Adriana Fernández

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Adriana Fernández Miranda (born March 4, 1971 in Mexico City) is a long-distance runner from Mexico, who has a personal best in the marathon of 2:24:06. She represented her native country at three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1996.

Fernandez has been competing internationally for Mexico since 1995, but it was her second place finish at the 1998 New York City Marathon – setting a Mexican national record of 2:26:33 – that made her world class. She followed this performance in April of 1999 with another second place finish, this time at the 1999 London Marathon, and lowered her Mexican record by two more minutes to 2:24:06. In October of that same year Fernandez won the New York City Marathon with a courageous display of front running. Her time of 2:25:06 was the second best ever in the history of the NY Marathon, and was run on a cold and blustery day.

One out of five children born in Mexico City to a government office worker and a nurse, Fernandez’s athletic career began back in 1987, when at fifteen years of age, her father Daniel encouraged her to begin jogging as part of family-wide decision to exercise more and to lose weight. Four years later she came under the coaching influence of Mexican marathon great Rodolfo Gómez, a partnership that has continued to this day. They have one child, Daniel, born in 2001.

Fernandez’ first international success came in 1995 when she captured the gold medal in the 5000 m at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina. She has set Mexican records at the 5,000 m (15:04.32 in 2003), 10,000 m (31:10.12 in 2000), half marathon (1:09:28 in 2003) and marathon (2:24:06 in 1999). Her marathon record was broken in 2006 by Madaí Pérez.Adriana Fernandez was suspended for using a prohibited sustance in 2007, though the Mexican Athletics Federation sanctioned only six months, thus didn't respect international rules of the IAAF in case of doping violations.