On Monday, April 22, Ava Fevrier joined a select club by completing all six Abbott World Marathon Majors and earning her Six Star Medal. Fewer than 25,000 runners worldwide have earned this accolade since 2016. Fevrier is the first woman from Saint Lucia to do so and one of fewer than 50 athletes from the English-speaking Caribbean.
Over the past two years, after taking up road running post-pandemic, Fevrier completed marathons in Chicago, London, Berlin, New York City, Tokyo, and Boston, finishing Monday’s race in 4:17:10. The Dennery native set a national record of 3:48:41 in London, but told St Lucia Times her goal for Boston was simply to finish.
“The whole weekend in Boston has been pretty amazing, just very relaxed and a lot of people so that just has made the environment exciting,” explained the 42-year-old. “The weather was perfect for racing, and the bottom line was to have a good race, to feel strong the entire race, which I did until like maybe the last three miles.
“But I really started this race not thinking about time. I just wanted to celebrate everything I’ve done, but I also just wanted to have a strong race, especially knowing that there were all these hills coming up the last half. So, it really was a tactical race to make sure that I could survive the last half, knowing there are all these hills, and I ran every single hill. I never walked up a hill. I never stopped on the hill.”
Fevrier credited her teammates for their support, noting they ran together and paused only to greet onlookers and collect a Saint Lucia flag from the cheer station. She told St Lucia Times this achievement feels very different from her national record.
“Yeah, this one is different,” she stated. “The records are pretty impressive, but all records can be broken, right? The goal is for us to find those fast people and shatter those records that I’ve put in place.
“But that Six Star, being the first female Six Star, no one can take that away from me. It will always be there. It will always be something that others would hopefully follow. So it’s nice that that’s just stamped in its place and no one can actually remove it.”
While Fevrier downplays her national record, she is “over the moon” about joining the Six Star Hall of Fame. Last year, Nitin Sharma became the first Six Star Saint Lucian and completed his Seven Stars with the Sydney Marathon in August, an achievement Fevrier now aims to pursue.
In the eastern Caribbean, only one other athlete, Grenada’s Philomena Robertson, holds this distinction after completing Tokyo earlier this year. By 2027, Fevrier, Sharma, and Robertson may be joined by current Five Star runners Pamella Edward and Che Odlum-De Vivenot.
“I just want people to give it a try,” she said, speaking to her fellow Saint Lucian runners. “Start with that 5K, start with that 10K, and build up to a half and then build up to a marathon. It’s something I’m hoping people become more interested in, and I’m starting to see some of that. There’s one runner we found through the running community in the States, and he’s started running 10-milers.
“And that’s kind of the idea, to kind of help people see that this is attainable… Endurance running is attainable, and it does take training just like the middle distances or the sprints. It does take as much work as track and field. We are working our butts off, all through the seasons.
“And even getting to the majors itself is a feat. It takes a lot of work, scheduling, finance, training, travelling, so it’s a lot, but I just want people to try. See if you like it, and hopefully we can find people who will really build up this part of the sport.”
Fevrier began running after watching city runs on YouTube during the pandemic and says the sport has changed her life for the better. She continues to set new goals, including building the Saint Lucian running community and encouraging more locals to join her as Six Star Hall of Famers.
