16 Facts About Mara Yamauchi

Mara Rosalind Yamauchi was born on Mara Myers 13 August 1973 and is a British long-distance track and road running athlete.

Mara Yamauchi currently holds the fifth fastest time by a British woman over the marathon, behind former world-record holder, Paula Radcliffe.

Mara Yamauchi was named after the Mara River which runs through Kenya where her parents lived for 25 years in total.

Mara Yamauchi started running with Oxford club Headington RoadRunners while still at school, but took up running seriously when she was an undergraduate at university, competing mainly in cross-country races.

Mara Yamauchi ran her first marathon in April 2004 at the London marathon, placing 17th in 2:39:16.

Mara Yamauchi earned selection for GB again, running in the Chiba ekiden relay race in Japan in November 2004.

Mara Yamauchi won the bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games 10,000m race and ran this event at the European Championships of 2006.

On 10 September 2006 Yamauchi won the Rotterdam Half Marathon finishing in 1:10:36 beating Gishu Mindaye who won the Rotterdam Marathon earlier that year and Japanese Aya Manome.

On 22 April 2007 Yamauchi was the leading Briton in the London Marathon, finishing sixth.

Mara Yamauchi finished ninth in the World Championship Marathon in Osaka.

Mara Yamauchi set a personal best in winning the 2008 Osaka Ladies Marathon in a time of 2:25:03 and then took third place in the Tokyo marathon.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Yamauchi equalled the best performance by a British woman in the marathon by finishing sixth in a time of 2 hrs 27 mins 29 secs.

Mara Yamauchi suffered a foot injury after this and was eventually forced to withdraw from the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in September, missing out on a medal chance in the marathon race.

Mara Yamauchi decided to miss the 2010 European Athletics Championships to focus on getting a qualifying time for the 2012 London Olympics instead.

However a foot injury forced Radcliffe to withdraw and Mara Yamauchi failed to complete the race, dropping out after six miles with a bruised heel.

In June 2022, Mara Yamauchi contributed an opinion article for The Guardian newspaper arguing for the exclusion of trans women from women's sport, citing concerns over fairness.