Inês Alexandra das Neves Monteiro (born 18 May 1980) is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

athlete who competes in middle and long-distance track running, as well as

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ...

and cross country. She started out as a cross country runner, winning a silver and a gold medal at the 1998 and 1999 European junior race. She has represented Portugal at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, and has competed twice at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

. She is a regular performer at the

IAAF World Cross Country Championships World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics (formerly the IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the Int ...

, generally finishing around 30th place. Monteiro made her marathon debut in 2008 and finished fifth at the

Rotterdam Marathon The Rotterdam Marathon, currently branded NN Rotterdam Marathon, is an annual marathon that has been held in Rotterdam, Netherlands since 1981. It has been held in April every year since the third edition in 1984 and attracts many top athletes ...

. She is the most successful athlete at the Cidade de Ovar Half Marathon, having won the competition six times.Cidade de Ovar Half Marathon
Association of Road Running Statisticians (2008-11-14). Retrieved on 2009-11-22. She represents Maratona Clube de Portugal in club competitions.Inês Monteiro venceu Corta-Mato Nacional
A Guarda (2009-03-17). Retrieved on 2009-11-22.

Career

Early career

Born in Ramela, Guarda,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, Inês Monteiro first experienced success in professional

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

at cross country competitions: she won the silver medal in the junior race at the 1998 European Cross Country Championships and took the gold the following year.Fernandes, António Manuel (2008-11-15)
Masai dominates; Augusto defeated by Monteiro in Oeiras
IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-11-22. On the world stage, she reached the 5000 metres final at the

1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics is the 1998 edition of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held in Annecy, France from July 28 to August 2. Results Men 1 Ahmed Baday of Morocco originally won the bronze medal ...

and competed in the junior race at the

1998 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 1998 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 21/22, 1998. The races were held at the Menara district in Marrakech, Morocco. Reports of the event were given in ''The New York Times'', in the Herald, and for the IAA ...

. She improved her position for the 1999 edition in Ireland, finishing in thirteenth.

Senior competitions

She progressed to senior races in 2000, competing in the short race at the World Cross Country Championships and winning the Cidade de Ovar Half Marathon in 1:12:24. She finished seventh at the 2001 European Cross Country Championships but she won a gold medal as part of the best performing team. Track running became her focus in 2002, but she failed to make the 3000 metres final at the 2002 European Athletics Indoor Championships and finishing in 12th in the 5000 m final at the

2002 European Athletics Championships The 18th European Athletics Championships were held from 6 August to 11 August 2002 in the Olympic Stadium of Munich, Germany. Men's results Track 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , 2006 , 2010 , 1 Dwain Chambers originally won the 100 m in 9.96 and was pa ...

. However, she guided her team at the

2002 European Cross Country Championships The 9th European Cross Country Championships were held at Medulin in Croatia on 8 December 2002. Serhiy Lebid took his third title in the men's competition and Helena Javornik won the women's race. Results Men individual 9.83 km Total 86 ...

to a silver team medal. At the World Student Games that year she managed to win bronze in the cross country. A second win at the Ovar Half Marathon in October was soon followed by a win in

Azambuja Azambuja () is a municipality in the Portuguese district of Lisbon, in the historical region of Ribatejo (and the sole municipality of within the district that does not belong to the historical province of Estremadura). The population in 2011 was ...

which made her the 15 km national champion. She did not break into the top thirty at either the 2002 or 2003 World Cross Country Championships. She represented Portugal at the Olympics for the first time at the 2004 Athens Games. Running in the 5000 metres, she performed poorly and finished 18th with 16:03.75 – fifty seconds slower than her best that season. After finishing just outside the top 25 runners at the 2005 World Cross Country Championships, she experimented with a switch to the steeplechase. She finished in 13th place in the 3000 m steeplechase at the

2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first IAAF ...

. The next two years saw her career stall: after a poor 64th-place finish in the World Cross Country Championships she ran infrequently and only returned to competition in mid-2007.

Beijing Olympics and improving times

Monteiro showed much improvement in the 2008 season. She ran her fastest ever time at the World Cross Country Championships (27:12) and took fifth place at the

– her first competitive outing over the distance. She qualified to represent Portugal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but she did not manage to finish the Olympic marathon race. She closed the year on a positive note, however, winning the Ovar Half Marathon for a fourth time, and taking individual bronze and team gold at the 2008 European Cross Country Championships. She closed the season by beating Olympic silver medallist Eunice Jepkorir to win the

Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños The Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños is a cross country running competition that takes place in Venta de Baños, Castile and León, Spain. The competition was first held in 1980 and since then it has been held every year in mid-December. Amo ...

. She became the national cross country champion in March 2009, but failed to finish at the World Championships in Amman. She performed strongly at the European track events, winning the 10,000 m cup with a personal best and taking the 3000 m bronze medal in the European Team Championships.European Athlete of the Year nominations for 2009
.

European Athletics The European Athletic Association (more commonly known as European Athletics) is the governing body for athletics in Europe. It is one of the six Area Associations of the world's athletics governing body World Athletics. European Athletics has 51 ...

(2009). Retrieved on 2009-11-22. Prior to the World Athletics Championships she improved her 5000 m best at the

Bislett Games The Bislett Games is an annual track and field meeting at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. History The first international athletics meeting at Bisl ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

. She finished in tenth place in the 10,000 metres final at the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

. Her new personal best time of 31:25.67 was the best performance by a European in the race. Following the World Championships, she took to road competitions: she won the Great South Run in a Portuguese 10-mile record time, and she took the Ovar Half Marathon title for a sixth time with a personal best of 1:10:06. At the start of the 2009–10 cross country season, she beat national champion Jessica Augusto to win the Oeiras International Cross Country for the first time, and took second behind Linet Masai, the reigning 10,000 m World Champion, at the Cross Internacional de Soria the following week. In May 2010, Monteiro set a new personal best of 32:02 in the 10K road distance, coming third at the Great Manchester Run, and then set another best of 31:13.58 in June to retain her title at the

European Cup 10000m The European 10,000m Cup is an annual 10,000 metres race for European athletes which was first held in 1997. The competition is organised by the European Athletics Association and first began as the European 10000 Metres Challenge (''European 1 ...

, leading Portugal to a team victory.Ramsak, Bob (2010-06-06)
Farah and Monteiro take European Cup 10,000m victories
IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-06-06.

Personal bests

*All information taken from IAAF profile.

References

External links

* *Sports-reference profile fo
Inês Monteiro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monteiro, Ines 1980 births Living people People from Guarda, Portugal Portuguese female middle-distance runners Portuguese female long-distance runners Portuguese female steeplechase runners Olympic athletes of Portugal Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Portugal Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Mediterranean Games Sportspeople from Guarda District