Olympic bronze for the 1982 European champion.
Female athletes were denied the opportunity of contesting the marathon at major
international championships until the event was introduced at the 1982 European
Championships. This was quickly followed by its introduction at the inaugural
World Championships in 1983 and the Olympic Games in 1984. One athlete who
took advantage of these opportunities was Rosa Mota, and it could be argued that
without the marathon, she would never have won a medal at a major international
event. Up until 1982, Mota was well known in Portugal, having won a number of
Portuguese middle distance and cross country titles, and set a number of nationa
records, but she was virtually unknown in international circles before she entered
the marathon at the 1982 European Championships in Athens.
This was Mota's first marathon and she was up against a number of much more
experienced athletes, like Norway's Ingrid Kristiansen, who had recorded fast times
in big city marathons in North America. However, it was Mota who won the gold
medal in Athens, in 2hr 36min 04sec from Laura Fogli (Italy) and Kristiansen.
On 9 April the following year, Mota won her second marathon at Rotterdam, lowering
her personal best to 2hr 32min 27sec. In August that year she finished fourth,
behind Grete Waitz (Norway) in the marathon at the inaugural World Championships
in Helsinki. Two months later Mota reduced her personal best to 2hr 31min 12sec,
when she was the winner of the Chicago marathon. On 5 August 1984, the Los Angeles
Olympic marathon was held in oppressively hot conditions, but still produced some
high quality times, with Mota winning the bronze medal (see photo above)
in 2hr 26min 57sec, over four minutes better than her previous personal best.
(Ron Casey)
Friday September 23rd 1988 and a second Olympic marathon Gold Medal for Rosa.
1987 World Marathon Champion.
Between the time that the women's marathon was first introduced in a major international competition at the 1982 European Championships to the end of 1986, four women had dominated the event at the international level. One of these was Portugal's Rosa Mota who had won both the 1982 and 1986 European titles. The other three were Grete Waitz (Norway), who had won the 1983 world title, Joan Benoit (USA), the 1984 Olympic gold medallist, and Ingrid Kristiansen (Norway) who had recorded the fastest time ever run at the 1985 London marathon. Despite her two European titles, Mota was still regarded as the junior member of the foursome, due the greater successes at the global level that the others had achieved. This was a situation which Mota looked forward to rectifying at the 1987 World Championships in Rome. However, the expected confrontation didn't occur at Rome as Kristiansen decided to only contest the 10000m, Benoit was expecting a baby, and Waitz was injured. On paper, this appeared to hand the race to Mota on a platter, but the task would not be easy, as the marathon in Rome on 29 August was held over a difficult course and in 73% humidity. Seemingly oblivious to the conditions, Mota was already in the lead as they exited the stadium and started to pull away from the field after 5km. Lisa Martin (Australia) tried to stay in contact, but she eventually pulled out after 26km, a victim of the weather conditions and Mota's relentless pace. As the rest of the field struggled, Mota drew further away, eventually winning the gold medal in 2hr 25min 17sec. In one of the greatest decimations of an international field ever witnessed, Rosa was well into her post-race celebrations [(see photo above)] before the second placegetter finished a whopping 7min 21sec later. (Ron Casey)
Following her wins in the marathon at the 1986 European Championships
and the 1987 World Championships,
Rosa Mota's goal in 1988 was to win
the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul, to become the first
athlete,
male or female, to simultaneously hold the Olympic, World and
European marathon titles. Mota contested only
one marathon that year
prior to Seoul, winning her second successive Boston marathon on 18
April by nearly
five minutes in 2hr 24min 30sec. At the start of the
marathon in Seoul on 23 September, the 69 entrants had
a daunting task
ahead of them, made more difficult than normal by an undulating course,
high humidity (92%),
and distinct lack of shade. Although Mota was the
favourite, she did not employ the tactics she had used in her
recent
races of running away from the field, but was instead content to stay
within the leading pack, which
was sharing the pace-making duties.
Despite the adverse conditions, the leading pack set a solid pace
throughout,
whittling its size down by attrition from 21 at 10km, to 13
at 20km, and to just four at 30km. This foursome,
consisting of Mota,
Lisa Martin (Australia), Katrin Dorre (East Germany) and Tatyana
Polovinskaya (Soviet Union),
were still together at 36km, but the pace
soon after became too much for Polovinskaya and the group was
reduced to
only three. At 38km, Mota started to slowly move away from Martin and
Dorre, and by 40km Rosa
had a 14 second lead. She maintained this
advantage to the finish, winning the gold medal (see photo above
- taken by G Herringshaw ©)
in 2hr 25min 40sec, thirteen seconds ahead of Martin. At this point in
her career
Mota had won ten of her thirteen marathons, including the
last six in a row. (Ron Casey)
Third European Championship Marathon gold medal on 29th August 1990.
By the end of 1988, Rosa Mota had established a consistency in
international marathons rarely seen in such
a gruelling and variable
event. She had won 10 of her 13 marathons including the last six in a
row, and was
the reigning Olympic, World and European champion.
However, this consistency started to show cracks in 1989
when she failed
to finish at Osaka in January, and finished second in Los Angeles in
March in a rather modest
(by her standards) time of 2hr 35min 27sec.
However, this seemed to be only a temporary glitch, as Mota
bounced back
the next year to win at Osaka in 2hr 27min 47sec on 28 January,
followed by her third Boston
marathon victory on 16 April in the year's
fastest time of 2hr 25min 24sec. At the 1990 European Championships
in
Split on 27 August, Mota employed the same tactics she had used at the
1987 World Championships,
opening up a 10 second lead before the runners
had left the stadium, and gradually increasing it as she ran away
from
the field. Mota led Valentina Yegorova (Soviet Union) by 1min 43sec at
20km, but soon after Rosa's pace
began to drop, resulting from the heat
and her own relentless pace. Closing rapidly, Yegorova had reduced the
gap to 39sec at 30km, and then caught Mota 5km later. At this point,
the class and fighting spirit of Mota took
over. Despite her tiredness,
Rosa put in a tactical burst which reopened a sizeable gap that
Yegorova was unable
to close. Mota went on to win her third European
title (see George Herringshaw's © photo above) with
Yegorova
just 5 seconds behind. In 1991, Mota won the World Cup marathon in
London, but then dropped out
at 26km in the World Championships in Tokyo
with abdominal pains. She retired after failing to finish her
last
marathon in London in April 1992. (Ron Casey)