Name Veronique Marot | ||
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Marie-Véronique Antoinette Colette Jeannine Marot (born 16 September 1955) is a former marathon runner from France who moved to England in 1976. She won the 1989 London Marathon and represented Great Britain at the 1992 Olympic Games. Marot twice broke the British record for the marathon, with 2:28:04 in 1985 and 2:25:56 in 1989. The latter time stood as the UK record for thirteen years.
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Career
Marot was born in Compiègne, France. She moved to England in 1976 to study at York University and became a British citizen in 1983.
Early in her running career, Marot competed in several fell races. In 1979 she unofficially completed the Ennerdale Fell Race before women were allowed to take part, to the consternation of the race organiser. The next year, ladies were allowed to compete over the full course.
Marot finished second in the 1984 New York Marathon, with 2:33:58. A three-time winner of the Houston Marathon, she first won the event in 1985 with a time of 2:31:16. Later that year, she broke the British record for the first time in the 1985 Chicago Marathon, running 2:28:04.
In 1986, she retained her Houston Marathon title before failing to finish at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart. At the 1987 World Championships in Rome, she finished 22nd. She earned selection for the 1988 Olympic Games but was forced to withdraw from the team due to injury.
1989 began with Marot winning the Houston Marathon for the third time. Then in April, she won the 1989 London Marathon in 2.25.56, a time which stood as a British record for 13 years until beaten by Paula Radcliffe in 2002. Marot (as of 2014) still ranks third on the UK all-time list behind Radcliffe and Mara Yamauchi. She is also two-time winner of the Around the Bay Road Race in Ontario (1991, 1992) and finished 16th in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic marathon with 2:42:55.
She is president of Leeds City AC.
Achievements
Note: In 1985 Marot ran the London Marathon just 8 days after running in the World Cup Marathon.