El Bakkali rompe la hegemonía keniana y gana el primer oro olímpico de Marruecos en 17 años
There are Olympic disciplines that have been hijacked by one country or by a few athletes. They display an unchallenged dominance that can span decades. The saga of the Kenyan runners and their love affair with the 3000m Steeplechase is perhaps the best example of this. Kenya came to Tokyo with more than three decades of victories in the event and, what is more, with the top favourite to win the gold medal again. However, there are also athletes capable of breaking dynasties, such as Soufiane El Bakkali.
The lanky Moroccan athlete made his country's first gold medal since Hicham El Guerrouj, who still holds an Olympic record, achieved in the 1500m and 5000m events at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, his country's first gold medal since the double of Hicham El Guerrouj. The young man from Fez also took over from his compatriot Abdalaati Iguider, bronze medallist at London 2012 in the 1,500m category and the last Moroccan athlete to stand on the podium. A rising star who promises to follow in the footsteps of the now defunct golden age of Moroccan athletics.
El Bakkali came from behind in the final stretch of the race to cross the finish line with a time of 8:08.90 and a wide gap over his pursuers, Kenya's Benjamin Kigen and Ethiopia's Getnet Wale. And they had dominated the race. Less than 53 seconds on the last lap of the track. He flew and struck the final blow. "I'm proud of this result, which comes after a lot of hard work. I really wanted to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics. What medal? I didn't know. But now I know," the champion later admitted.
"I am more proud to have won a race against the specialists, the Kenyans," said the Moroccan runner. Bakkali had broken Kenya's hegemony in the discipline after 37 years, nine consecutive golds and an illustrious line-up of runners. Since the victory of Poland's Bronislaw Malnowski in Moscow 1980, no non-Kenyan athlete had stood on the top step of the podium. The last to do so was Conseslus Kipruto, winner of the last two world championships and the Moroccan's direct rival. However, Kipruto is not competing in Tokyo.
Soufiane El Bakkali was born in Fez 25 years ago. When he was just a teenager, he entered the Mohammed VI International Academy in Ifrane after being selected by the athletics section of the Fes Country Club in a test of 3,600 youngsters from the working-class neighbourhood of El Merja. At the age of 20, the runner came close to standing on the podium at Rio 2016. He fell just short of the podium and finished fourth.
"At 191cm, he is one of the tallest 3,000m steeplechase runners on the circuit. This is a definite advantage when it comes to the hurdles and allows the Moroccan to keep in touch with the masters of the discipline, the Kenyans, who are smaller but tougher," the Olympic Games website reports.
CFour years later, El Bakkali bites the gold after winning silver at the 2017 World Championships and bronze in 2019. He has fulfilled every athlete's dream, all with sacrifice and hard work. His trainer imposed a social bubble on him beyond the obligatory health bubble in order to maintain his concentration: he would completely disconnect from social networks. And so it was, and the result speaks for itself. First Moroccan Olympic gold in 17 years.