29-Aug-1987 – IAAF World Championships – 2:25:17 – ASICS Sortie
Date of birth: 29-Jun-1958
Nationality: Portuguese
The athlete:
Incredibly, Rosa Mota was almost prevented from competing at her first marathon race at the 1982 European Championships, Portuguese officials trying to block her entry for reasons that could only be deduced as sexism. Thankfully Mota was able to compete on the same route where the marathon legend itself was born. Against future world record holder Ingrid Kristiansen and former world record holder Charlotte Teske, she persevered and won.
Rapidly establishing herself as one of top elite runners of the day, it was with little surprise that she would represent Portugal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, finishing third against the best runners in the world. 1987 would begin for Mota with her first victory at the famous Boston Marathon, winning by more than four minutes. It was to set the scene for her appearance in Rome for the IAAF World Championships.
Despite temperatures of 32° Celsius, Mota won by an astonishing margin of over seven minutes. Misdirected by officials, Mota incredibly ran an additional lap of the stadium thinking she had still not finished. This was reported at the time as the second fastest time in a women’s only marathon race. Nonetheless, the Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) do not consider the time set by Joan Benoit at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics to have been on a record quality course, which would give the women’s only marathon world record to Mota for her win in 1987 and not Joan Benoit.
This is confusing for me, given that the course for the Los Angeles marathon was measured to meticulous standards, had an overall net climb and was certified as having the start and finish 17 kilometres apart. This would meet all the criteria for the course to have been record quality. Perhaps I have missed something, and given the expertise of the ARRS have decided to include this mark for the sake of completeness.
In any case, another appearance at the Olympics beckoned, Mota running the Boston Marathon earlier the same year for good measure. In Seoul she had to push all the way to try and break away from her competition. The race came down to her and Lisa Ondieki, Mota visibly unsettled by the proximity of the Australian. She would put in one final burst of speed to win by the comparatively small margin of 13 seconds.
Further victories beckoned, including at the 1990 Osaka Women’s Marathon and Boston Marathon, the year finishing with a gritty victory at the European Championships. Mota had started with a comfortable lead, but had to use all of her considerable talent to stay ahead of Valentina Yegorova.
Her last marathon win came at the 1991 London Marathon, this time the margin of victory almost two minutes. With lingering injuries beginning to take their toll, Mota would retire from elite competition at the end of 1992, having established herself as one of the greatest distance runners of all-time.
The shoes:
Mota had previously run in the Nike Lady Terra T/C for her competitive marathons, but for 1987 she switched to the ultralight ASICS Sortie. Weighing around 100 grams, it was typical of racing flats favoured by the Japanese market and was found on the feet of many elite athletes of the day.
The Sortie series debuted in 1981, however they had appeared in prototype form as far back as 1978. You can read more about that here. The model was in effect an update of the Onitsuka Tiger Marup, which made its own debut all the way back in 1957. You can read more about that here. As for Mota, she would continue wearing the Sortie including for her last marathon win at the 1991 London Marathon.
References:
https://athleticsweekly.com/uncategorized/iaaf-world-championships-history-rome-1987-62714/
https://more.arrs.run/runner/2733
https://aims-worldrunning.org/articles/718-rosa-mota.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_World_Championships_in_Athletics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_marathon
https://rrtc.net/Articles/LA84.pdf
https://worldathletics.org/records/certified-roadevents
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Mota
https://bansyakurunner.xyz/2020/02/10/
https://twitter.com/toyamastarchild