Natalia Mărășescu

Natalia Mărăşescu (née Andrei; born 3 October 1952) is a retired Romanian middle distance runner who specialized mainly in the 1500 metres.

Biography

Mărăşescu set two world records over the mile; 4:23.8 minutes on 21 May 1977 in Bucharest, and 4:22.09 minutes on January 27, 1979 in Auckland. The record was broken by Mary Slaney won ran in 4:21.68 minutes a year later in the same city. The current record is 4:12.56. She briefly held the record in 5000 metres, with 15:41.4 minutes. This record lasted less than four months before being broken by Jan Merrill.

Doping Ban

Mărăşescu was banned for taking anabolic steroids in 1979 for 18 months.^[1][2] After 8 months Mărăşescu was reinstated^[3] after IAAF President Adriaan Paulen of the Netherlands said that an 18-month suspension in the steroid case would have kept the women out of the Moscow Olympics, which would have constituted "an extra penalty." He said that the IAAF Council had therefore reinstated them for "humane reasons."

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Event
1975	European Indoor Championships	Katowice, Poland	1st	1500 m
1976	European Indoor Championships	Munich, West Germany	2nd	1500 m
	Olympic Games	Montreal, Canada	semi-final	1500 m
1977	Universiade	Sofia, Bulgaria	2nd	1500 m
1978	European Indoor Championships	Milan, Italy	2nd	1500 m
	European Championships	Prague, Czechoslovakia	2nd	1500 m
	European Championships	Prague, Czechoslovakia	2nd	3000 m
1979	European Indoor Championships	Vienna, Austria	1st	1500 m
	Universiade	Mexico City, Mexico	1st	1500 m
1980	Olympic Games	Moscow, Soviet Union	9th	1500 m

References

1. 7 women fail dope test, The Deseret News, 25 October 1979
2. Scorecard. In: Sports Illustrated. 31 Märch 1980
3. Olympic Review: Within the IFs (PDF; 386 kB). 1980