Manuel Damião (born 4 July 1978) 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 ...

middle- and

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires endurance, stamina as well as mental strength. Within e ...

. He represented Portugal at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. He is a two-time silver medallist at the

Ibero-American Championships in Athletics The Ibero-American Championships in Athletics (Spanish: ''Campeonato Iberoamericano de Atletismo'') is a biennial athletics (sport), athletics competition for athletes representing Ibero-American countries as well as a number of other Spanish lang ...

and participated in 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 ...

on ten occasions from 1997 to 2011. He is a member of the Maratona Clube de Portugal and works as a full-time

fire fighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish conflagration, hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisd ...

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Career

Born in Beja,Masculinos
Maraton Clube de Portugal. Retrieved on 2013-03-02. he started out as a middle-distance runner and ran in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

at the 1995

European Youth Olympic Festival The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fir ...

and the

1997 European Athletics Junior Championships The 1997 European Athletics Junior Championships were held in Ljubljana, Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to t ...

. He made his junior international debut in

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

in 1997, ranking 75th in the World Cross Championships and 16th at the European Cross Championships. Damião's senior breakthrough came in 2000, as he won the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

at the

2000 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics The 2000 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics (Spanish: ''IX Campeonato Iberoamericano de Atletismo'') was the ninth edition of the international athletics competition between Ibero-American nations which was held at the Estádio Célio de Ba ...

(finishing behind Brazil's

Hudson de Souza Hudson Santos de Souza (born February 25, 1977) is a Brazilian middle-distance runner who competes mostly over 1500 metres. He has broken a number of South American records in middle-distance events. He has won twice at the South American Cr ...

)Ibero American Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2013-03-02. and came 31st in the short race at the

2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 18/19, 2000. The races were held at the Sporting Complex in Vilamoura, Portugal. Reports of the event were given in ''The New York Times'', in the Herald, and for the IAAF ...

.Manuel Damiao
IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-03-02. He and de Souza repeated their placings at the

2002 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics The 2002 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics (''Spanish: X Campeonato Iberoamericano de Atletismo'') was the tenth edition of the international athletics competition between Ibero-American nations which was held at the Estadio Cementos Progre ...

. He appeared three more times in the World Cross Country short race in 2004–2006, but did not feature in the top forty. He made his Olympic debut in the 2004 season after achieving life-time bests on the track of 1:47.64 minutes for the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

and 3:34.37 minutes for the 1500 m. At the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

he reached the semi-finals and was the fastest runner not to reach the 1500 metres final. He also won his first national title that year, taking the cross country short course title. He won the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

First League title in the 1500 m in 2005 and 2006. His first appearance at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

came in 2006 and he was a semi-finalist. Following the abolition of the short race from the cross country championships, he began to focus on longer distances on grass. He was runner-up at the

Almond Blossom Cross Country The Almond Blossom Cross Country ( pt, Cross Internacional das Amendoeiras em Flor) is an annual international cross country running competition which takes place in Albufeira, in the Algarve region of Portugal, in early March. It is one of the IAA ...

in 2007 behind multiple continental champion

Sergiy Lebid Serhiy Lebid or Serhii Lebid ( uk, Сергій Лебідь; born 15 July 1975 in Dnipropetrovsk) is a Ukrainian long-distance runner. Career He has won the European Cross Country championships on nine occasions, winn ...

. He won his first international at the

2009 Lusophony Games The 2009 Lusophony Games was the 2nd Lusophony Games ( pt, 2.os Jogos da Lusofonia), a multi-sport event for delegations representing Portuguese-speaking National Olympic committees. It took place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 11 to 19 July 2009. The ...

held in Lisbon, taking the

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

gold medal. He was a regular pick for Portuguese team for the

from 2007 to 2012, with his best performance being 47th place in 2011. He began taking part in road races around 2011 and set a

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

best of 65:26 minutes at the

Portugal Half Marathon Luso Portugal Half Marathon or Luso Meia Maratona de Portugal is an annual half marathon contested every October in Lisbon, Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose ...

that year. He had back-to-back wins at the

São Silvestre de Lisboa SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...

in 2011 and 2012. He secured the third national title of his career in 2012 by becoming the long course Portuguese champion at the Almond Blossom Cross Country (finishing third overall in the race). In 2013, he became the first Portuguese man to win the race outright sinceFernandes, António Manuel (2013-02-24)
Damião surprises as Chepkoech defends in Albufeira
IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-03-02. Damião won the 15K Portuguese road title at the start of 2013 and followed it with a third-place finish for Maratona Clube de Portugal at the European Clubs Cross Country Championships.

Personal bests

– 1:48.73 min (2005) *

– 3:34.37 min (2004) *

Mile run The mile run (1,760 yards or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance foot race. The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling races. It survived track and field's switch to ...

– 4:01.58 min (1999) *

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

– 7:55.93 min (2003) *

– 13:36.66 min (2009) *

Half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

– 63:07 min (2008) :All information from IAAF profile

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Damiao, Manuel 1978 births Living people People from Beja, Portugal Portuguese male middle-distance runners Portuguese male long-distance runners Olympic athletes for Portugal Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics S.L. Benfica athletes Sportspeople from Beja District