Alberto Cova (born 1 December 1958) is a retired

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, winner of the 10,000 m at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

and 1983 World Championships.

Biography

Born in

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, Italy, Alberto Cova was characterized by his superiority in the sprint finish, and the only way to nullify this was to set a very fast pace from the start to finish. Cova got his first fame at the 1982 European Championships in

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, where he surprisingly outsprinted the main favourite Werner Schildhauer from

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, to win his first international championship title. In the next year, Cova wasn't the main favourite at the first World Championships held in

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, being considered only as a possible medal winner. The 10,000 m final at Helsinki was run in slow pace, with thirteen runners still in a leading pack at the bell. With only 30 metres to go, Cova was only in fifth place, but then sprinted forward to win. Schildhauer finished in second place. The top four runners sprinted to the finish line in 0.33 seconds. The 10,000 m final at the

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Olympics began at an even slower pace than at Helsinki. At the 6 km mark, Martti Vainio from

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, picked up the speed. Cova managed to follow him, and Vainio couldn't sustain his own pace, so Cova swept past him after the bell and sprinted to the line to win his last international title. At the 1986 European Championships in

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, Cova was beaten at his own game, when he was outsprinted by fellow countryman

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on the last lap of the 10,000 m final. Cova never won a major race after that, and came tenth in his heat (thereby failing to qualify for the final) at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

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. This was his last international competition. In the 1983 World Athletics Championships 10,000-metre final, there actually were seven men in the lead group at the bell. In the 1984 Olympics 10,000-metre final, Finland's Martti Vainio picked up the speed shortly before the 6 kilometre mark

Achievements

National titles

He won fourteen national championships at senior level. *

Italian Athletics Championships The Italian Athletics Championships () are the national championships in Athletics (sport), athletics, organised every year by the Federazione Italiana di Atletica Leggera. The first edition, four races only, was held in 1906 at Arena Civica in ...

**5000 m: 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985 (4) **10,000 m: 1981, 1982 (2) * Italian Athletics Indoor Championships **3000 m: 1982, 1983, 1984 (3) * Italian Cross Country Championships **Long race: 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 (5)

Notes

References

External links