1997 World Athletics Championships / Women's marathon

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	Marathon run
gender	Women
Attendees	75 athletes from 27 countries
venue	Athens
place	Circuit through Athens
Competition phase	August 9
Medalists
gold	Hiromi Suzuki ( JPN )
silver	Maria Manuela Machado ( POR )
bronze	Lidia Șimon ( ROM )
Marathon Cup (team ranking) without counting in the medal table
Rank 1	Japan
Rank 2	Romania
Rank 3	Italy

View from the Acropolis on Athens in 2008

The women's marathon at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held on August 9, 1997 in the streets of the Greek capital, Athens .

The Japanese Hiromi Suzuki became world champion . She won in front of the Portuguese defending champion, vice world champion from 1993 and European champion from 1994 Maria Manuela Machado . Bronze went to the Romanian Lidia Șimon .

For the first time at world championships there was a team classification, the so-called Marathon Cup. This explains the high number of participants this year. Five runners per nation were allowed, the times of the best three were added up for the evaluation. However, this competition was not part of the official medal table. The team from Japan won ahead of Romania and Italy.

Best times / records

World record	2:21:06 h	Ingrid Kristiansen	London Marathon , UK	April 21, 1985
World championship record	2:25:17 h	Pink Mota	World Cup 1987 in Rome	August 29, 1987

Note:
At that time, records were not kept in marathon running and street walking because of the different track conditions with the exception of championship records.

The existing world championship record was not set and not improved at these world championships.

Result

Bronze medalist Lidia Șimon

Rank 23 for Angharad Mair

Nuța Olaru - thirty place

Gaëlle Houitte - 39th place

Irina Timofejewa (top center) place 41

August 9, 1997, 8:05 a.m.

space	Athlete	country	Time (h)
	Hiromi Suzuki	Japan	2:29:48
	Maria Manuela Machado	Portugal	2:31:12
	Lidia Șimon	Romania	2:31:55
04th	Takako Tobise	Japan	2:32:18
05	Ornella Ferrara	Italy	2:33:10
06th	Iris Biba	Germany	2:34:06
07th	Sonja Krolik	Germany	2:35:28
08th	Franziska Rochat-Moser	Switzerland	2:36:16
09	Yelena Razdrogina	Russia	2:36:37
10	Nobuko Fujimura	Japan	2:36:51
11	Anuța Cătună	Romania	2:38:38
12	Maria Polizou	Greece	2:39:10
13	Franca Fiacconi	Italy	2:39:53
14th	Christine Mallo	France	2:40:55
15th	Elfenesh Alemu	Ethiopia	2:41:00
16	Grete Kirkeberg	Norway	2:41:05
17th	Maryse Le Gallo	France	2:41:08
18th	Aurica Buia	Romania	2:41:45
19th	Mariko Hara	Japan	2:42:00
20th	Heather Turland	Australia	2:42:12
21st	Rocío Ríos	Spain	2:42:18
22nd	Judit Földing-Nagy	Hungary	2:42:21
23	Angharad Mair	Great Britain	2:42:31
24	Laura Fogli	Italy	2:43:28
25th	Cheryl Collins	United States	2:43:42
26th	Volha Yudsenkova	Belarus	2:43:47
27	Anna Villani	Italy	2:43:58
28	Sally Goldsmith	Great Britain	2:44:20
29	Tomoe Abe	Japan	2:45:19
30th	Nuța Olaru	Romania	2:47:12
31	Elena Vinitskaya	Belarus	2:47:57
32	Manuela Veith	Germany	2:48:45
33	Asselefech Assefa	Ethiopia	2:48:54
34	Evelyne Mura	France	2:48:57
35	Danielle Sanderson	Great Britain	2:49:03
36	Julia Kirtland	United States	2:49:43
37	Anfisa Kosacheva	Russia	2:50:29
38	Grace de Oliveira	South Africa	2:50:36
39	Gaëlle Houitte	France	2:50:38
40	Jeanne Peterson	United States	2:51:59
41	Irina Timofeeva	Russia	2:53:01
42	Panayota Nikolakopoulou	Greece	2:54:03
43	Lo Man Yi	Hong Kong	2:54:59
44	Alemitu Bekele	Ethiopia	2:55:06
45	Georgia Ambatzidou	Greece	2:56:58
46	Marisol Vargas	Mexico	2:58:22
47	Carolyn Hunter-Rowe	Great Britain	3:01:01
48	May Allison	Canada	3:01:26
49	Danuta Bartoszek	Canada	3:01:30
50	Rita Toto	South Africa	3:04:05
51	Rosa Salinas	Mexico	3:12:55
52	Gina Liseth Coello	Honduras	3:17:33
53	Alexandra De Snoo	Aruba	3:22:08
54	Gulsara Dadabayeva	Tajikistan	3:30:45
DNF	Alina Tecuța	Romania
	Pink Oliveira	Portugal
	Birgit Jerschabek	Germany
	Fatuma Roba	Ethiopia
	Mary Alico	United States
	Flor Venegas	Chile
	Nicole Carroll	Australia
	Sonia Maccioni	Italy
	Alina Ivanova	Russia
	Jane Salumäe	Estonia
	Gadisay Edato	Ethiopia
	Lucia Rendon	Mexico
	Anita Håkenstad	Norway
	Alena Masouka	Belarus
	Paraskevi Kastriti	Greece
	Mantokoane Pitso	Lesotho
	Maria Elena Reyna	Mexico
	Patty Valadka	United States
	Galina Baruk	Belarus
	Josette Colomb-Janin	France
	Chrisoula Souma	Greece

Marathon cup

space	country	Athletes	Time (h)
1	Japan	Hiromi Suzuki Takako Tobise Nobuko Fujimura	7:38:57
2	Romania	Lidia Șimon Anuța Cătună Aurica Buia	7:52:18
3	Italy	Ornella Ferrara Franca Fiacconi Laura Fogli	7:56:31
4th	Germany	Iris Biba Sonja Krolik Manuela Veith	7:58:19
5	France	Christine Mallo Maryse Le Gallo Evelyne Mura	8:11:00
6th	Great Britain	Angharad Mair Sally Goldsmith Danielle Sanderson	8:15:54
7th	Russia	Yelena Razdrogina Anfisa Kosacheva Irina Timofejewa	8:20:07
8th	Ethiopia	Elfenesh Alemu Asselefech Assefa Alemitu Bekele	8:25:00
9	United States	Cheryl Collins Julia Kirtland Jeanne Peterson	8:25:54
10	Greece	Maria Polizou Panayota Nikolakopoulou Georgia Ambatzidou	8:30:11

Web links and sources

• Homepage for the 1997 World Cup on the IAAF website , accessed on July 1, 2020
• Marathon.html Women Marathon Athletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) from todor66.com, accessed July 1, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Women Marathon, Athens 1997, p. 292 (PDF; 10.3 MB), English, accessed on July 1, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. Marathon women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on July 1, 2020