| Veliša Mugoša | |
| Nationality: | Yugoslav |
| Sport: | Long-distance running |
| Event: | 5000 metres |
| Birth Date: | 14 April 1931 |
| Birth Place: | Lješkopolje, Donja Gorica, Podgorica, Yugoslavia[1] |
| Pb: | 800m
3:43.0 13:58.8 |
| Highestranking: | 8th in men's 5000m (1956) |
Veliša Mugoša (14 April 1931 - 14 April 1979) was a Yugoslav long-distance runner. He competed in the men's 5000 metres at the 1956 Summer Olympics.[4] He finished in second place in the men's 5000 meters at the 1957 World University Games.
Mugoša ran as a youth in the place of his birth, Lješkopolje, a rural part of the Donja Gorica suburb in present-day Podgorica.[1] In 1949, Mugoša was the winner of a state junior 1500 meter race for high schoolers in Varaždin.[1] After graduating from high school, he trained in several track clubs over a shorter period of time, including Budućnost, Olimpija Ljubljana, Mladost Zagreb, and AK Partizan.[1] After that, he moved to AK Crvena Zvezda, where he trained until the end of his career.[1] In Belgrade, he was a geography and philosophy student at the University of Belgrade while he recorded Yugoslavia's leading results in the 1500, 3000, and 5000 meters.[5] On 1 July 1956, he ran a personal best time of 13:58.8 in a 5000-meter race in Belgrade,[2] becoming the first person from Yugoslavia to ever run the distance under 14 minutes.[1] At the 1956 Summer Olympics, he progressed to the men's 5000 meter final but dropped out of the race after going out at world record pace.[1]
In the late 1950s, he traveled to the United States where he ran several indoor races. On 1 February 1958, in front of an audience of 12,445 at Boston Garden, Mugoša finished the indoor 2-mile at the Boston AA Games in second place behind Deacon Jones, who won in 9:01.1.[6] On 22 February 1958, he won the men's indoor 3-mile at the AAU Indoor Championships in a time of 13:54.2.[7]