Christelle Daunay

Christelle Daunay at the 2009 Paris Marathon

Christelle Daunay (born December 5, 1974 in Le Mans ) is a French long-distance runner .

Although she had been running since she was eleven, she did not begin her competitive career until 2001. Two years later, she had already improved her half marathon time to 1:12:37 h and was 33rd at the World Half Marathon Championships in Vilamoura . In other participations in the half marathon and road running world championships, she came in 2004 in New Delhi on place 26, in 2005 in Edmonton on place 35 and 2007 in Udine on place 22.

In 2006, with a view to the Beijing Olympics, she decided to become a professional athlete. At the European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg she reached 16th place over 10,000 meters .

In her debut over the 42.195 km distance, she was third in the Paris Marathon in 2:28:54 h in 2007 .

In 2008 she broke Chantal Dällenbach's national record in tenth in the Osaka Women's Marathon with 2:28:24 h and qualified for the marathon of the Olympic Games in Beijing , in which she finished 20th in 2:31:48 h.

Another leap in performance was achieved in 2009 when she improved her national record to 2:25:43 h in the Paris Marathon and came third in the New York City Marathon .

In 2010 she finished second in the Paris Marathon in 2:24:22 h, again in a national record time. She won the half marathon of Reims à toutes jambes with the national and course record of 1:08:34 h.

At the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zurich , she won the gold medal in the marathon in 2:25:14 h.

So far she has been national champion twice over 5000 meters (2003, 2004), three times over 10,000 meters (2006, 2008, 2009), once in the half marathon (2004) and twice in cross-country running (2007, 2009).

Christelle Daunay is 1.63 m tall and weighs 43 kg. She is a qualified physiotherapist and has lived in Paris since the beginning of 2006 . Since 2005 she starts for the club SCO Marseille Athlétisme, where she is trained by Cédric Thomas.

Personal bests

• 3000 m : 9: 02.93 min, June 9, 2004, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
• 5000 m: 15: 25.87 min, May 29, 2009, Belgrade
• 10,000 m: 31: 47.19 min, June 27, 2009, Villefranche-sur-Saône
• 10 km road race : 32:34 min, May 1, 2008, Marseille
• Half marathon: 1:08:34 h, October 3, 2009, Reims
• Marathon: 2:24:22 h, April 11, 2010, Paris

Web links

Commons : Christelle Daunay  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website (French)
• Christelle Daunay in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Athlete portrait at the FFA
• Athlete portrait on marathoninfo.free.fr