Jeļena Prokopčuka

Jeļena Prokopčuka
Personal information
Born (1976-09-21) 21 September 1976 (age 48)
Riga, Latvia
Sport
SportAthletics
Jeļena Prokopčuka at the 2015 New York City Marathon

Jeļena Prokopčuka (née Čelnova; born 21 September 1976 in Riga, Latvia) is a retired 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
Riga Marathon Rīga, Latvia 1st Half marathon 1:14:39
2014 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 4th Marathon 2:26:15
Riga Marathon Rīga, Latvia 1st Half marathon 1:14:52
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
Riga Marathon Rīga, Latvia 1st Half marathon 1:13:24
2016 Riga Marathon Rīga, Latvia 1st Half marathon 1:16:06

References

  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Jeļena Čelnova-Prokopčuka". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  2. ^ Paris Half Marathon - List of Winners
  3. ^ IAAF, 8 March 2009: Prokopcuka and Worku win in Paris
  4. ^ Fernandes, Antonio Manuel (25 March 2012). Tadese collects third consecutive win in Lisbon. IAAF. Retrieved on 26 March 2012.
  5. ^ Wenig, Jorg (16 September 2012). Dibaba and Kipsang take Great North Run victories - REPORT. IAAF. Retrieved on 21 January 2013.
  6. ^ Kizaki clinches World Championships berth with Nagoya victory as Noguchi returns. IAAF (10 March 2013). Retrieved on 17 March 2013.
  7. ^ Wenig, Jörg (26 May 2013). World lead and course record for Tirunesh Dibaba over 10km in Manchester. IAAF. Retrieved on 1 June 2013.
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Awards
Preceded by
None
 Latvian Women's Sportspersonality of the Year
2005–2007 		Succeeded by