News26 Feb 2010


For Tahri, patience pays

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Bouabdellah Tahri competing in Liévin over 3000m (© Pascal Bonniere)

Patience and longevity have appeared to pay off for French steeplechaser Bouabdellah Tahri, who won his last indoor race of the season on Friday night (5) over 3000m in Liévin in 7:38.39, and will not compete in Doha.

After achieving the best season of his career in 2009, 16 years after his debut, he has picked up where he left off indoors this year, first with a national 3000m record and then again with a European indoor record in the 5000m.

"I’m very satisfied,” Tahri said after his 13:11.13 clocking on his home track in Metz on 14 February, taking down the continental record set in 2002. “The most important thing to me was to run well at home in Metz. It's a big satisfaction to break the European Record.”

That run came just four days after lowering the French record in the 3000m by nearly five seconds to 7:33.73 in Stockholm (10 Feb).

His indoor success this year comes on the heels of a 2009 campaign in which he took bronze at the World Championships in the steeplechase in 8:01.18, another European record which eclipsed the 8:02.19 he set two months earlier. A quick analysis from the Frenchman has concluded that 30 is perhaps the age of maturity for a runner, but he feels good things remain on his horizon.

Inspired by Stuttgart World Championships


“Bob”, as he doesn’t like to be called, discovered athletics in 1993 as a spectator at the World Championships in Stuttgart, only 200km away from his hometown of Metz, located close to French-German’s border. The 15-year-old was marvelled by the spectacle of those championships and found there the motivation to keep running.  Soon, he showed his precocious talent in cross country and the steeplechase, breaking youth and junior records as well as winning national championships.

The European junior title at 5000m in 1997 was the birth of a great career for the lanky 1.91m tall runner whose long body makes him stand out in the pack. However, his switch to the senior ranks on the international circuit was not apparent in major championships until his move in recent years to the steeplechase which would become his specialty. Although he won the European Cup on four occasions (2000-2002 and 2004), and matched Dutchman Simon Vroemen’s European record of 8:06.91 in 2003, Tahri gained a reputation of failing to take medals on the world stage.

“Sometimes, I had the impression that I was perceived as a choaker,” Tahri said. “But perseverance and hard work paid off. My coaches have always taught be patience. One has to believe in oneself and to hang on. The proof is that I had to wait for my sixth World championships to get a medal!” Indeed, his 2009 season proved to be a turning point.

If you can’t beat ‘em (yet), join ‘em!

At World Championships - fifth in 2001, fourth in 2003, eight in 2005, and fifth in 2007 - as well as at Olympic Games – seventh in 2004 and fifth in 2008 - Tahri was usually kept from the podium by the ever-strong Kenyan squads. Tradition is such in the east African nation that Kenyans have won all the Olympic titles since 1968, except in 1976 and 1980 which were affected by international boycotts and in which Kenya didn't compete.

“I asked myself, what is the solution to be the world’s best?” The Frenchman thus decided to train, eat and sleep with the world’s best, in Iten, Kenya, some six hours drive from Nairobi, at an altitude of 2500m. His first trip dates back to 2003, when he stayed for one month. He returned in 2005 for two months and has repeated the experience each year. Over that time, Tahri has gained the respect of Kenyan runners while living and training among them.

“I didn’t want to look like a white runner with a casual approach, sleeping in a fancy hotel and eating at the restaurant. Coming here, I wanted to do everything they do, training at 6 am, 10 am and 4 pm, sharing the dining.”

European record at home

The 2009 season started on solid ground with a 3000m silver medal at the European Indoor Championships where he finished behind Briton Mo Farah, another habitué of Kenya’s training camps.

“It was the first time I had the impression to be a factor tactically during a race, to fight shoulder-to-shoulder,” Tahri recalls. “Championships are very different than meetings, where you just have to follow the pace in order to set the fastest time as possible.”

Outdoors, he tested his shape in Nancy, France, on 26 June with an ancillary event, the 2000m Steeplechase. Tahri improved his own all-time European best (5:15.96 since 2002) with a promising 5:15.36, especially since things didn’t turn out as planned during the race.

“The pacemaker was supposed to lead until 1500m but he was injured and dropped at 600m. This forced me to take responsibility for the pace and I felt great.”

Confidence was there for the first major rendezvous Tahri had in 2009, as he announced a bid to regain the European 3000m Steeplechase record that Vroemen lowered to 8:04.95 in 2005. In front of his home crowd in Metz and escorted by Kenyan pacemaker Elijah Chelimo Kipterege, Tahri went through 1000m in 2:40, 2000m in 5:23 and covered the last lap in 63 seconds to finish in 8:02.19.

“I was so happy, it was like a dream. I had always made a point to break a French record in Metz and in my stadium, and that day it was even better with a European Record.”

His specific work on technique over the barriers was accompanied by improvements on basic speed, as he lowered his personal best at 3000m to 7:33.18 in Monaco on 28 July, a couple of weeks before the World Championships in Berlin.

On Berlin bronze - ‘enjoy yourself, hang on and take risks.’

An injury ended Tahri’s French teammate Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad’s hopes to duplicate in Berlin the surprise he created at Beijing Olympics, where he prevented a Kenyan sweep by taking the silver medal. It was a medal that Tahri was running after for so many years, which created a tough yet polite rivalry between the two men.

“It’s very good for the discipline in France to have such depth. It pushes everyone to give his best,” Tahri said of his relationship with Mekhissi-Benabbad.

When his domestic rival couldn’t advance to the final, Tahri’s attention was now exclusively focused on the Kenyans. “My coach Jean-Michel Dirringer and I knew that I was tired before the final, so during the race I focused on relaxation.”

The Berlin final went out at an unusually fast pace for a championship (actually close to what Tahri experimented with in Metz) with 5:22.79 for 2km by Paul Kipsiele Koech, who was passed in the last kilometre by his fellow Kenyans Ezekiel Kemboi (the eventual winner with an 8:00.43 championship record) and Richard Meetelong, and in the last five metres by Tahri who took the bronze in a new European Record of 8:01.18.

“Looking at the screen, I saw that Koech wasn’t feeling good from the look of his face,” Tahri recalled. “I told myself, ‘enjoy yourself, hang on and take risks.’ In these moments, one should stop to think. For this medal and record, I had to find something beyond energy, a mix of a lot of things of my life. I had nothing to lose. I believed in myself and in my destiny. And this medal is just a step in my career, not an end in itself.”

Looking ahead, ‘age is not a factor’

Tahri who won last night's outing at the Meeting Pas de Calais in Liévin (5 March) at 3000m in 7:38.39, will not take part in the World Indoor Championships in Doha.

Looking ahead, Tahri might still decide whether he will continue to focus on steeplechase outdoors, with the aim of breaking the still-formidable eight-minute barrier, or widen his range as a distance runner from 1500m to 5000m.

The only certainty is that Tahri is looking several more years down the line.

“Age is not a factor. Look at Gebrselassie or (Bernard) Lagat, who were world leaders at 35 and more. In the future, I would like to extend my range up to the marathon as well.”

“I'm on the same line as last summer, I feel that I'm still improving, and my choice to train in Africa with the World's best is paying.”

Pierre Jean Vazel for the IAAF
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