Mohamed Ezzher (born 26 April 1960 in Khouribga, Morocco) is a French long distance runner. He represented France in the 10,000 metres at the 1996 Olympics. [1] He also represented France four successive times at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics doing the 5,000 in 1995, the 10,000 in 1997, 1999 and the Marathon in 2001.
As a junior runner, he represented his native country of Morocco at the 1981 World Cross Country Championships. His career shows no results through most of the typically peak running years of an athlete, their 20s. After undergoing a change in eligibility, he represented France first in the 1993 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships then in many cross country International championships; the 1994 and 1996 European Cross Country Championships and the 1994, 1997, 1999 and 2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Just months after the 2000 Cross Country meet, on 3 July, Ezzher ran the 5,000 metres in Sotteville in 13:43.15. The time beat the masters M40 world record that had been held by Frenchman Lucien Rault for 24 years. [2] He has held that record since that date. No other man has come within much more than 10 seconds of his time. [3]
On 8 April 2001 Ezzher broke the Masters M40 marathon world record progression time at the Paris Marathon, running 2:10:32, breaking the record set by John Campbell at the 1990 Boston Marathon. Ezzher's Masters M40 marathon record was broken 2 years later by Andrés Espinosa.
Kenenisa Bekele Beyecha is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. He was the world record holder in both the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre from 2004 until 2020. He won the gold medal in both the 5,000 m and 10,000 m events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2004 Olympics, he won the gold medal in the 10,000 m and the silver medal in the 5,000 m.
Edith Chewanjel Masai is a Kenyan former long-distance runner who specialised in cross country and track races, then road races in her late career. She represented Kenya at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Her best achievements are three individual gold medals in the short race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships between 2002 and 2004.
John Treacy is an Irish Olympian and former athlete, now a sporting administrator. He is best known for winning a silver medal in the marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Jonathan Michael Brown is a former British long-distance runner who specialised in 10,000 metres, cross country running and the marathon.
Brahim Lahlafi is a retired long-distance runner who represented Morocco during his active career. He acquired French citizenship on 6 April 2002, but represented Morocco again from 15 March 2007.
Martti Olavi Vainio is a Finnish former long-distance runner. In Finland he is recognized as the last of the great runners of the famous "V-line", the previous ones being Juha Väätäinen, Lasse Virén, and Pekka Vasala. Each of them won at least one gold medal either at the Summer Olympics or the European Athletics Championships in the 1970s. Vainio's accomplishments are tarnished though, for testing positive for PEDs on at least two occasions. One of those events was the 1984 Olympic Games where he was disqualified and stripped of his medal and later suspended from sport.
Günther Weidlinger is an Austrian long-distance runner who is a former 3000 metres steeplechase specialist but now competes in the marathon.
Yonas Andebrhan Kifle is an Eritrean runner who specializes in the 10,000 metres, the marathon and cross-country running. He has represented Eritrea at the Olympics on four occasions; in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. He has also competed at World Championship-level in cross country, road running, and on the track indoors and outdoors.
Abderrahim Goumri was a Moroccan long-distance runner. He had competed in cross country, track, road running and marathon races.
Ahmed Ibrahim Baday is a Moroccan long-distance runner who specialized in the 5000 metres and cross-country running but now competes in road running competitions. He is currently banned for doping.
Irina Mikitenko, néeVolynskaya, is a retired German long-distance runner who competed in marathons. She won the Berlin Marathon in 2008 and is a two-time winner of the London Marathon. She has competed at the Summer Olympics on four occasions.
Mariya Ivanovna Konovalova is a Russian long-distance runner. She has represented Russia in both track running and cross country running and was the silver medallist at the 2006 European Cross Country Championships. She has competed at the World Championships in Athletics on four occasions, and ran for Russia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Izumi Maki was a Japanese long-distance runner who competed in the marathon. She represented her native country twice at the Summer Olympics: in 1992 and 1996. She competed for the Wacoal corporate team during her career.
Ayad Lamdassem El Mouhcine is a long distance runner. Born in Morocco, he competes for Spain internationally. He has represented Spain twice in the 10,000 metres at the Summer Olympics as well as the European Athletics Championships.
Morhad Amdouni is a French middle- and long-distance runner. He won the gold medal in the 10,000 metres and bronze for the 5000 metres at the 2018 European Athletics Championships.
Kathy Butler is a long-distance runner who competes in the 10,000 metres and marathon, as well as cross country running and road running. Born in Scotland, she has competed internationally for both Great Britain and Canada.
Annette Sergent 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 Frenchwoman to win a world title in the sport at the 1987 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and won for a second time in 1989. In addition to these victories, she made eleven appearances at the competition and placed third in both 1986 and 1988.
Nicole Lévêque is a French long-distance runner and marathoner. She began her International career in her mid-40s, representing her native country in the 10,000 metres at the 1994 European Athletics Championships, coincidentally finishing fourteen seconds and one place ahead of Danish Olympian Gitte Karlshøj. Her time of 32:12.07 was a W40 world masters record. Just a month before the championships, she had set the world masters W40 record at 5,000 metres. A couple of weeks later she won the Auray-Vannes Half Marathon setting the masters world record at 1:11:35. Her record would stand for eight years until it was displaced by Karlshøj. She followed just two more weeks later representing France at the 1994 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. She repeated in 1995 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. In 1996, she set the still-standing W45 world record in the 5,000, the W45 1500 metres world record and came within 5 seconds of Evy Palm's W45 record in the 10,000, a record that is almost 2 minutes faster than any other athletes have achieved. She ran the Marathon at the 1998 European Athletics Championships, at age 47, setting her personal record at 2:36:52. Discounting the marathon as an all-inclusive final, she is also listed as the oldest finalist in a European Championship event requiring qualification from her appearance in the 10,000 metres in 1994. In 2001, at age 50, she again improved the W50 world record in the 5,000, which lasted just over 8 years until it was displaced again by Karlshøj.
Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei is a Ugandan long-distance runner. He is the current world record holder for the 5000 metres and the 10,000 metres, and held the world best time over the 15 kilometres distance.
Thomas Osano is a Kenyan former long-distance runner who competed across track, road, and cross country running disciplines. His greatest individual honour was a 10,000 metres gold medal at the 1991 All-Africa Games. He also shared in a team gold medal with Kenya at the 1993 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.