Niusha Mancilla

Mancilla began competing in middle distance events from a young age and was the 800 metres bronze medallist at the 1984 South American Youth Championships in Athletics.[2] She made her global debut at the 1986 World Junior Championships in Athletics, competing in the 800 m and the 400 metres hurdles,[3] in Athletics before going on to win the 800 m silver medal at the 1986 South American Youth Championships in Athletics.[4] At later South American Junior Championships in Athletics, she came fourth in 1987 and 1988, then fifth at the 1989 meet.[5][6][7]

Mancilla's senior debut came at the 1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships, where she ran in the heats of the 1500 metres.[8] In the outdoor season she claimed her first major senior medal, a silver over 1500 m at the 1997 South American Championships in Athletics.[9] She was also a bronze medallist at the 1997 Bolivarian Games.[10] Her first 800 m medal came at the 1998 South American Games, where she was runner-up in a time of 2:07.85 minutes.[11] She set a Bolivian record of 4:20.16 minutes in the indoor 1500 m heats at the 1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships.[8] Her first medal in cross country running also came that year when she was runner-up to Chile's Erika Olivera in the short course race at the South American Cross Country Championships.[12] This led to her competing at the 2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and she came 82nd overall.[8]

Her run of 16:14.03 minutes in 2000 was a Bolivian record for the 5000 metres and she was the 1500 m bronze medallist at that year's Ibero-American Championships.[13] Her best performances the following year all came at the 2001 Bolivarian Games, where she completed a triple gold medal sweep in the 800 m, 1500 m and the 3000 metres steeplechase. Her 800 m time of 2:03.98 minutes and steeplechase time of 10:40.7 minutes were both Bolivian records.[10] Mancilla won multiple medals at the 2002 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics in Guatemala City, taking the 800 m bronze and 1500 m silver medals.[13] She competed on the Spanish track circuit that summer and ran a 1500 m best of 4:17.91 minutes in San Sebastián and a 3000 metres national record of 9:16.03 minutes in Seville.[8] Further to this, she ran a 15 km road record of 52:45 minutes in Bolivia in October.

She ran an indoor 3000 m record of 9:35.1 minutes the following February in Zaragoza. Later that year she had her best ever performance in the 1500 m and improved her national record by over a second with a run of 4:16.64 minutes in Seville.[8] At the 2003 South American Championships in Athletics Mancilla won her second and final continental track medal with a runner-up performance in the 1500 m (she was also fourth over 800 m).[9] She also took part in the 2003 Pan American Games, but did not finish in the 1500 m final.[14] In her third global appearance she competed at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships, but did not finish her heat.[15] She set an unofficial South American 2000 m best of 5:59.96 minutes at a competition in Rivas-Vaciamadrid and attended the 2006 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics in Huelva later that season, placing fourth in the 1500 m and sixth over 3000 m.[11] She ran a Bolivian record in the 10K road race in November, running a time of 34:01 minutes in Madrid. She continued to compete in low level meetings in Spain from 2004 to 2008, but retired thereafter.[11]

• Niusha Mancilla at World Athletics