Nelson Évora

GCIH
Nelson Évora

Nélson Évora in 2015
Personal information
Nationality	Portuguese
Born	(1984-04-26) 26 April 1984 Ivory Coast
Residence	Lisbon, Portugal
Height	183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	74 kg (163 lb)
Sport
Country	Portugal
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	Triple jump
Club	Sporting CP[1]
Coached by	Iván Pedroso[2]
Medal record Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Triple jump World Championships 2007 Osaka Triple jump 2009 Berlin Triple jump 2015 Beijing Triple jump World Indoor Championships 2008 Valencia Triple jump European Indoor Championships 2015 Prague Triple jump Universiade 2009 Belgrade Triple jump 2011 Shenzhen Triple jump

Nelson Évora, GCIH^[3] (born 20 April 1984) is a Portuguese track and field athlete who specializes in the triple jump and long jump.

Évora is the current triple jump European indoor champion, and a former triple jump Olympic and world champion. Évora competes for Portugal and Sporting CP. He represented Cape Verde until 2002, when he got Portuguese citizenship, in June that year.

Biography

Born in Ivory Coast, where his parents had come to live from Cape Verde, Évora and his family moved to Portugal when he was five years old.^[4] He still holds the Cape Verdean records in both the long jump (7.57 m) and the triple jump (16.15 m).^[5]

Évora's family settled in Odivelas, on the floor above João Ganço's—a former Portugal record-holder and the first Portuguese to pass over 2 meters in the high jump. David Ganço, one of João Ganço's three sons and one year older than Évora, became his best friend. One day, João Ganço, seeing them playing in the street, suggested that Évora started practising athletics, following David's example, and, just like that, Évora's sportive career started. João then became his coach.

Évora is a member of the Bahá'í Faith.^[4]

Sports career

He competed in the triple jump in the 2004 Olympics, without progressing from his pool,^[1] 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 27 August 2007, Évora became the triple jump World champion at the 2007 World Championships, in Osaka, Japan, establishing his personal best, Portuguese national record and second best world mark of the year at 17.74 metres.^[6]

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

On 21 August 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.^[1]

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.^[7] In mid-2009, he won the triple jump gold at the Universiade and another at the 2009 Lusophony Games.^[8]

However he was unable to replicate his winning form at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, being relegated to second place. After leading with a first round jump of 17.55 m, the man he beat in the Olympics, Phillips Idowu, was able to take the gold with a third round jump of 17.73 m, the longest in the 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)

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Portugal
2001	European Youth Olympic Festival	Murcia, Spain	1st	Long jump	7.49 m
2002	World Junior Championships	Kingston, Jamaica	18th (q)	Long jump	7.28 m (+0.7 m/s)
			6th	Triple jump	15.87 m (-0.2 m/s)
2003	European Junior Championships	Tampere, Finland	1st	Long jump	7.83 m
			6th	Triple jump	16.43 m
2004	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	10th (q)	Triple jump	16.30 m
	Ibero-American Championships	Huelva, Spain	7th	Triple jump	15.56 m
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	23rd (q)	Triple jump	15.72 m
2005	European U23 Championships	Erfurt, Germany	3rd	Triple jump	16.89 m (+1.9 m/s)
	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	14th (q)	Triple jump	16.60 m
2006	World Indoor Championships	Moscow, Russia	6th	Triple jump	17.14 m
	European Cup First League	Thessaloniki, Greece	1st	Long jump	8.05 m (0.0 m/s)
			2nd	Triple jump	17.03 m w (+2.5 m/s)
	European Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	6th	Long jump	7.91 m
			4th	Triple jump	17.07 m
	Lusophony Games	Macau, China	1st	Triple jump	16.30 m
2007	European Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	5th	Triple jump	16.97 m
	European Cup First League	Milan, Italy	1st	Long jump	8.10 m (-0.9 m/s)
			1st	Triple jump	17.35 m w (+2.4 m/s)
	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	1st	Triple jump	17.74 m NR
	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	3rd	Triple jump	17.30 m
2008	World Indoor Championships	Valencia, Spain	3rd	Triple jump	17.27 m
	European Cup First League	Leiria, Portugal	1st	Long jump	7.88 m (0.0 m/s)
			1st	Triple jump	16.91 m (+0.8 m/s)
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	1st	Triple jump	17.67 m
	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	1st	Triple jump	17.24 m
2009	European Team Championships	Leiria, Portugal	2nd	Long jump	7.94 m
			1st	Triple jump	17.59 m
	Universiade	Belgrade, Serbia	1st	Triple jump	17.22 m
	Lusophony Games	Lisbon, Portugal	1st	Triple jump	17.15 m
	World Championships	Berlin, Germany	2nd	Triple jump	17.55 m
2011	European Team Championships	Stockholm, Sweden	6th	Triple jump	16.33 m
	Universiade	Shenzhen, China	1st	Triple jump	17.31 m
	World Championships	Daegu, Korea	5th	Triple jump	17.35 m
2014	European Championships	Zürich, Switzerland	6th	Triple jump	16.78 m
2015	European Indoor Championships	Prague, Czech Republic	1st	Triple jump	17.21 m
	World Championships	Beijing, China	3rd	Triple jump	17.52 m
2016	World Indoor Championships	Portland, United States	4th	Triple jump	16.89 m
	European Championships	Amsterdam, Netherlands	17th (q)	Triple jump	16.27 m
	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	6th	Triple jump	17.03 m SB

Orders

• Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry^[9]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nélson Évora.

• Official website (Portuguese) (English)
• Nelson Évora profile at IAAF
• Comité Olímpico Portugal (Portuguese)

Awards
Preceded by José Veras	Portuguese Sportsman of the Year 2007–2009	Succeeded by João Pedro Silva
Olympic Games
Preceded by Nuno Delgado	Flagbearer for  Portugal Beijing 2008	Succeeded by Telma Monteiro