Manuel Damião (born 4 July 1978) is a Portuguese 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 stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance ru ...

. He represented Portugal at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. 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 Sport of athletics, athletics competition for athletes representing Ibero-American countries as well as a number of other Spanish la ...

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 In ...

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 in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

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 1500-metre run 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 Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilomet ...

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 fi ...

and the 1997 European Athletics Junior Championships. 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 soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

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, ...

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 (sport), athletics competition between Ibero-American nations which was held at the Est ...

(finishing behind Brazil's

Hudson de Souza Hudson Santos de Souza (born February 25, 1977) is a retired Brazilian middle-distance runner who mostly competed over 1500 metres. He broke a number of South American records in middle-distance events. He 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 IA ...

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

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

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 (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

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 Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for me ...

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 () 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 IAAF permit meetings which serve as qualifying eve ...

in 2007 behind multiple continental champion Sergiy Lebid. He won his first international at the 2009 Lusophony Games 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 sta ...

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 Road racing is a North American term to describe motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held on a closed circuit—generally, a purpose-built racing facility—or on a street circuit that uses temporarily closed public ...

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 Hyundai Meia Maratona de Portugal is an annual half marathon contested every October in Lisbon, Portugal. A new, faster course was established for the race in 2010 and 25 km record holder Mary Keitany duly resp ...

that year. He had back-to-back wins at the São Silvestre de Lisboa 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

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, 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 a ...

– 1:48.73 min (2005) *

– 3:34.37 min (2004) *

Mile run The mile run (1,760 yards, 5,280 Foot (unit), feet, or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance running, middle-distance foot race. The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling ...

– 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 3000 m sho ...

– 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 Sportspeople 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