Nelson Évora
 Nélson Évora in 2015 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Born |
26 April 1984 Ivory Coast |
| Residence | Lisbon, Portugal |
| Height | 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) |
| Weight | 74 kg (163 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Country |
 Portugal |
| Sport | Track and field |
| Event(s) | Triple jump |
| Club | Benfica[1] |
Medal record
| |
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Nelson Évora, GCIH[2] (born 20 April 1984) is a Portuguese track and field athlete who specializes in the triple jump and long jump.
Évora is the current triple jump European indoor champion, and a former triple jump Olympic and world champion. Évora competes for Portugal and Portuguese club S.L. Benfica. He represented Cape Verde until 2002, when he got Portuguese citizenship, in June that year.
Biography
Born in Ivory Coast, where his parents had come to live from Cape Verde, Évora and his family moved to Portugal when he was five years old.[3] He still holds the Cape Verdean records in both the long jump (7.57 m) and the triple jump (16.15 m).[4]
Évora's family settled in Odivelas, on the floor above João Ganço's – a former Portugal record-holder and the first Portuguese to pass over 2 meters in the high jump. David Ganço, one of João Ganço's three sons and one year older than Évora, became his best friend. One day, João Ganço, seeing them playing in the street, suggested that Évora started practising athletics, following David's example, and, just like that, Évora's sportive career started. João then became his coach.
Évora is a member of the Bahá'í Faith.[3]
Sports career
He competed in the triple jump in the 2004 Olympics, without progressing from his pool,[1] and finished sixth at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He finished fourth in the triple jump final and sixth in the long jump final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, having set a Portuguese triple jump record of 17.23 metres during the qualification. At the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships he came in fifth place.
On 27 August 2007, Évora became the triple jump World champion at the 2007 World Championships, in Osaka, Japan, establishing his personal best, Portuguese national record and second best world mark of the year at 17.74 metres.[5]
On 9 March 2008, Évora placed third in the triple jump competition at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships, in Valencia, by jumping 17.27 metres.
On 21 August 2008, he edged out Phillips Idowu of Great Britain and Leevan Sands of the Bahamas to take an Olympic gold medal with a 17.67 metres jump.[1]
Évora set the world leading mark at the Grande Prêmio Brasil Caixa in May 2009, winning with 17.66 m. He was pleased with the jump (his third best performance ever) and stated his intention to surpass the 18 metre mark at the forthcoming 2009 World Championships.[6] In mid-2009, he won the triple jump gold at the Universiade and another at the 2009 Lusophony Games.[7]
However he was unable to replicate his winning form at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, being relegated to second place. After leading with a first round jump of 17.55 m, the man he beat in the Olympics, Phillips Idowu, was able to take the gold with a third round jump of 17.73 m, the longest in the world for that year.
Personal bests
- High jump – 2.07 m (2005)
- Long jump – 8.10 m (2007)
- Triple jump – 17.74 m (2007)
International competitions
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Representing Portugal | |||||
| 2001 | European Youth Olympic Festival | Murcia, Spain | 1st | Long jump | 7.49 m |
| 2002 | World Junior Championships | Kingston, Jamaica | 18th (q) | Long jump | 7.28 m (+0.7 m/s) |
| 6th | Triple jump | 15.87 m (-0.2 m/s) | |||
| 2003 | European Junior Championships | Tampere, Finland | 1st | Long jump | 7.83 m |
| 6th | Triple jump | 16.43 m | |||
| 2004 | World Indoor Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 10th (q) | Triple jump | 16.30 m |
| Ibero-American Championships | Huelva, Spain | 7th | Triple jump | 15.56 m | |
| Olympic Games | Athens, Greece | 23rd (q) | Triple jump | 15.72 m | |
| 2005 | European U23 Championships | Erfurt, Germany | 3rd | Triple jump | 16.89 m (+1.9 m/s) |
| World Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 14th (q) | Triple jump | 16.60 m | |
| 2006 | World Indoor Championships | Moscow, Russia | 6th | Triple jump | 17.14 m |
| European Cup First League | Thessaloniki, Greece | 1st | Long jump | 8.05 m (0.0 m/s) | |
| 2nd | Triple jump | 17.03 m w (+2.5 m/s) | |||
| European Championships | Gothenburg, Sweden | 6th | Long jump | 7.91 m | |
| 4th | Triple jump | 17.07 m | |||
| Lusophony Games | Macau, China | 1st | Triple jump | 16.30 m | |
| 2007 | European Indoor Championships | Birmingham, United Kingdom | 5th | Triple jump | 16.97 m |
| European Cup First League | Milan, Italy | 1st | Long jump | 8.10 m (-0.9 m/s) | |
| 1st | Triple jump | 17.35 m w (+2.4 m/s) | |||
| World Championships | Osaka, Japan | 1st | Triple jump | 17.74 m NR | |
| World Athletics Final | Stuttgart, Germany | 3rd | Triple jump | 17.30 m | |
| 2008 | World Indoor Championships | Valencia, Spain | 3rd | Triple jump | 17.27 m |
| European Cup First League | Leiria, Portugal | 1st | Long jump | 7.88 m (0.0 m/s) | |
| 1st | Triple jump | 16.91 m (+0.8 m/s) | |||
| Olympic Games | Beijing, China | 1st | Triple jump | 17.67 m | |
| World Athletics Final | Stuttgart, Germany | 1st | Triple jump | 17.24 m | |
| 2009 | European Team Championships | Leiria, Portugal | 2nd | Long jump | 7.94 m |
| 1st | Triple jump | 17.59 m | |||
| Universiade | Belgrade, Serbia | 1st | Triple jump | 17.22 m | |
| Lusophony Games | Lisbon, Portugal | 1st | Triple jump | 17.15 m | |
| World Championships | Berlin, Germany | 2nd | Triple jump | 17.55 m | |
| 2011 | European Team Championships | Stockholm, Sweden | 6th | Triple jump | 16.33 m |
| Universiade | Shenzhen, China | 1st | Triple jump | 17.31 m | |
| World Championships | Daegu, Korea | 5th | Triple jump | 17.35 m | |
| 2014 | European Championships | Zürich, Switzerland | 6th | Triple jump | 16.78 m |
| 2015 | European Indoor Championships | Prague, Czech Republic | 1st | Triple jump | 17.21 m |
| World Championships | Beijing, China | 3rd | Triple jump | 17.52 m | |
| 2016 | World Indoor Championships | Portland, United States | 4th | Triple jump | 16.89 m |
Orders
Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry[8]
References
- 1 2 3 Nelson Évora. sports-reference.com
- ↑ http://www.presidencia.pt/?idc=10&idi=92938
- 1 2 Top sportsmen find support in faith. Baha'i World News Service. 11 August 2004
- ↑ Cape Verdean athletics record. athlerecords.net
- ↑ Nélson Évora campeão do mundo do triplo salto. ultimahora.publico.clix.pt. 27 August 2007 (Portuguese)
- ↑ Biscayart, Eduardo (25 May 2009). Belém spectacular produces five world season leads – IAAF World Athletics Tour. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-05-30.
- ↑ Fernandes, António Manuel (14 July 2009). Évora, another title in Lisbon. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-07-23.
- ↑ "Nelson Évora condecorado por Cavaco Silva" [Nelson Évora decorated by Cavaco Silva] (in Portuguese). S.L. Benfica. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nélson Évora. |
- Official website (Portuguese) (English)
- Nelson Évora profile at IAAF
- Comité Olímpico Portugal (Portuguese)
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by José Veras |
Portuguese Sportsman of the Year 2007–2009 |
Succeeded by João Pedro Silva |
| Olympic Games | ||
| Preceded by Nuno Delgado |
Flagbearer for Portugal Beijing 2008 |
Succeeded by Telma Monteiro |
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