Natalia Mărășescu
Romanian middle-distance runner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Natalia Mărăşescu, née Natalia Andrei, (born 3 October 1952) is a retired Romanian middle-distance runner who specialized mainly in the 1500 metres. She competed in this event at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics and placed ninth in 1980.[1]
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| Born | 3 October 1952 (age 73) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 166 cm (5 ft 5 in)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 52 kg (115 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Events | 1500 m, 3000 m | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal bests | 1500 m – 3:58.2 (1979) 3000 m – 8:33.53 (1978)[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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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 27 January 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 4:12.33. She briefly held the record in the 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 18 months for taking anabolic steroids in 1979.[3][4] After 8 months Mărăşescu was reinstated[5] after IAAF President Adriaan Paulen of the Netherlands said that an 18-month suspension in the steroid case would have kept the women[4] 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."
