Florence Barsosio

Florence Jepkemoi Barsosio She also finished in 13th place at the 1997 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Turin. However, it was not until she began focusing on road running in the early 2000s that she found greater success.

At the start of 2000, Barsosio won in her debut marathon race, taking the Turin Marathon with a time of 2:27:58. and she took the Scalata al Castello 10 km title in Arezzo, Italy, soon after. She remained successful on the cross country circuit, with victories at the Cross de Caceres and the Cross Campaccio. The following year she won both the Paris Marathon and Paris Half Marathon races and managed a sixth-place finish in the women's marathon at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. She also took third at the New York Mini Marathon, eleventh at the New York Marathon, and won the Prague Half Marathon. After two successful seasons of road running, she decided to take time away from competition to get married and have a child. She ran virtually unopposed at the Florence Marathon that year, beating second placed Marcella Mancini by over five minutes. Barsosio's time of 2:29:11 was much faster than her previous outings and she was confident of returning to her full pre-pregnancy form for the following season. A dominant performance followed at the Vienna Marathon: a high temperature affected all the runners, but she won the race by over eight minutes despite the fact that the race had no pacemaker. She closed the year with a second-place finish at the Taipei International Marathon in Taiwan, beaten to the title by Jane Ekimat Auro. She took second place at the Madrid Marathon in 2006.

Personal bests

Surface Event Time (h:m:s) Venue Date Track 3000 m 8:53.50 Nice, France 16 July 1997 5000 m 15:20.51 Berlin, Germany 26 August 1997 10,000 m 34:01.0 Novara, Italy 24 April 2005 Road Half marathon 1:11:09 Paris, France 13 March 2000 Marathon 2:27:00 New York City, United States 5 November 2000 All information taken from IAAF profile.

Major competition record

Other competitions 1st – 2000 Turin Marathon, 2:27:58 1st – 2001 Paris Marathon 1st – 2001 Paris Half Marathon 1st – 2001 Prague Half Marathon 1st – 2004 Madrid Marathon 2nd – 2004 Dublin Marathon 1st – 2004 Florence Marathon 2nd – 2005 Paris Marathon 1st – 2005 Vienna Marathon 2nd – 2005 Taipei International Marathon 2nd – 2006 Madrid Marathon