Florence Jepkemoi Barsosio is a Kenyan athlete who specialises in long-distance running.
Education
Her only Marathon World Championship race came in 2001 and she finished in sixth position. At the 1995 World Championships in Athletics she finished 13th in the women"s 5000 metres final. She also finished in 13th place at the 1997 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Turin.
Career
Her sister, Sally Barsosio, is also a professional runner. She has competed at world championship finals in long-distance track events, cross country running and road running. Barsosio has taken part in two New York Marathons: finishing fifth in 2000 (with her 2:27:00 personal best performance), and eleventh at the 2001 race.
However, it was not until she began focusing on road running in the early 2000s that she found greater success. and she took the Scalata al Castello 10 km title in Arezzo, Italy, soon after.
She remained successful on the cross country circuit, with victories at the Cross de Caceres and the Cross Campaccio. She competed in the New York City Marathon later that year and recorded a personal best time of 2:27:00 to take fifth place.
After two successful seasons of road running, she decided to take time away from competition to get married and have a child. She made her competitive return in 2004 and soon regained her international standing.
She ran virtually unopposed at the Florence Marathon that year, beating second placed Marcella Mancini by over five minutes.
Barsosio"s time of 2:29:11 was much faster than her previous outings and she was confident of returning to her full pre-pregnancy form for the following season. Continuing to focus on the marathon in 2005, she finished second to Lidiya Grigoryeva at the Paris Marathon, although her time of 2:27:19 was her second fastest ever. She closed the year with a second-place finish at the Taipei International Marathon in Taiwan, beaten to the title by Jane Ekimat Auro.
She took second place at the Madrid Marathon in 2006.
All information taken from IAAF profile. Other competitions
1st – 2000 Turin Marathon, 2:27:58
1st – 2001 Paris Marathon
1st – 2001 Paris Half Marathon
1st – 2001 Prague Half Marathon
1st – 2004 Madrid Marathon
2nd – 2004 Dublin Marathon
1st – 2004 Florence Marathon
2nd – 2005 Paris Marathon
1st – 2005 Vienna Marathon
2nd – 2005 Taipei International Marathon
2nd – 2006 Madrid Marathon.