Brazilian marathon runner lights Olympic cauldron

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2016 Rio Olympics - Opening ceremony - Maracana - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 05/08/2016. Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima waves after lighting the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian long-distance runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit the Olympic cauldron in the opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Games on Friday.

A marathon bronze medal winner in Athens in 2004, he has been held up as a model sportsman after refusing to give up when a protestor attacked him in that race, slowing him from first to third.

(Reporting by Brad Haynes and Jeb Blount; Editing by Andrew Hay)

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