ATLANTA, Ga. - Former Georgia State cross country great Andrew Letherby has been named to his native country Australia's World Athletics Championships team that will compete in Berlin, Germany August 15-23. Letherby will be racing in the marathon on August 22.
The World Athletics Championships were created in 1983 by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) as a separate event from the Olympic Games and are held every two years.
The event is just the latest in a long post-collegiate career for Letherby. Following a career that saw the Crestmeade, Australia native earn three TAAC Runner of the Year awards and four all-conference scrolls, Letherby set his sights on improving his marathon time and ultimately competing in the Olympics.
In 2002, Letherby competed at the Commonwealth Games for Australia where he earned a bronze medal in the marathon with a time of 2:13.23 and was 8th at the Tokyo Marathon.
In 2003, he returned to Atlanta to compete in the Peachtree Road Race, finishing in eighth place, marking the first of three-straight top ten finishes in the 10k race. Later that same year Letherby placed 14th at the Fukuoka (Japan) International Marathon (2:12:45), just missing the automatic qualifying time for the 2004 Olympics by 45 seconds.
In 2004, he was a part of the Australian team that placed fifth at the World Cross Country Championships in Brussels, Belgium before placing eighth at the Boston Marathon and second in the 10,000-meter run at the Australian Championships.
In Berlin, he ran his fastest-ever marathon (2:11) in 2005 with an 8th place finish. In 2006, he was 5th at the Commonwealth Games and ran 2:19 in the New York City marathon for a top 20 placing.
In 2007, Letherby picked up a pair of wins as he completed the Boulder, Colo., West End 3K in 8:28.90 and the 4.748 mile Manchester Road Race in 21:54. He concluded 2007 with an 11th-place showing in the Milan, Italy marathon race.
To follow Letherby's progress at the World Athletics Championships check out the IAAF website or check back at Georgiastatesports.com.
