Ronaldo da Costa (born 7 June 1970) is a Brazilian former long-distance runner and former world-record holder for the marathon distance.

Career

Da Costa broke the ten-year-old

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

in 1998 in

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, having been fifth-placed in the previous year. The record had been held by Belayneh Densamo from

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

at the Rotterdam Marathon in April 1988. The record fell in the following year, almost eleven months later. During his record run Da Costa also was the first man to officially reach the 40 km mark under two hours. He arrived at the 40K split in 1:59:55. The youngest of eleven children, Da Costa became a national hero after winning the internationally competed São Silvestre Brazilian road race (15 km) in 1994. The same year he won the 5,000 m in the Ibero-American Championships entered by south-western European, Central and Southern American countries. From 1997, aged 27, until 2003 Da Costa achieved top-20 results in four marathons, however unlike most marathon record holders, did not win any international marathons apart from his world-record-breaking run.

Achievements

References

External links

* 1970 births Living people Athletes from Minas Gerais Brazilian male long-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1995 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Brazil World record setters in athletics (track and field) Berlin Marathon male winners Brazilian male marathon runners Pan American Games bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Pan American Games bronze medalists for Brazil Recipients of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races Best Marathon Runner Award Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games 20th-century Brazilian sportsmen 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen Troféu Brasil de Atletismo winners {{Brazil-athletics-bio-stub