Valeria Straneo


Valeria Straneo 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. 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 and has won twice at the national championships. She has two children, Leonardo and Arianna.

National records

Road races

She has won, at 36 years old for her first time, the individual national championship.