Carla Beurskens

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Carolina ("Carla") Alwina Hubertina Beurskens (born February 10, 1952 in Tegelen, Limburg) was one of Holland's most prominent female long distance runners from the second half of the seventies until far into the nineties of last century, including all distances from 3000 metres until the marathon. During the greater part of this period she even played a leading part at the latter distance.

The variety of the twenty-three national titles she obtained during her long carrier clearly shows to what extent Beurskens dominated all aspects of the métier: three titles on indoor- and five on outdoor tracks, nine on the road and six in the cross country. At the long distances she is by far the most successful Dutch female athlete ever.

Looking back at the length of her career in athletics, it strikes that Carla Beurskens did not very often represent her native country in major international tournaments. She took part in the Summer Olympics twice: in Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988, three times in European and one time in World Championships. For various reasons she never performed particularly well at those events. Her fifth place in the European Championships marathon of 1982 in Athens was her best achievement ever.

Much better were Beurskens’ achievements in the marathons of various big cities all over the world. For instance, with the exception of Kenya’s Tegla Loroupe, she is the only female athlete who won the Rotterdam Marathon more than once. And this although shortly after her first victory in 1984 she declared, that in the future she would ignore Rotterdam, unless the circumstances for female competitors would improve drastically. Finally in 1990 the circumstances seemed to fulfil the conditions of the athlete from Limburg, because she appeared on the scene once more and won for the second time. Moreover she became the first female in Rotterdam to realise a time within two-and-a-half hours: 2:29:47.

Carla Beurskens ran her personal best (2:26:34 hours) on November 15, 1987 in the Tokyo Marathon, finishing second behind triple winner Katrin Dörre from East Germany. This Dutch national record stood for nearly thirteen years. It was finally broken on November 2, 2003 by the Dutch Kenyan Lornah Kiplagat at the New York Marathon: 2:23:43. Beurskens was also victorious in the Nagoya marathon in Japan in 1987, finishing in an excellent 2:28:27, taking into account the bad weather conditions (some snow showers on the way), in Eindhoven in 1995 and Enschede in 1997, both towns in The Netherlands.

However, for always Beurskens’ name will be connected to the Honolulu Marathon on Hawaii. No less than eight out of the ten times she participated, she carried off the palm, for the first time in 1985. A two-week’s vacation offer came together with the invitation for this event. She took part without being fully prepared and won straightaway. In the following years up to 1994 her series of victories was only interrupted in 1988 and 1991. With her eight victories on Hawaii she is the most succesful female marathon runner ever. Nowadays she is invited by the organizers to be present at the event as a guest of honour.

[edit] References

Stalman, R. (1986) Profiel van Carla Beurskens. Atletiekwereld nr. 5: KNAU
Ploeg, H. v.d. (1987) Programma Carla Beurskens nog een groot vraagteken. Atletiekwereld nr. 4: KNAU
Bijkerk, T. and Paauw, R. (1996) Gouden boek van de Nederlandse Olympiers. De Vrieseborch
Schoor, L. v.d. (1998) Carla Beurskens, het boegbeeld van de vrouwenmarathon. Atletiek nr. 2: KNAU