed. We were barefoot, on dirt tracks with small rocks. I didn't have running shoes until 1989.”

Loroupe triumphed at the London Marathon this past April, taking charge at the 35-kilometer mark to win in 2:24:33, 13 seconds in front of Romania’s Lidia Simon. Despite being struck by illness before the Olympic Marathon in Sydney, she gamely completed the course in 2:29:45 for 13th place, and later came back to place fifth with a 30:37.26 in an extremely fast 10,000-meter final.

Personal Notes:
Loroupe is the first person from her Pokot tribe to excel on the world running scene. She has achieved a rock star level of celebrity in New York’s running community. At the award ceremonies at the Mini Marathon in Central Park this past June, which she won for the fifth time, spectators literally stormed the metal barricades, clicking dozens of cameras at the tiny Loroupe, the object of their admiration and affection.

#F3 Franca Fiacconi

Italy
Age: 35 Date of Birth: October 14, 1965
Residence: Rome, Italy

Personal Bests:
Marathon: 2:25:17, New York City, 1998
Half Marathon: 1:12:37, Zurich, 1998

2000 Results:
Padova (Italy) Marathon, 2:30:20, 1st place
Prague Marathon, 2:32:00, 3rd place
Berlin Marathon, 2:26:41, 2nd place

NYC Marathon History:
1996: 2:28:42, 2nd place
1997: 2:30:15, 3rd place
1998: 2:25:17, 1st place
1999: 2:29:49, 4th place

Career Highlights:
On the morning of the 1998 New York City Marathon, Franca Fiacconi "didn't know it was my day at the start," as she later commented. "I was just concentrating, to run free." As she observed, "If you are ready to run fast, if you want to run fast, you can also do it with the mind, not only the body." Fiacconi certainly had the will that day, fending off a challenge from Tegla Loroupe to join Italy's past five-borough conquerors, Orlando Pizzolato, Gianni Poli and Giacomo Leone, and becoming the first Italian woman to win the New York City Marathon. For the effusive and demonstrative Fiacconi, the triumph was "like winning the Olympic Games, the best thing that's happened to me."

Fiacconi came back to defend her laurels in 1999 despite having missed key weeks of training with a broken elbow. She held the early lead before settling for fourth place in 2:29:49. It was the fourth consecutive year this exemplar of consistency had finished in New York's top four; she was third in 1997 in 2:30:15 and second in 1996 in 2:28:42.

Fatigue does not appear to be a factor for Fiacconi, who began her career as a 1500-meter competitor, but has since said, "If it were up to me, I would run 12 marathons a year." She has already had a crowded agenda of marathons in 2000. She will line up on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge less than two months after having placed a creditable second in 2:26:42 at the Berlin Marathon. Her frequent marathoning is nothing new. In 1998, the durable Italian barely missed becoming the first woman to run four sub-2:30s in the same year (the fourth was a 2:30:21). Her 10 career marathon victories include a course-record effort of 2:28:33 in Prague in 1999, plus firsts in Rome in 1998 and Turin in '98 and '96. She was fourth in the 1998 European Championships and 13th in the 1997 World Championships.

Personal Notes:
Following her 1998 New York City Marathon victory, Fiacconi adjourned to San Domenico, the Italian runners' culinary mecca on Central Park South (in the Marathon's 26th mile) and had ice cream for the first time in three months. Her height, bright blonde hair and sunglasses make Fiacconi instantly recognizable on and off the marathon route.

#6 Kerryn McCann

Australia
Age: 33 Date of Birth: May 2, 1967
Residence: Bulli, Australia

Personal Bests:
Marathon: 2:25:59, London, 2000
Half Marathon: 1:07:48, Tokyo, 2000
10K: 31:55.94, 1999

2000 Results:
Tokyo Half Marathon, 1:07:48, 3rd place
Optis Grand Prix Sydney 5000, 15:17.83, 3rd place
Australian Nationals, 10,000 meters, 33:08.62, 5th place
London Marathon, 2:25:59, 5th place
Sydney Olympic Marathon, 2:28:37, 11th place

Career Highlights:
At the halfway point of the 2000 London Marathon, reached in 1:14:19, Kerryn McCann decided, “I hadn’t done all this training and come all this way not to run much faster than I had done before.” She pushed the pace and had a lead of 20 meters at the 30-kilometer mark before finishing fifth in 2:25:59, a considerable improvement on her 2:28:44 seventh-place effort in the same race in 1999.
McCann’s 1:07:48 in Tokyo this past January broke Lisa Ondieki’s Australian half marathon record. McCann was 23rd in the World Championships Marathon in Seville in 1999 and 15th at the Worlds in Göteborg, Sweden, in 1995. She placed 28th in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Marathon.

Personal Notes:
McCann’s son, Brendan, was born in 1997. Her husband, Greg, is a former Australian surfing champion.

F10 Yuko Arimori

Japan
Age: 33 Date of Birth: December 17, 1966
Residence: Okayama, Japan/Boulder, CO

Personal Bests:
Marathon: 2:26:39, Boston, 1999
Half Marathon: 1:11:05, Las Vegas, 1996

2000 Results:
Osaka International Ladies Marathon, 2:31:22, 9th place
Lilac Bloomsday 12K, 45:18, 23rd place
Bolder Boulder 10K, 36:26, 19th place
New York Mini Marathon 10K, 35:23, 12th place
Utica Boilermaker 15K, 51:51, 3rd place
Philadelphia Distance Run (half marathon), 1:12:52, 6th place

Career Highlights:
A major celebrity of Michael Jordanesque proportions in Japan, Yuko Arimori almost singlehandedly spearheaded the mania for women's marathoning in her country. Her first two efforts in Osaka, a 2:32:51 for sixth in 1990 and a 2:28:01 for second in 1991, were both national records. She then took fourth place with a 2:31:08 at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo.

What truly captured the hearts of the Japanese populace, however, was Arimori's courageous performance in the 84-degree heat of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Erasing a deficit of 50 seconds, she caught up to the leader, Valentina Yegorova around the 20-mile mark, and exchanged surge after surge with the Russian on the treacherous hilly climb to the Olympic Stadium. Only in the final 300 meters did she succumb to Yegorova, whose 2:32:41 defeated her by eight seconds. Arimori's silver was the first Olympic track and field medal by a Japanese woman in 64 years. In 1996, history repeated itself as Arimori battled Yegorova again in Atlanta, this time with Ethiopia's Fatuma Roba up ahead securing the gold. Arimori got a bronze behind Yegorova's silver.

Arimori had surgery on both heels in 1995 before coming back to win the 1995 Hokkaido International Marathon in 2:29:17. She set her personal best of 2:26:39 in Boston in 1999. Arimori now lives and trains much of the time in Boulder, CO, and on the advice of fellow transplanted Coloradans Colleen De Reuck and Nadia Prasad, has been focusing on shorter races to give her more speed for the marathon.

Personal Notes:
Arimori was a commentator on the Sydney Olympic women's marathon for Japan's Asahi Broadcasting. She is on the board of directors of her husband Gabriel Wilson's dance school, the Ananda Academy. Her Hearts of Gold charity helps manage the Angkor Wat Half Marathon in Cambodia and raises funds for a hospital that provides prosthetics for Cambodia's victims of land mines. Okayama City is a sister city to San Jose, CA, and is known in Japan as "Peach Town."

#F14 Svetlana Zakharova

Russia
Age: 30 Date of Birth: September 15, 1970
Residence: Chekboksary, Russia

Personal Bests:
Marathon: 2:27:08, Berlin, 1999
Half Marathon: 1:10:29, Kosice, Slovakia, 1997
10K: 32:49

2000 Results:
London Marathon, 2:28:11, 10th place
Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, 2:29:24, 2nd place

Career highlights:
Svetlana Zakharova's 2:27:08 for third place in Berlin was the fastest time by a Russian woman in 1999. In her other 1999 marathons, she was second in Los Angeles in 2:32:54 and second in Honolulu in 2:34:27. She had won in Honolulu in 1997 with a 2:33:14. Zakharova set course records in the 1999 San Blas Half Marathon (1:13:55) and 1998 Jacksonville Half Marathon (1:11:47). She won several Russian Junior Championships between 1989 and 1992.

Personal Notes:
Zakharova's next door neighbor and training partner is 1992 Olympic Marathon champion and 1996 silver medalist Valentina Yegorova. She is not to be confused with another Svetlana Zakharova, a headliner for the Kirov Ballet. She previously competed under her maiden name, Svetlana Vasilieva.

#17 Florence Jepkemoi Barsosio

Kenya
Age: 24 Date of Birth: August 11, 1976
Residence: Elgeyo Marakwet, Kenya

Personal Bests:
Marathon: 2:27:58, Turin, 2000
Half Marathon: 1:11:09, Paris, 2000
5K: 15:15, 2000

2000 Results:
Paris Half Marathon, 1:11:09, 2nd place
Turin Marathon, 2:27:58, 1st place
Cross de Caceres, Spain, 1st place
Cross Campaccio, Italy, 1st place

Career Highlights:
In 2000, Florence Jepkemoi Barsosio has made a triumphant marathon debut, winning in Turin in 2:27:58, and set a new half marathon personal best.

#F18 Restituta Joseph Kemi

Tanzania
Age: 29 Date of Birth: July 30, 1971
Residence: Tanzania

Personal Bests:
Half Marathon: 1:07:55
10K: 31:32.4

2000 Results:
Tilburg 10K, 32:05, 3rd place
New York Mini Marathon 10K, 32:32, 4th place
Malmo (Sweden) Half Marathon, 1:07:59, 1st place
Lisbon Half Marathon, 1:09:33, 5th place

#F20 Hellen Kimaiyo-Kipkoskei

Kenya
Age: 32 Date of Birth: September 8, 1968
Residence: Nairobi, Kenya

Personal Bests:
Marathon: 2:29:45, London, 1997
Half Marathon: 1:09:13, 1995
10K: 30:52, Atlanta, 1996

2000 Results:
Revco Cleveland 10K, 32:25, 4th place
Lilac Bloomsday 12K, 40:12, 3rd place
Arts Fest River Run 12K, 41:26, 3rd place
New York Mini Marathon 10K, 33:14, 7th place
Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, San Diego, 2:30:35, 3rd place

Career Highlights:
Hellen Kimaiyo-Kipkoskei has been competing on the world running stage for over half her life: She ran 8:57.21 in the first-round heats of the 3000 meters at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics when she was not yet 16 years old. Her greatest accomplishments have come in Atlanta, where she won the fabled Peachtree Road Race 10K three years consecutively from 1996 to 1998, including a course record 30:52 in '96.

In recent years, Kimaiyo-Kipkoskei has made a pair of ventures into the marathon, taking 10th place in London in 1997 in 2:29:45 and third place this past June 3 at the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego in 2:30:35. Given her 10K credentials and her 15:19 speed in the 5000, she may just be scratching the surface of her marathon potential.

Kimaiyo-Kipkoskei, originally from the Kenyan village of Moiben, won the 3000 meters at the African Championships in 1985 and 1989, and was ninth in the Olympic 3000 in 1992.

Personal Notes:
A remarkably well-travelled athlete, Kimaiyo-Kipkoskei has won road races in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Brazil and Uruguay.

#F21 Esther Kiplagat

Kenya
Age: 33 Date of Birth: December 8, 1966

2000 Results:
Corrida San Fernando 10K, Maldonado, Uruguay, 33:22, 2nd place
Mother’s Pride Great Scottish Run Half Marathon, Glasgow, 1:11:12, 2nd place
Lisbon Half Marathon, 1:09:55, 8th place
London Marathon, 2:30:30, 13th place