Marie-Pierre Duros (born 7 June 1967) is a French former middle- and

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires endurance, stamina as well as mental strength. Within e ...

who specialised in the

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

. Her personal best of 8:38.97 minutes for the event is a former French record, which lasted from 1989 to 1999. She was a two-time Olympian (1988 and 1992) and three times participant at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

(1987, 1991, 1995). Her greatest achievement was a gold medal

1991 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 3rd IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo in Seville, Spain from March 8 to March 10, 1991. It was the first Indoor Championships to include relay races as well as women's triple j ...

, where she became France's first champion of the competition's history. She also won medals in

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

with the French women's team, taking bronze at the

IAAF World Cross Country Championships World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics (formerly the IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the Int ...

in 1988 and silver the following year. She was a six-time national champion: four times over 3000 m and once over

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

and cross country.French Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-10-14.

Career

Early career

Born in

Saint-Brieuc Saint-Brieuc (, Breton: ''Sant-Brieg'' , Gallo: ''Saent-Berioec'') is a city in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. History Saint-Brieuc is named after a Welsh monk Brioc, who Christianised the region in the 6th c ...

,Marie-Pierre Duros
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-10-14. she competed in running competitions at a young age and won her first international medal at the

1985 European Athletics Junior Championships The 1985 European Athletics Junior Championships was the eighth edition of the biennial athletics competition for European athletes aged under twenty. It was held in Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a un ...

, taking the

silver medal behind Ana Padurean (who won the world junior title a year later). She made her first impression at senior level two years later by winning the

title at the

French Athletics Championships The French Athletics Championships (french: Championnats de France d'athlétisme) is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Fédération française d'athlétisme (FFA; French Athletics Federation), which serves as the Frenc ...

– her run of 8:56.18 minutes was the first time a woman had dipped under nine minutes at the competition.National Outdoor 5000m Championships for France

Association of Road Racing Statisticians The Association of Road Racing Statisticians is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics regarding road running races. The primary purpose of the ARRS is to maintain a valid list of world road record ...

(2014-07-13). Retrieved on 2014-10-14. Her senior global debut followed at the

1987 World Championships in Athletics The 2nd World Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations were held in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy between August 28 and September 6, 1987. Men's results Track 1983 , 1987 ...

a month later and she placed 14th overall in the event.Marie-Pierre Duros
IAAF. Retrieved on 2014-10-14. She ended that year with a win at the Cross Du Figaro.Cross du Figaro

(2012-03-09). Retrieved on 2014-10-14.

First senior medals

Duros won her first senior medal at the 1988 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. In an

Annette Sergent Annette Sergent (born 17 November 1962) is a French former long-distance runner. She represented her country three times at the Summer Olympics, but it was in cross country running that she had her greatest success. She became the first Frenchw ...

-led team, she helped the French women to the bronze team medals through her eleventh-place finish in the women's long race. On the track she repeated her win at the national championships and gained selection for

France at the 1988 Summer Olympics France competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. 266 competitors, 192 men and 74 women, took part in 167 events in 23 sports. Medalists Competitors The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games. Archery In ...

. However, her first Olympic appearance was not a successful one, as she failed to finish in the 3000 metres heats. Duros returned to grass at the beginning of 1989 and was the winner at the Cross Ouest-France. Her finish in the senior race at the

1989 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 1989 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Stavanger, Norway, at the Scanvest Ring on March 19, 1989. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783 ...

was lower than the previous year's (she ended in 32nd place), but a strong French team topped by world champion Sergent, Martine Fays and Maria Lelut took the silver medals in the team competition. Individual success came on the track as she came third in the 3000 m at the

Athletissima Athletissima is an annual athletics meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the Diamond League. The first edition was held on 8 July 1977 in the Stade Pierre de Coubertin. In ...

meeting before going on to set a new French record of 8:38.97 minutes for the distance in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

. This mark stood as the national record for nearly a decade and placed her third in the world rankings that year, behind

Paula Ivan Paula Ivan (born 20 July 1963 as Ionescu, later known as Ilie) is a retired Romanian middle-distance runner. Born in Herăști, Giurgiu County, she graduated from the Gheorghe Șincai High School in Bucharest in 1982. In 1987, Ivan won gold ...

and

Yvonne Murray Yvonne Carole Grace Murray-Mooney (née Murray, born 4 October 1964), is a Scottish former middle-distance and long-distance track and road-running athlete. She won a bronze medal in the 3000 metres at the 1988 Oly ...

.Michiels, Paul (2014-04-23)
FRA Record Progressions- Track
ARRS. Retrieved on 2014-10-14. In addition to this, she had middle-distance success with a national title over 1500 m and a win over that distance at the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

"B" Final.

World indoor champion and 1992 Olympics

A outing at the

1990 European Athletics Championships The 15th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 August to 2 September 1990 in Split, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. The host stadium was Stadion Poljud. It was the last participation of East Germany (which was already scheduled to be merged ...

saw her pass the 3000 m heats, but fail to finish the distance in the final. This was her only appearance at the European event. She had a win at the Cross Du Figaro in December that year. Another French record came for Duros in February 1991, when she ran an indoor 3000 m best of 8:53.94 minutes. She won the French cross country title at the start of March and this proved good preparation for the

held the weekend after. Duros outran the competition and won the world indoor title for the 3000 m in an improved French indoor record time of 8:50.69 minutes. She was France's first ever gold medallist at the competition proper (

Gérard Lelièvre Gérard Lelièvre (born 13 November 1949 in Laval, Mayenne Mayenne () is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the ...

won at the precursor

1985 IAAF World Indoor Games The World Indoor Games were arranged by the IAAF and held at the Palais Omnisports Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from January 18 to January 19, 1985. In 1987 the championship was renamed to the IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athlet ...

). In the outdoor season she won the French title and also won at the

DN Galan BAUHAUS-galan, formerly known as DN-Galan is an annual, international athletics meeting that takes place at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. Previously it was one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events until 2010, and has since been part of th ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

– her time of 8:40.76 minutes ranked her eighth globally that year.Marie-Pierre Duros
Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2014-10-14. She failed to carry this form into the final at the

1991 World Championships in Athletics The 3rd World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan between August 23 and September 1. 1517 athletes from 167 countries participa ...

, however, coming last in the final by a margin of over 15 seconds. She had her third and final career win at the Cross Du Figaro at the end of the year. The

1992 season Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

was her last as a contender at international level. She came 29th at the

1992 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 1992 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, at the Franklin Park on March 21, 1992. A report on the event was given in ''The New York Times''. Complete results for senior men, junior men, ...

(the declining French women were ninth in the team rankings). She won a fourth and final national title over 3000 m, and a run of 8:40.38 minutes in Nice (the second fastest of her career) placed her sixth in the year's world rankings. This brought her selection for the

1992 Barcelona Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

. There she opened with one of her best international performances by running a time of 8:42.32 minutes to qualify as the fastest of the heats stage. She did not replicate this in the final and dropped out before completing 3000 m (her second consecutive Olympic failure to finish). She was also entered in the 1500 m competition and had the best time of her career for that distance in the heats (4:10.14 minutes). She was well off this pace in the semi-finals, finishing dead last in her race. Duros did not compete at a high level after that point with the sole exception of the first ever global

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

held at the

1995 World Championships in Athletics The 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden on 5–13 August 1995. This edition featured 1804 athletes from 191 nat ...

. Aged 28, this was her last major competition and she was the second slowest finisher in the race. She is now married to fellow runner Pierre Toudret and supports younger athletes through UA Langueux, a local

running club A running club, also known in some parts of the United States as a running crew , is an eclectic institution specialising in running and oriented towards the sport and recreation of running or track and field. The club may train for and compete i ...

.Marie-Pierre Duros « Ma victoire en 1989 reste indélébile »
. ''Ouest France'' (2011-01-06). Retrieved on 2014-10-14.

Personal bests

– 4:10.14 min (1992) *

outdoor – 8:38.97 min (1989) *

indoor – 8:50.69 min (1991) *

– 16:48.66 min (1995)

National titles

: **

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

* French Cross Country Championships: 1991

International competitions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duros, Marie-Pierre Living people 1967 births French female middle-distance runners French female long-distance runners Olympic athletes for France Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for France Sportspeople from Saint-Brieuc World Athletics Indoor Championships winners 20th-century French women French Athletics Championships winners