Nelson Évora

Medal record
Évora after the men's triple jump medal ceremony at the 2007 World Championships.
Men's athletics
Competitor for  Portugal
Olympic Games
Gold	2008 Beijing	Triple jump
World Championships
Gold	2007 Osaka	Triple jump
Silver	2009 Berlin	Triple jump
World Indoor Championships
Bronze	2008 Valencia	Triple jump
Universiade
Gold	2009 Belgrade	Triple jump
Gold	2011 Shenzhen	Triple jump
European U23 Championships
Bronze	2005 Erfurt	Triple jump
European Junior Championships
Gold	2003 Tampere	Triple jump
Gold	2003 Tampere	Long jump

Nelson Évora (born April 20, 1984) is a Portuguese athlete, of Cape Verdean descent, who specializes in the triple jump and long jump. He is the current triple jump olympic and former world champion. Évora currently competes for Portuguese sports club S.L. Benfica. He represented Cape Verde until 2002, when he got Portuguese citizenship, in June that year.

Biography

Born in Côte d'Ivoire, where his parents had come to live from Cape Verde, Nelson and his family relocated to Portugal when he was five years old.^[1] He still holds the Cape Verdean records in both the long jump (7.57 m) and the triple jump (16.15 m).^[2]

Évora's family fixed in Odivelas, on the floor upon João Ganço, former Portugal record-holder and first man in Portugal to pass over 2m in the high jump. David Ganço, one of three sons of João Ganço, one year older than Nelson, became Évora's best friend. One day, João Ganço, seeing them playing in the street, suggested Nelson to start practicing athletics, following David's example, and, just like that, Nelson sportive career was started. João Ganço, then became Évora's coach.

Évora is a member of the Bahá'í Faith.^[1]

Sports career

He competed in the triple jump in the 2004 Olympics, without progressing from his pool, 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 August 27, 2007, he became the triple jump World champion at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, in Osaka, Japan, establishing his personal best, Portuguese national record and second best world mark of the year at 17.74 metres.^[3]

On March 9, 2008, he placed third in the triple jump competition at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships, in Valencia, by jumping 17.27 metres.

On August 21, 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.

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 in Athletics.^[4] In mid-2009, he won the triple jump gold at the Universiade and another at the 2009 Lusophony Games.^[5]

However he was unable to replicate his winning form at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, being relegated to 2nd place. After leading with a first round jump of 17.55m, the man he beat in the Olympic's, Phillips Idowu was able to take the gold with a third round jump of 17.73m, the longest in world for that year.

Personal bests

Évora en-route to his 2009 World Championships silver medal

• High Jump - 2.07 m (2005)
• Long jump - 8.10 m (2007)
• Triple jump - 17.74 m (2007)

Achievements

• 2011
  • 2011 World University Games (Shenzhen)
    • 1st place (Triple Jump - 17.31)
• 2009
  • 2009 World Championships in Athletics (Berlin)
    • 2nd place (Triple Jump - 17.55)
  • 2009 World University Games (Belgrade)
    • 1st place (Triple Jump - 17.22)
• 2008
  • 2008 Olympic Games (Beijing)
    • Gold Medal (Triple Jump - 17.67 - Best world mark of the year)
  • 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships (Valencia)
    • Bronze medal (Triple Jump - 17.27)
• 2007
  • 2007 IAAF World Championships (Osaka)
    • Gold medal (Triple Jump - 17.74 - Personal best - Second best world mark of the year)
  • 2007 European Cup in Athletics (Milan)
    • 1st place (Triple Jump - 17.35)
  • 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships (Birmingham)
    • 5th place (Triple Jump - 16.97)
• 2006
  • 2006 European Championships in Athletics (Göteborg)
    • 4th place (Triple Jump - 17.07)
    • 6th place (Long Jump - 7.91)
  • 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships (Moscow)
    • 6th place (Triple Jump - 17.14)
  • 2006 European Cup in Athletics (Thessaloniki)
    • 2nd place (Triple Jump - 17.03)
    • 1st place (Long Jump - 8.05)
• 2005
  • 2005 U-23 European Championship
    • Bronze medal (Triple Jump - 16.89)
• 2004
  • 2004 Olympic Games (Athens)
    • 40th place (Triple Jump - 15.72)
• 2003
  • 2003 European Athletics Junior Championships (Tampere)
    • Gold medal (Triple Jump - 16.43)
    • Gold medal (Long Jump - 7.83)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Baha'i World News Service - Top sportsmen find support in faith
2. ^ Cape Verdean athletics record^{[dead link]}
3. ^ Nélson Évora campeão do mundo do triplo salto (Portuguese)
4. ^ Biscayart, Eduardo (2009-05-25). Belém spectacular produces five world season leads – IAAF World Athletics Tour. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-05-30.
5. ^ Fernandes, António Manuel (2009-07-14). Évora, another title in Lisbon. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-07-23.

External links

• IAAF profile for Nelson Évora
• Official Website

Persondata
Name	Evora, Nelson
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 20, 1984
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death