Mara Yamauchi
Personal information | |
---|---|
Born | Oxford, Oxfordshire, England | 13 August 1973
Height | 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in) |
Weight | 51 kg (112 lb) |
Sport | |
Country | Great Britain |
Achievements and titles | |
Olympic finals | 2008, Marathon, 6th |
Personal best(s) | 5000 m: 15:28.58 5k 15:34 |
Mara Rosalind Yamauchi (born Mara Myers[1][2] 13 August 1973) is a British long-distance track and road running athlete. She currently holds the third fastest time by a British woman over the marathon, behind former world-record holder, Paula Radcliffe.
Biography
Early life
Yamauchi was born in
From 1998 to 2002 she took a break from athletics, focusing on her work at the
Marathon running
In 2005, she ran her second marathon (2:31:52) at London, earning selection for the
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 former world record-holder Paula Radcliffe, finishing sixth in the London marathon (2:25:13). On 10 September 2006 Yamauchi won the Rotterdam Half Marathon finishing in 1:10:36 beating Gishu Mindaye who won the Rotterdam Marathon earlier that year and Japanese Aya Manome.
On 22 April 2007 Yamauchi was the leading Briton in the London Marathon, finishing sixth.
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. However, she left the club in January 2010. She finished ninth in the World Championship Marathon in Osaka.
She set a personal best in winning the 2008
Beijing Olympics and London Marathons
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Yamauchi equalled the best performance by a British woman in the marathon by finishing sixth in a time of 2 hrs 27 mins 29 secs.
In 2009, she came second in the
At the 2010
Injuries ruled her out of competition from the end of 2010 to September 2011. She made her return at the Grand 10 Berlin race in September and was unchallenged, winning in a course record time of 32:19 minutes.[9] This served as preparation for November's Yokohama Women's Marathon, where she went on to take third place in a time of 2:27:24 hours, improving her chances of Olympic selection.[10]
In late 2011, Yamauchi, along with
However a foot injury forced Radcliffe to withdraw and Yamauchi failed to complete the race, dropping out after six miles with a bruised heel.[12]
Yamauchi retired from competitive athletics in January 2013, aged 39, having been the British Marathon champion on four occasions.[12]
Campaign work
In January 2022, Yamauchi joined the Advisory Board of Sex Matters, a UK-based not-for-profit organisation that campaigns "to promote clarity about sex in law, policy and language in order to protect everybody's rights".
References
- ^ Turnbull, Simon (20 November 2005). "Athletics: Mara makes a big name for herself in Japan". The Independent. London. Retrieved 23 May 2008.[dead link]
- ^ Broadbent, Rick (6 February 2008). "Triumphant Mara Yamauchi emerges as a genuine threat to Paula Radcliffe". The Times. London. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
- ^ "Lots of Experience in the Long Run for Oxford Girl Mara". Foreign and Commonwealth Office (South East). COI. 4 January 2005. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
- ^ Demetriou, Danielle (6 April 2008). "Mara Yamauchi not in Paula Radcliffe's shadow". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 April 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
- ^ "Injured Yamauchi to miss Worlds". BBC Sport. 26 June 2009. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
- . 22 March 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
- ^ "Britain's Mara Yamauchi sets sights on London 2012". BBC Sport. 25 April 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ Turnbull, Simon (27 April 2010). "Yamauchi to concentrate on Olympics". The Independent. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ "Leonard Komon Runs 27:15, Mara Yamauchi 32:19 For 10k at Asics Grand 10 in Berlin". Let's Run. 11 September 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
- ^ Nakamura, Ken (20 November 2011). "Kizaki out duels Ozaki in Yokohama". IAAF. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
- ^ "Paula Radcliffe, Mara Yamauchi and Scott Overall secure 2012 places". BBC Sport. 6 December 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
- ^ a b Hart, Simon (22 January 2013). "British marathon runner Mara Yamauchi retires". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
- ^ "About – Sex Matters". sex-matters.org. Sex Matters. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- ^ Yamauchi, Mara (30 June 2022). "Ministers need to enforce fairness for females in sport". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ Yamauchi, Mara. "My article for the @guardian on enforcing fairness & safety for females in sport at all levels. Ministers need to act now to end the destruction of women's sport. No more fiddling around. Too much damage has already been done". Twitter. Twitter. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ "Posts by Mara Yamauchi". Athletics Weekly. Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 30 June 2022.