Valeria Straneo (born 5 April 1976) is an Italian long-distance runner, winner of the silver medal at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics and Italian record holder in the marathon.

She won the Stramilano in 2011 and bettered the half marathon Italian record at the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon in 2012, although it was not ratified as the course doesn't meet Fidal criteria.

Biography

Born in Alessandria, it was only after the removal of her spleen, in 2010, that she began to reach a national standard of running. At 35 years old, she ranked eighth in the 2011 Berlin Marathon with a time of 2:26:33 hours. This met the qualifying standard for the 2012 Olympic Games, but three other athletes had run faster than her (Anna Incerti, Rosaria Console and Nadia Ejjafini). However, she broke the 12-year-old Italian record at the Rotterdam Marathon in April, finishing as runner-up with a time of 2:23:44 hours. The Turin Marathon saw her finish third with a time of 2:27:04 hours.

Straneo has represented the Italy national athletics team once (at the 2011 European Cross Country Championships) and has won twice at the national championships. She has two children, Leonardo (born 2006) and Arianna (born 2007).

National records

Achievements

YearCompetitionVenueResultEventTimeNotes
2011European Cross Country ChampionshipsSlovenia Velenje10thCross country running26:42
2012Olympic GamesUnited Kingdom London8thMarathon2:25:27Changed to 7th after disqualification of Tetyana Hamera-Shmyrko
2013Mediterranean GamesTurkey Mersin1stHalf Marathon1:11:00
World Championships in AthleticsRussia Moscow2ndMarathon2:25:58
2014European Championships in AthleticsSwitzerland Zurich2ndMarathon2:25:27
2016Olympic GamesBrazil Rio de Janeiro13thMarathon2:29:44

Road races

National titles

Straneo won eight national championships at individual senior level, she has won, at 36 years old for her first time, the individual national championship.

See also

External links