Barbara Szlachetka

Barbara Szlachetka in 2004 at the Budapest Marathon

Barbara Szlachetka (born May 17, 1956 in Łomża , † November 24, 2005 in Hamburg ) was a Polish ultra-marathon runner .

Life

The qualified electronics technician and later sports teacher (she studied sports in Breslau during her running career ) did not start running marathons until the age of 41, when she was already living in Germany . She ran her first half marathon in 1997 in Hamburg. Two months later she ran the full marathon distance for the first time and again a month later at the Georgsmarienhütter Null, the first ultramarathon over 50 km.

Especially the long distances, which far exceeded the marathon distance, became her specialty. It received two entries in the Guinness Book of Records : The first for most marathons (52) in the marathon debut year (November 15, 1997 to November 14, 1998). She received the second entry for the first 100 marathons in the shortest possible time (between November 15, 1997 and October 24, 1999).

She was also the International German Champion in the 24-hour run in 2003 (211.990 km) and in 1998 and 2003 in her age group.

Barbara Szlachetka set Polish athletics records for running over 12 hours (118.089 km), 24 hours (211.990 km on road or 203.403 km on track), 48 hours (348.915 km on road, at the same time European record in 48-hour road run; 315.948 hall; 304,000 km by train) and 72 hours (404.576 km).

In addition, she is the one among all Polish runners who has completed the most marathons and ultramarathons (336 in total, 279 M, 57 U).

In July 2004, Barbara Szlachetka fell ill with cancer, but continued to take part in another 27 marathons despite chemotherapy . So she started in 2004 in the Berlin Marathon . On November 24, 2005, she died in her apartment in Hamburg.

Web links

• Statistics at DUV: [1]
• Runner profile on hottas.de ( memento from the Internet Archive of September 28, 2007)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DM 24 h in Scharnebeck on 14./15. June 2003