Marathon News - Tomescu-Dita Receives Two Awards

Jan-18-2006

Tomescu-Dita Receives Two Awards
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

Constantina Tomescu-Dita, who won the gold medal at the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships and the bronze medal at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics marathon last year, was recently honored in her home country of Romania with two prestigious awards.

In December, the Federatia Romana de Atletism (the Romanian federation) selected her as their 2005 Female Athlete of the Year. In addition to her two medals last year, she broke the Romanian marathon record twice, first at London (2nd in 2:22:50) and again at Chicago (2nd in 2:21:30). She has run three of the top-4 times ever by a Romanian woman.

Then in Bucharest last Sunday in a special ceremony, Tomescu-Dita was named Romania's 2005 Female Athlete of the Year by the Romanian Ministry of Sport and the Romanian Olympic Committee. To receive this honor, Tomescu-Dita's achievements had to be ranked higher than those of any Romanian woman competing in any Olympic sport.

Remarkably, Tomescu-Dita's two international championship medals and her second marathon national record came in a span of only 56 days. In those three races in Helsinki, Edmonton and Chicago she covered a total of 105.49 km (65.5 mi.) at an average pace of 3:21 per kilometer (5:24/mi.).

Tomescu-Dita, who will turn 36 on January 23, is now making her preparations for the Flora London Marathon on Sunday, April 23.