Constantina Diṭă-Tomescu

Constantina Diţă

Constantina Dita in 2012
Personal information
Nationality	Romania
Born	(1970-01-23) January 23, 1970 (age 47) Turburea, Romania
Residence	Boulder, Colorado, United States
Height	1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Weight	48 kg (106 lb)
Sport
Sport	Long-distance running
Club	CS Pandurii Tg. Jiu
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Romania Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Marathon World Championships 2005 Helsinki Marathon

Constantina Diţă (formerly Constantina Diţă-Tomescu born on January 23, 1970 in Turburea, Gorj County), is a Romanian long-distance runner, who specializes mainly in the half marathon and marathon. She was the marathon gold medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, having previously won a bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. She also represented her country at the Olympics in 2000 and 2004.

She has a marathon best of 2:21:30 hours. She was the champion at the 2005 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships – the first Romanian to win that honour. She was the 2004 Chicago Marathon winner.

As a child, Diţă became interested in athletics and particularly admired Maricica Puică after seeing her win the 3000 metres gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Diţă had her first successes at the 1999 European Cross Country Championships at which she won silver medals in the individual race and the team race with Romania. She began competing in the marathon and was tenth at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. She ran in the Olympic marathon at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens (finishing twentieth) and went on to win the Chicago Marathon later that year, running a personal best of 2:21:30.