Last Race
A year later, he won the cross-country world championship, held in Lisbon, for the 3rd time.
In the last major competitive race of his career, the 1985 Rotterdam marathon, Lopes took 53 seconds off the world's best marathon time, setting a new standard of 2:07.12, and becoming the first man to run 42.195 km in less than 2 h 8 min.
- L'Équipe: "Fantastic! Extraordinary! There aren't enough strong words to label Lopes Rotterdam achievement. In less than 3 years, he became the first man to approach the unreal. Who would think, 20 years ago, that a man would run the marathon at 20 km/h?"'
- Rotterdam press: "With his magic talent, Carlos Lopes took 54 seconds off the previous world best. With his fabulous pace he reached the world record with apparent ease. It's said he received US$150,000 just to come to Rotterdam, plus US$67,000 in prizes. A lot of money for a single man. But, in marathons' fantasy world, only a man—aged 38—is able to run it in 2:07.12: Carlos Lopes".
After this, he went to Japan ran Tokyo's marathon, in honor of his late master Koboyashi, but (out-of-shape) he quit early. That was his last marathon, as he was later injured and said goodbye to Athletics, in late 1985.
In the 1982 European Athletics Championships 10,000-metre race, Lopes took the lead after 6,000 metres and kept it until 9,800 metres. He finished fourth, behind Italy's Alberto Cova, East Germany's Werner Schildhauer, and Finland's Martti Vainio (see, for example, some Finnish-language sports books, such as "Highlights of Top Sports" / Huippu-urheilun tähtihetkiä; see also the related video clip about the final 600 metres of the 1982 European Athletics Championships 10,000-metre race in YLE's Living Archives, www.yle.fi/elavaarkisto/; the following links should be used: Sports / Urheilu, Athletics / Yleisurheilu, European Athletics Championships / Yleisurheilun EM-kisat, 1982 European Athletics Championships / 1982 yleisurheilun EM-kisat, European Athletics Championships bronze medal for Vainio / EM-pronssia Vainiolle)
Read more about this topic: Carlos Lopes
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