Ros Evans (née Coats, born 17 January 1950) is a British athlete who competed in

fell running Fell running, also sometimes known as hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off-road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. The name arises from the origins of the English sport o ...

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a s ...

ski-orienteering Ski orienteering (SkiO) is a cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skiing endurance Winter sport, winter racing sport and one of the four orienteering disciplines Sport governing body, recognized by the International Orienteering Federation, ...

and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

. She is also mother to British track cyclist, Neah Evans.

Life

Evans was born at

Langbank Langbank is a village on the south bank of the River Clyde in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is 9.3 miles/15 km northwest from Paisley (Renfrewshire) and 3.4 miles/5.5 km east from Port Glasgow (Inverclyde) on the A8. History Langbank ev ...

, Renfrewshire. Her first outdoor pursuits were mountaineering and rock climbing. In order to improve her fitness for these activities, she began running in 1976 while at Jordanhill College where she underwent teacher training. She also began orienteering at around the same time. As a runner, Evans won the

British Fell Running Championships The first British Fell Running Championships, then known as Fell Runner of the Year, were held in 1972 and the scoring was based on results in all fell races. In 1976 this was changed to the runner's best ten category A races and further changes t ...

in 1979 and 1981 and in 1979, she set a ladies’ record for the

Bob Graham Round The Bob Graham Round is a fell running challenge in the English Lake District. It is named after Bob Graham (1889–1966), a Keswick guest-house owner, who in June 1932 broke the Lakeland Fell record by traversing 42 fells within a 24-hour period ...

with a time of 20:31. She has won the

Ben Nevis Race The Ben Nevis Race is a mountain race that takes place annually, from the foot of Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in the British Isles) to the top, then back again. The course is 14km long and includes around 1,340metres of ascent. Up to six hu ...

seven times, more than any other woman. Among her other fell race victories were Ben Lomond, the

Langdale Horseshoe The Langdale Horseshoe is an annual Lake District fell race that starts and finishes at the Old Dungeon Ghyll. The course climbs to Stickle Tarn before heading to Thunacar Knott, Esk Hause shelter, Bowfell, Crinkle Crags and Pike of Blisco. ...

, Sedbergh Hills,

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cumberland. It is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' t ...

, the Fairfield Horseshoe, the Kentmere Horseshoe, Pendle, and the

Snowdon Race The Snowdon Race ( cy, Ras Yr Wyddfa) is a ten-mile endurance running competition in Gwynedd, from Llanberis to the peak of Snowdon. Contestants must make the five miles up the Llanberis Path to the summit ( above sea level) and return down. Cur ...

. She still holds the female record for the Cow Hill Race from Fort William. Evans was a Scottish Orienteering Champion and represented Great Britain in the

World Orienteering Championships The World Orienteering Championships (or WOC for short) is an annual orienteering event organized by the International Orienteering Federation. The first World Championships was held in Fiskars, Finland in 1966. They were held biennially up to 20 ...

in 1985. She was a winner of the navigational Lake District Mountain Trial and, together with Anne-Marie Grindley, was in the first female team to complete the elite course of the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon. Evans competed in the

World Ski Orienteering Championships The World Ski Orienteering Championships (Ski-WOC) is the official event to award the titles of World Champions in ski orienteering. The World Championships is organized every odd year. The programme includes Sprint, Middle and Long Distance compe ...

and was selected to represent Great Britain in

at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

where she participated in the

5 km 5 km may refer to: *5K run The 5K run is a long-distance road running competition over a distance of . Also referred to as the 5K road race, 5 km, or simply 5K, it is the shortest of the most common road running distances. It is usually dis ...

10 km 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

20 km The 20K run (20 kilometres, or approximately 12.4 miles) is a long distance foot race. It is a rarely held race that is not recognized as an Olympic event. The event held IAAF world championship status in 2006 only, when the existing IAAF World ...

and 4 x 5 km relay events.Sarajevo Olympic Winter Games Official Report.
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Private life

Evans lives in Aberdeenshire with her husband. Her daughter who lives locally is Neah Evans who is a track cyclist and Olympian.

References

External links

Original Mountain Marathon on YouTube: 1985 KIMM showing Ros Evans
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Ros British female long-distance runners British fell runners Olympic cross-country skiers of Great Britain Cross-country skiers at the 1984 Winter Olympics British orienteers Scottish orienteers Female orienteers Foot orienteers Ski-orienteers Living people 1950 births