Nelson Cruz (athlete)

Nelson Cruz (born 31 December 1977) is a Cape Verdean athlete, specializing in long-distance running, marathon and half marathon.

Born in Lisbon to Cape Verdean parents, Nelson grew up in Portugal, having visited Cape Verde for the first time in August 2006, where he won the 10,000m run in the National Youth Convention.

With double nationality (Portuguese and Cape Verdean), Nelson chose to compete for Cape Verde in international events. He is trained by Pedro Pessoa and competes for CDR Praia da Salema, having previously represented União Desportiva de Caxienses and Casal de Santo António sports club.

Nelson holds the Cape Verdean national records in all the long run races. In 2005, he represented Cape Verde for the first time internationally, in the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. Later, he won the gold medal in the half marathon in the 2006 Lusophony Games.

With such a track record, he was invited to be part of the Cape Verdean team in the Beijing Olympics 2008, through one of two wildcards for athletics given to Cape Verde by the International Olympic Committee.

His personal best for marathon is 2:17:36.

In 2016 Nelson became the Portuguese Nacional Champion in Cross Country, with a time of 30:43.

Competition record
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2005 World Championships Helsinki, Finland 38th Marathon2:22:12[4]
2006 Lusophony Games Macau, China 1st Half marathon1:09:08[5]
2007 World Championships Osaka, Japan DNF Marathon[6]
2008 Olympic Games Beijing, China 48th Marathon2:23:47[7]

See also

References
  1. ARRS: National Records - Marathon
  2. AIMS: April 2006 AIMS Results
  3. Lisbon 2008 Gold Marathon
  4. IAAF.org: Helsinky 2005 - Men's Marathon results
  5. O Liberal Online: Nelson Cruz Conquista Ouro para Cabo Verde. 12 Oct 2006 (in Portuguese)
  6. IAAF.org: Osaka 2007 - Men's Marathon results Archived 2009-07-17 at the Wayback Machine
  7. The New York Times: Olympics 2008 Official Results : Track and Field - Men's Marathon

Further reading
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