Salah Hissou, world record holder at 10,000m will lead the Moroccan team at the 25th IAAF - Pirelli World Cross Country Championships, which will take place in the Parco del Valentino in Turin on 23 March.

Morocco are with Kenya, Ethiopia, Great Britain and Spain among the favourite teams for success in the senior men’s category of the competition. In last year’s event in Cape Town, Salah Hissou won silver close on the heels of Paul Tergat (KEN). The Moroccan team also took a second place after Kenya - calculated on the six best placings in the senior men’s event.

25 year old Salah Hissou is a splendid distance runner and hit the limelight with a third place in the 1995 World Cross Country Championships.

In 1996, after his second place in Cape Town, he went on to take a bronze in the 10 000m in Atlanta and finished the year gloriously in Brussels on 23 August when he took Haile Gebrselassie’s record for the distance with a time of 26:38.08. Hissou, who has personal bests of 7:30.46 over 3000m and 12:50.80 in the 5000m will make his first appearance this season in Turin after a serious period of training just for the World Cross Country Championships.

In the fierce battle in perspective with two-time world champion in this event, Paul Tergat and the redoubtable runners of Kenya, Hissou will be able to count on the back-up of Ismail Sghir, 3000m silver medallist in the recent World Indoor Championships in Paris, Khalid Boulami, Brahim Boulami, Elarbi Khattabi, Abdelaziz Sahere, El Hassane Lahssini and Zitouna Abderahim. The latter, racing in the vest of the CUS Torino, was the winner of the 1996 Italian cross country championships for clubs and came 13th in the Cape Town World Championships.

IAAF

Salah Hissou: 10,000 m World Record holder in Turin