Florencia Borelli
Buenos Aires, October 20th 2013.- The “Nike Women´s Marathon”, which celebrated its tenth edition was run during today´s day in San Francisco. Among a total of 30000 participants from all over the world, Argentinean 20-year-old young athlete, Florencia Borelli, ended up winning the Half Marathon with a time of 1 hour, 18 minutes and 22 seconds.
“I am happy because I could fulfill all my expectations, in fact, I did a lower time than expected, With Leo, my coach, we had planned to do it in 1 hour and 20 minutes and in the end, it was 1 hour, 18 minutes and 22 seconds”, said Florencia Borelli after her arrival. “I found myself with a very tough circuit with very steep slopes. It was worth it to have gone to Cachi, Salta, for 23 days to prepare myself for the race. Now I am going to relax for a couple of days so we can go back to working hard because I feel that the way to Rio has already started. My next targets are Nike´s 10K and my city´s Half Marathon”, concluded Florencia Borelli.
The young athlete practices running since she was 9 years old, with the initial incentive of his triathlete father and athlete brothers and mother. Since 2009, she has participated in competitions such as Minors World Championship in Italy, the Juniors Pan-American in Trinidad y Tobago, where she came up second, the South American Championship, where she ended up in the 4th place, the Sub 23 South American Championship in Brazil, where she was champion of the 10kms discipline and she holds the Argentinian Juvenile Record in 5000 mts. and Sub23 in the 10kms discipline in 2010 and 2012.
About the Nike´s “Women´s Marathon”:
Women´s Marathon was inspired by Joan Benoit Samuelson, winner of the first gold medal in the Women´s Marathon in the summer games of 1984 in the north American city of Los Angeles, CA. it was this victory that inspired the setting up of the Nike´s Women´s Marathon, as up to that moment, the longest distance a woman could run in the Games was of 1500 mts. due to the belief that women were not physically capable of withstanding long distance races.
The inclusion of female categories in long distance races was the result of the effort from a group of runners, Joan included, who joined to create the International Runners Committee (IRC). This group had Nike as it´s active and enthusiastic partner, because his legendary manager, Phil Knight and the brand believed in the equality and push of women in sports. Thanks to the joined effort in this business venture is that women accomplished recognition in the 21K and 42K distances.
Apart from winning the first gold medal in a female marathon, Joan still has the fastest records for an American women in the Chicago and Olympic marathons.
This illustrates the narrow relationship that Nike has kept with women since its beginnings, promoting their sportive developments and incentivizing its growth in disciplines such as athleticism in the different countries where it´s present. In Argentina, Nike makes “She Runs” 5K race exclusive for girls. The first edition was run in 2006 and is now part of the global schedule of the races for this brand. This year, the “She Runs” race took place in 11 cities, such as Singapore, Saul, Sidney, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Bogota, Panama and Mexico.
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