Kenenisa Bekele cruises to a 5000m victory in Rabat (© Miloud Stira)
More then 25,000 fans attended the CAA Super Grand Prix meeting at the Prince Moulay Abdallah Sports Complex in Rabat on Saturday night. And they were well rewarded with some magnificent competitions on a nice and warm evening.
World record holder Kenenisa Bekele won the 5000m in what may be his last appearance on the track before the Olympic Games in Beijing. Bekele stormed away from the pack at the 3000m mark and finished solo in 13:06.38. Abdalaati Iguider produced the most highly cheered performance of the day in winning the 1500m in 3:32.37 in front of his home crowd.
Bekele’s solo outing
At a press conference on Thursday Bekele said that he will be competing in the Olympic 10,000m in Beijing and that he will only decide after that race whether he will line up in the 5000m as well.
“I made a serious try to break the World record at 10,000m in Eugene on June 8,” Bekele said. “The weather conditions were ideal and the pacing was good but I fell a few seconds short. It’s a very hard to beat the World record indeed.” Bekele’s target in Rabat was to run as close as possible to the 13 minutes mark and that is what actually happened. Moroccans Anis Selmouni and Mohammed Amyn dared to stay with the pace and Selmouni smashed his personal best over the distance with 13:11.24 while Amyn ran 13:16.60.
Iguider continues to impress at 1500m
Before setting a personal best of 3:32.10 at the Berlin Golden League meeting Abdalaati Iguider of Morocco had already taken impressive wins this year over the metric mile at the Qatar Super Grand Prix and in Rehlingen, Germany. The 21-year-old won a sprint duel against Algerian Tarek Boukensa in Rabat and finished just outside his personal best in 3:32.37. Iguider was congratulated by World record holder Hicham El Guerrouj who presented the awards. With eight athletes finishing inside 3:35 the 1500m was certainly one of the meeting highlights.
The women’s 1500m produced another sprint win by a Moroccan athlete. Btissam Lakhaoud narrowly beat Agnes Samaria from Namibia in 4:06.71. Meriem Alaoui Selsouli dominated the 3000m and added to the success of Moroccan distance running in the 3000m. Selsouli’s solo effort resulted in 8:48.60.
Kipruto passes tough test in the 3000m Steeplechase
It was only after the last barrier that World champion Brimin Kipruto could move past Abdelkader Hachlaf and Brahim Taleb in the 3000m steeplechase. The two Moroccans had worked together to keep the pace fast but they were ultimately out-sprinted by the Kenyan World champion who finished in 8:15.23 against 8:15.58 and 8:15.67 for Hachlaf and Taleb respectively.
There is quite a lot of quality at the 800m in Sudan these days. Ismail Ahmed Ismail won the race against Amine Laalou from Morocco in a personal best performance of 1:44.68. Moroccon World Championships silver medallist Hasna Benhassi took the women’s 800m in 2:00.80.
There was a surprise win in the Long Jump for Moroccan Yahya Berrabah who jumped 8.23m, still 10cm outside his personal best that dates back from 2003, but with the bonus of qualifying for the Olympic Games.
International collaboration helps raise Rabat meeting to a higher level
The local organisers in Rabat were supported by the organising committee of the Brussels Golden League Meeting. The program of the Rabat meeting was very much copied to the model of the Memorial Van Damme with live music and fireworks. The level of the meeting was very high indeed, both in terms of organisation and of performances.
Very much appreciated by the audience was the opening parade of all time Moroccan athletics stars such as El Guerrouj, Said Aouita, Khalid Skah, Nezha Bidouane, Zahra Ouaziz and many others. His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid was in the stadium to greet the stars at the parade. The standard has been set and Moroccan Athletics will now aspire to continue to develop the Rabat meeting into a classic event on the African continent.
Ivo Hendrix for the IAAF
