Dhen a runner completes a marathon in 3:15:13 hours, it is usually not worth reporting. But when Ria van Landeghem turns into the Frankfurt Festhalle after the said time on Sunday and reaches the finish line of the marathon, the journalists flock to her. The reason: the Belgian is 65 years old and has just missed the targeted world record in her age group by seven and a half minutes. Surprisingly clearly, as she grudgingly admits: “I’m very disappointed. Today didn’t go well for me at all. I thought: am I that slow or is my watch broken?”
Even before the race, the long-distance runner was confident of beating the 3:07 hours of record holder Kimi Ushiroda. Halfway through the race she was on course for a world record, after which the performance dropped. The high temperatures of around 20 degrees and the 28 meters in altitude may have been partly responsible for this: “It was unusually hilly for me. It’s flat as a pancake where I’m from,” said van Landeghem, who lives in the Flemish countryside between Brussels and Antwerp.
For many years, Ria van Landeghem didn’t think she’d put on her running shoes again for a competition. And certainly not for a world record attempt. The former top runner had renounced competitive sports for almost 30 years. Out of insult and frustration at having been cheated out of a great career because of baseless doping allegations. In 1985, she was one of the first 50 women runners to run the Los Angeles Olympic marathon. Until then, the 42.195 kilometers were reserved for men alone. Van Landeghem finished 21st as the best Belgian.
Stopped abruptly by a doping test
It should have been the last Olympic marathon for the then 27-year-old late bloomer, who thought she was only at the beginning of her career. Four years later van Landeghem belonged to the absolute world class. She held the Belgian marathon record of 2:28:11 and was aiming for the top ten in Seoul. But a doping test a few days before the run, which allegedly showed traces of an anabolic steroid, shattered the dream of the Olympics.
Van Landeghem was acquitted that same year. Blatant errors in the test procedure, a possibly contaminated machine and an incorrect examination of the B sample exonerated the athlete. Despite this, the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (BOIC) subsequently refused to nominate her for competitions. Too much for van Landeghem, who turned away from her sport in frustration.
It was not until 2017 that she was comprehensively rehabilitated, the doping test in question was tested again, the result: negative. 29 years after the serious allegations, the BOIC also asked for forgiveness for the unjustified exclusion from the 1988 games. Van Landeghem subsequently found joy in running again, started training and ran an impressive time of 3:02 at the 2019 Berlin Marathon :05 hours. Will she attempt the world record again next year? Shortly after the run, van Landeghem isn’t sure, says with a grin: “I’ll probably have to.” The former lecturer at an art college in Antwerp has been retired since October. You now have “a lot of time to train”.
