Ros Evans (née Coats, 17 January 1950 – 31 August 2024) was a British athlete who competed in

fell running Fell running, also sometimes known as hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off-road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. The name arises from the origins of the English sport o ...

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that involve using a map and compass to navigation, navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specia ...

ski-orienteering Ski orienteering (SkiO) is a cross-country skiing endurance winter racing sport and one of the four orienteering disciplines recognized by the IOF. A successful ski orienteer combines high physical endurance, strength and excellent technical sk ...

and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

. She was also mother to British track cyclist,

Neah Evans Neah Alexina Evans (born 1 August 1990) is a Scottish professional racing cyclist specialising in track endurance events. Representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games, European Championships and World Championships, and Scotland at the Common ...

Life

Evans was born at

Langbank Langbank is a village on the south bank of the River Clyde in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is 9.3 miles/15 km northwest from Paisley (Renfrewshire) and 3.4 miles/5.5 km east from Port Glasgow (Inverclyde) on the A8. History Langbank ev ...

, Renfrewshire. Her first outdoor pursuits were mountaineering and rock climbing. In order to improve her fitness for these activities, she began running in 1976 while at

Jordanhill College Jordanhill College of Education was a higher education college in Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland. It opened as a teacher training college in 1921. The college merged with the University of Strathclyde in 1993, becoming its Faculty of Educati ...

where she underwent teacher training. She also began orienteering at around the same time. As a runner, Evans won the

British Fell Running Championships The first British Fell Running Championships, then known as Fell Runner of the Year, were held in 1972 and the scoring was based on results in all fell running, fell races. In 1976 this was changed to the runner's best ten category A races and furt ...

in 1979 and 1981, and in 1979, she set a ladies’ record for the

Bob Graham Round The Bob Graham Round is a fell running (hill running) challenge in the English Lake District. It is named after Bob Graham (1889–1966), a Keswick guest-house owner, who in June 1932 broke the Lakeland Fell record by traversing 42 fells within a ...

with a time of 20:31. She has won the

Ben Nevis Race The Ben Nevis Race is a mountain race that takes place annually, from the foot of Ben Nevis (highest mountain in the British Isles) to the top, then back again. The course is 14km long and includes around 1,340metres of ascent. Up to six hundre ...

seven times, more than any other woman. Among her other fell race victories were Ben Lomond, the

Langdale Horseshoe The Langdale Horseshoe is an annual Lake District fell running, fell race that starts and finishes at the Old Dungeon Ghyll. The course climbs to Stickle Tarn, Langdale, Stickle Tarn before heading to Thunacar Knott, Esk Hause shelter, Bowfell, Cri ...

, Sedbergh Hills,

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland, England. It is in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, and is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' to distinguis ...

, the

Fairfield Horseshoe Fairfield Horseshoe is a classic circular hillwalking ridge walk route starting from Rydal or Ambleside in the English Lake District that takes in all the fells that surround the valley of the Rydal Beck. The round The walk is extremely popular ...

, the Kentmere Horseshoe, Pendle, and the

Snowdon Race The Snowdon Race () is a ten-mile endurance running competition in Gwynedd, from Llanberis to the peak of Snowdon. Contestants must make the five miles up the Llanberis Path to the summit ( above sea level) and return down. Currently entrants mus ...

. She still holds the female record for the Cow Hill Race from Fort William. Evans was a Scottish Orienteering Champion and represented Great Britain in the

World Orienteering Championships The World Orienteering Championships (often abbreviated as WOC) is an international orienteering competition which has been organized by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) since 1966. The World Orienteering Championships is considere ...

in 1985. She was a winner of the navigational Lake District Mountain Trial and, together with Anne-Marie Grindley, was in the first female team to complete the elite course of the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon. Evans competed in the

World Ski Orienteering Championships The World Ski Orienteering Championships (Ski-WOC) is the official event to award the titles of World Champions in ski orienteering. The World Championships is organized every odd year. The programme includes Sprint, Middle and Long Distance comp ...

and was selected to represent Great Britain in

at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...

where she participated in the

5 km 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

10 km 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 20 km and 4 x 5 km relay events. She died on 31 August 2024.

Private life

Evans lived in Aberdeenshire with her husband, Malcolm Evans. One of their three children is

who is a track cyclist and Olympian.David Rosen, "Ros Evans (née Coats), 1950–2024," ''The Fellrunner'', Autumn 2024, 70.

References

External links

Original Mountain Marathon on YouTube: 1985 KIMM showing Ros Evans
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Ros Scottish female long-distance runners British female long-distance runners British fell runners Olympic cross-country skiers for Great Britain Cross-country skiers at the 1984 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Renfrewshire Scottish orienteers Female orienteers Foot orienteers Ski-orienteers 1950 births 2024 deaths Scottish female cross-country skiers 20th-century Scottish sportswomen