Portugal’s famous Olympic athlete Rosa Mota won the mini-marathon of Macau at the age of 60, 30 years after winning a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Mota was invited to the event, on December 2, as an ‘anti-doping’ ambassador but ended up winning the race, completing the 5.2km route in just 22 minutes and two seconds.
“It makes me very happy to be here in Macau at such a well-organised event. As I didn’t have any commitments and was free, I decided to run,” she told Lusa news agency at the end of the race.
Despite winning a mini-marathon 30 years after winning an Olympic gold medal for Portugal, Mota did not want to focus on her achievements.
“Today I will only speak about the importance of passing this message onto athletes that doping is dangerous and that cheating has no place in sports”.
The mini-marathon was part of Macau’s 37th International Marathon.
Portuguese athletes Vera Nunes and João Antunes finished the marathon in sixth and eighth place in the female and male categories, respectively, while António Rocha and Carla Martinho finished third in the male and female categories of the half-marathon.
