Breakdown of Ela ficou em segundo lugar.
ela
she
em
in / on / at
o lugar
the place / the seat (in a venue)
ficar
to become
Questions & Answers about Ela ficou em segundo lugar.
Why does the sentence use ficou instead of the verb for "came"?
Why is it segundo and not segunda, since the subject Ela is feminine?
Does the ordinal number always go before the noun like it does here?
Usually, yes! While regular descriptive adjectives in Portuguese generally come after the noun, ordinal numbers like segundo are an exception and almost always come before the noun.