Keila Costa

Keila da Silva Costa (born 6 February 1983) is a Brazilian long jumper and triple jumper. She has competed in three Olympic Games, 2004, 2008 and 2012, and has reached the final round both there and in World Championships and World Indoor Championships. She is the South American record holder in triple jump with 14.58 metres, and has 6.88 metres in the long jump. Both results were achieved in 2007.

Early career She was born in Abreu e Lima near Recife, and took up athletics at the age of nine. It was not the easiest of things to become an international athlete, as the city of Abreu e Lima did not sport a rubber track; also she came from a "humble family".

As a junior athlete she competed in two World Junior Championships. At the 2000 edition in Santiago, Chile she finished eleventh in the triple jump. Her personal best at the time was 13.23 metres. In 2001, she broke the 14-metre barrier as she improved to 14.00 metres at a meet in São Caetano do Sul. This was a new South American junior record. On the regional level, Costa won five medals at the South American Championships in 2001, 2003 and 2005.

International breakthrough Her definite international breakthrough came in 2007. She improved both her personal best jumps with good margins. In May in Belém she jumped 6.88 metres, In May she had become the first South American woman to break the 15-metre-barrier. However, her 15.10 m jump in Uberlândia, Brazil had a tail wind of 2.7 m/second, and thus could not be accepted. When jumping 14.57, she established a new South American record. At the 2007 Pan American Games she won two silver medals,

In the 2009 season, she won the Troféu Brasil Caixa de Atletismo with a season's best of 6.79 m, putting an end to rival Maurren Maggi's decade-long dominance of the championships. She became the continental long jump champion for a second time at the 2009 South American Championships in Athletics. The long jump at the 2009 Lusophony Games was a head-to-head with Portugal's Naide Gomes and Costa took the silver medal, three centimetres back with a mark of 6.71 m. Her focus turned to the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, but she failed to record a mark in her three attempts in the long jump final. She closed the season with a seventh-place finish at the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Final.

She opened 2010 with her first podium finish on the global stage: competing in the long jump at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships, she twice jumped 6.63 m to secure the bronze medal behind Brittney Reese and Gomes. She became a double Brazilian champion later that year with victories in both the long jump and triple jump at the Troféu Brasil Caixa de Atletismo.

Personal life Costa has a relationship with Panamanian Olympic champion in the long jump, Irving Saladino. The two met at the 2004 Olympic Games.

Personal bests Event Result Venue DateOutdoor 100 m 12.43 s (wind: +0.5 m/s) Belém, Brazil 6 May 2005 Long jump 6.88 m (wind: -0.1 m/s) Belém, Brazil 20 May 2007 Triple jump 14.58 m (wind: +2.0 m/s) São Paulo, Brazil 7 June 2013Indoor Long jump 6.64 m Paris, France 13 February 2009 Triple jump 14.11 m Moscow, Russia 10 March 2006

Achievements