Moroccan athlete Soufiane El Bakkali was crowned world champion in the 3,000m steeplechase on Tuesday in Eugene in the United States of America.
The Moroccan Olympic champion won the gold medal in 8:25.13. Silver went to Ethiopian Olympic vice-champion Lamecha Girma (8:26.01), while bronze went to Kenyan Conseslus Kipruto (8:27.92).
The pride of Morocco!
Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali 🇲🇦 runs 8:25.13 to claim world gold and confirms his 3000m steeplechase dominance 💪#WorldAthleticsChamps pic.twitter.com/Ym2CVrdv1B
—World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) July 19, 2022
Author of the best world performance of the season at the Mohammed VI international meeting in Rabat in early June (7:58.28), the 26-year-old athlete offers the Kingdom its first medal in this edition, he who had won bronze in Doha in 2019 and silver in London in 2017.
Morocco has won 30 medals, including 10 gold, 12 silver and 8 bronze, in its previous 17 editions of the world championships in athletics.
The 1999 edition in Seville was the most prolific with five medals: two in gold (Hicham El Guerrouj in the 1,500m and Salah Hissou in the 5,000m), two in silver (Nezha Bidouane in the 400m hurdles and Zahra Ouaaziz in the 5,000m) and one in bronze (Ali Ezzine in the 3,000m steeples). Morocco was then ranked 5th in the world.
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