| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men'sAthletics | ||
Representing Portugal | ||
| World Cross Country Championships | ||
 | 1981 Madrid | Long race |
Fernando Eugénio Pacheco Mamede,ComM (1 November 1951 – 27 January 2026) was a Portugueseathlete, along distance running specialist.[1] He held the10,000 metres world record until 1989.[2]
Mamede was born inBeja, started his sports life by playing football locally, then, in 1964, he tried school sport athletics and later he joinedLisbon-basedSporting Clube de Portugal'sathletics department where he was an athlete coached byMário Moniz Pereira from 1968 to 1989.[3][4][5] Arrived in Lisbon, he worked some time as an accountant for Sporting Clube de Portugal, and in a bank until 1990, and after that he would work as a municipal sports technician for theAzambuja town hall. He was also a sporting goods store owner in the Avenida de Roma (avenue in Lisbon) for most of his life and after retiring from competition, he worked some time as an assistant athletics coach of Mário Moniz Pereira at Sporting Club de Portugal.[1] Together withCarlos Lopes, he is one of the best Portuguese male long distance runners ever, and held the10,000 metres world record (1984–1989) with a time of 27:13.81 until bettered byArturo Barrios of Mexico. He also competed at three Olympic Games.[6] However, he never won any high-level competition as he dealt very badly with pressure[1] – a profile that would become known in Portugal as the Fernando Mamedesyndrome (síndrome Fernando Mamede).[7][8][9][10]
In theEuropean andWorld Athletics Championships as well as in the Olympics, three competitions where he competed between 1971 and 1984, he either was eliminated from the finals, placed outside the top ten runners in them or dropped out of the final. In the1983 World Championships in Athletics and the1984 Los Angeles Olympics, he ran excellently in the 10,000-metre qualifying heats, but he placed 14th in the World Championships final and failed to finish in the Olympic final.[11]
He also competed incross country running, taking part in theIAAF World Cross Country Championships eleven times. His cross country career was highlighted by a bronze medal at the1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and two wins at theCross Internacional de Itálica.
Mamede died on 27 January 2026, at the age of 74.[12]
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Men's 10,000 m World Record Holder July 2, 1984 – August 18, 1989 | Succeeded by |
| Sporting positions | ||
| Preceded by | Men's 5000 m Best Year Performance 1983 | Succeeded by |
