Celma da Graça Soares Bonfim (born 23 December 1977) is a Santomean long-distance runner. Da Graça represented

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, where she carried the nation's flag for her team during the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

. She ran in the first heat of the women's 5000 metres, against fifteen other athletes, including Ethiopia's

Tirunesh Dibaba Tirunesh Dibaba (, Amharic: ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ቀነኒ; born 1 October 1985) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner athlete who competes in long-distance track events and international road races. She has won three Olympic track gold meda ...

, who eventually won the gold medal in this event. She finished the race in last place by more than forty seconds behind Malawi's

Lucia Chandamale Lucia Chandamale (born June 18, 1988, in Lilongwe) is a Malawian athlete, who specialized in long-distance running. She represented Malawi at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and competed for the women's 5,000 metres. She ran in the first he ...

, with her personal best and national record-breaking time of 17:25.99. Da Graça, however, failed to advance into the semi-finals, as she placed thirtieth overall, and was ranked farther below six mandatory slots for the next round. At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, da Graça competed in the Women's 1500 metres, but finished 14th, last in her heat, with a time of 4:38.86, failing to advance to the semifinals. At the

2006 Lusophony Games The 1st Lusofonia Games (; ) were held in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China between 7 and 15 October 2006. The 2006 Games were the first edition of this multi-sport event for Portuguese-speaking countries ...

, Bonfim won a silver medal in the women's 5000 metres, with a time of 18:17.12. At the

2009 Lusophony Games The 2009 Lusofonia Games was the 2nd Lusofonia Games (), 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 Pavilhão Atlântico acted ...

, she competed in the Santomean team that won a bronze medal in the Women's 4x400 metres relay. She also finished fifth in the final of the 5,000 metres, with a time of 18:05.17. At the

2004 African Championships in Athletics The 14th African Championships in Athletics were held in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo in July, 2004. Since African Championships is a biennial event, this edition was contested only a month before 2004 Summer Olympics. Thus some top athletes shun ...

, Bonfim competed in the Women's 3000 metres steeplechase, where she finished fourth and last, with a time of 11:57.94. This was almost a minute and a half slower than the third-place finisher. However, she did set a national record.African Championships Results
Africathlete.com

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonfim da Graca, Celma São Tomé and Príncipe female long-distance runners Living people Olympic athletes for São Tomé and Príncipe Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics 1977 births