Maria Manuela Machado

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Maria Manuela Machado ( Maria Manuela Castro Machado ; born August 9, 1963 with Viana do Castelo ) is a former Portuguese long-distance runner who was one of the world's top marathoners in the 1990s .

Her greatest success is winning the marathon title at the 1995 World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. She won two World Cup silver ( 1993 in Stuttgart and 1997 in Athens ), and twice she finished seventh ( 1991 in Tokyo and 1999 in Seville ).

With her two victories at the European Championships in Helsinki in 1994 and the European Championships in Budapest in 1998, she continued the series that her compatriot Rosa Mota had started with her victories in 1982, 1986 and 1990. Machado had already taken tenth place at the 1990 European Championships in Split.

She had less success at the Olympic Games. Two seventh places at the 1992 Games in Barcelona and the 1996 Games in Atlanta, followed by 21st place at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

Even if Machado is primarily known for her successes at the major international championships, in which she participated eleven times in a row, she did not go empty-handed at city marathons either. In 1992, 1993 and 1998 she was fourth in the Boston Marathon , in 1995 second in the London and New York City Marathons and in 1996 second in the Tokyo International Women's Marathon . She set her best time of 2:25:09 at the 1999 London Marathon when she finished third.

Machado started for Sporting Braga and Sporting Lisbon .

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