Agate de Sousa

Agate de Sousa (born 5 June 2000) is a Santomean long jumper living in Portugal since 2019. Competing as a foreign national, she has won the 2023 Portuguese Athletics Federation Championships in both the long and triple jump, and she is the current Santomean national record holder in the long jump with her 7.06 metres best.

Biography
de Sousa began her international career as a 100 metres sprinter. She was slated to compete at the 2017 World U18 Championships in the 100 m, but she did not start.

At the 2019 African Games, de Sousa competed in both the 100 m and long jump. In the 100 m, she finished 26th overall, barely failing to qualify for the semifinals. However in the long jump, de Sousa finished 7th overall, with her best jump of 6.05 metres coming from her first attempt. In mid-2019, de Sousa moved to Portugal, where she began competing at the Portuguese Athletics Federation Championships as a non-scoring foreign national.

de Sousa improved significantly over the next several years, with her first Santomean national record coming in 2021, jumping 6.68 m to break Naide Gomes's longstanding 2001 mark. During the 2021 indoor season, de Sousa was hampered by the fact that she could not leave Portugal for international competitions because she would not be allowed back in, as she was not a Portuguese citizen. She was able to compete in several European meetings starting in May 2021, and she would go on to further improve her long jump record to 7.03 metres at the B&S Kurpfalz Gala in May 2023 – becoming the fourth African woman ever to clear 7 metres.

As of 2023, de Sousa had begun the naturalization process to achieve dual citizenship between São Tomé and Príncipe and Portugal, opening up the possibility that she may switch nationality to Portugal as Naide Gomes did in June 2001.