Jeļena Prokopčuka
Jeļena Prokopčuka (née Čelnova; born 21 September 1976 in Riga, Latvia) is a Latvian long-distance runner, best known for winning the New York City Marathon in 2005 and 2006.
Biography
She holds six outdoor and one indoor Latvian record, ranging from 3000 metres to the marathon distance. Her husband, Aleksandrs Prokopčuks, holds the men's Latvian marathon record with 2:15:56 hours. She is a three-time participant at the Summer Olympics, having represented Latvia in track events in 1996, 2000 and 2004.[1]
Prokopčuka won the 2001 Tallinn Marathon. She won the Paris Half Marathon in 2002, 2003 [2] and 2009.[3] She was the 2003 champion at the World Military Cross Country Championships. She won the Great Edinburgh Run three times consecutively from 2005 to 2007. She is also a five-time winner of the Kuldīga Half Marathon, and a two-time winner of the Almond Blossom Cross Country. Elsewhere, she won the 2002 20 Kilomètres de Paris, the Osaka International Ladies Marathon in 2005 (where she ran her national record time of 2:22:56 hours), and the San Silvestre Vallecana in 2006.
She was the top-performing European at the 2012 Lisbon Half Marathon, coming fifth overall.[4] She was tenth at the 2012 London Marathon and won the Riga Half Marathon. She surprised at the Great North Run, leading out the elite women, and although she fell to fourth she ran a national record of 68:09 minutes.[5] Her final outing of the year came at the Yokohama Marathon, where her season's best time of 2:26:55 hours brought her fourth place.
A strong finish at the 2013 Nagoya Marathon saw her climb from 16th to fourth and record a time of 2:25:46 hours – her fastest in six years.[6] She was runner-up to Tirunesh Dibaba at the Great Manchester Run in May.[7]
Achievements
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing Latvia | |||||
1994 | World Junior Championships | Lisbon, Portugal | 14th (h) | 3000m | 9:33.67 |
13th | 10,000m | 36:21.59 | |||
1997 | European U23 Championships | Turku, Finland | 5th | 5000m | 15:55.74 |
6th | 10,000m | 33:41.51 | |||
2000 | Olympic Games | Sydney, Australia | 9th | 5000 m | 14:55.46 |
19th | 10,000 m | 32:17.72 | |||
2001 | World Half Marathon Championships | Bristol, England | 5th | Half marathon | 1:08:43 |
2002 | Paris Half Marathon | Paris, France | 1st | Half marathon | 1:11:08 |
European Championships | Munich, Germany | 5th | 10,000 m | 31:17.72 | |
World Half Marathon Championships | Brussels, Belgium | 3rd | Half marathon | 1:09:15 | |
2003 | Paris Half Marathon | Paris, France | 1st | Half marathon | 1:09:42 |
World Championships | Paris, France | 10th | 10,000 m | 31:06.14 | |
2004 | Boston Marathon | Boston, United States | 4th | Marathon | 2:30:16 |
Olympic Games | Athens, Greece | 7th | 10,000 m | 31:04.10 | |
2005 | World Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 12th | 10,000 m | 31:04.55 |
New York City Marathon | New York City, United States | 1st | Marathon | 2:24:41 | |
Osaka International Ladies Marathon | Osaka, Japan | 1st | Marathon | 2:22:56 | |
2006 | Boston Marathon | Boston, United States | 2nd | Marathon | 2:23:48 |
European Championships | Gothenburg, Sweden | 6th | 10,000 m | 30:38.78 | |
New York City Marathon | New York City, United States | 1st | Marathon | 2:25:05 | |
Kuldīga Half Marathon | Kuldīga, Latvia | 1st | Half marathon | 1:13:36 | |
2007 | Boston Marathon | Boston, United States | 2nd | Marathon | 2:29:58 |
New York City Marathon | New York City, United States | 3rd | Marathon | 2:26:13 | |
2008 | Boston Marathon | Boston, United States | 4th | Marathon | 2:28:12 |
Kuldīga Half Marathon | Kuldīga, Latvia | 1st | Half marathon | 1:15:57 | |
2009 | Paris Half Marathon | Paris, France | 1st | Half marathon | 1:10:43 |
2010 | Kuldīga Half Marathon | Kuldīga, Latvia | 1st | Half marathon | 1:19:30 |
2012 | Riga Marathon | Rīga, Latvia | 1st | Half marathon | 1:10:27 |
2013 | New York City Marathon | New York City, United States | 3rd | Marathon | 2:27:47 |
2014 | New York City Marathon | New York City, United States | 4th | Marathon | 2:26:15 |
2015 | Osaka International Ladies Marathon | Osaka, Japan | 1st | Marathon | 2:24:07 |
New York City Marathon | New York City, United States | 8th | Marathon | 2:28:46 |
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jeļena Prokopčuka. |
- Jeļena Prokopčuka profile at IAAF
- ↑ Jeļena Čelnova-Prokopčuka. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2012-03-26.
- ↑ Paris Half Marathon - List of Winners
- ↑ IAAF, March 8, 2009: Prokopcuka and Worku win in Paris
- ↑ Fernandes, Antonio Manuel (2012-03-25). Tadese collects third consecutive win in Lisbon. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-03-26.
- ↑ Wenig, Jorg (2012-09-16). Dibaba and Kipsang take Great North Run victories - REPORT. IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-01-21.
- ↑ Kizaki clinches World Championships berth with Nagoya victory as Noguchi returns. IAAF (2013-03-10). Retrieved on 2013-03-17.
- ↑ Wenig, Jörg (2013-05-26). World lead and course record for Tirunesh Dibaba over 10km in Manchester. IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-06-01.
Awards | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by None |
Latvian Women's Sportspersonality of the Year 2005–2007 |
Succeeded by Anete Jēkabsone-Žogota |
|