MAP Moroccan Sports Awards winners - El Guerrouj (far right) (© MAP)
Rabat, MoroccoQuadruple World 1500m champion Hicham El Guerrouj and women’s World 800m fourth placer Amina Aît Hammou last night took the awards as the top Moroccan sportsman and woman of 2003, in the annual ceremony organised by the Moroccan Press Agency (L'Agence Marocaine de Presse - MAP) at the Hilton Hotel.
The awards were decided in collaboration with Radio diffusion Télévision Marocaine (RTM), and members of the sports' media from Moroccan television and the written press.
El Guerrouj, 29, won the men’s award for the eighth occasion, the seventh consecutive time, having taken his fourth World 1500m crown in Paris last summer, and the silver medal in the 5000m too. The second best in the men’s award was Jawad Gharib who won the men’s Marathon title in Paris.
Winning the women’s award was 25 year-old Amina Aît Hammou who finished fourth in the World 800m final and then took third at the inaugural World Athletics Final in Monaco. Another track and field athlete, Sultana Aît Hammou, 23, came third in the women’s category last night having been an 800m semi-finalist in Paris.
The award for the most promising athlete went to Silham Hilali, 17, who last summer became the World 3000m Youth champion, and took bronze at the African Juniors. She was also a member of the junior women’s team which captured the bronze at last winter’s World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne.
Last night’s ceremony also paid tribute to the veteran former star Bakir Benaissa who was Arab 10,000m champion and 5000m silver medallist at the Pan-Arab Games of 1957 in Beirut.
The ceremony was attended by the official spokesman of the Moroccan Ministry of Communications, Mr. Mohamed Nabil Benabdellah, and the Secretary of State in charge of Youth matters, Mr. Mohamed El Gahs.
The awards were presented by 1988 OIympic 10,000m champion Brahim Boutayeb, and Anna Legnani, IAAF Deputy Director of Communications, who was on a visit to Morocco ahead of the 2005 World Youth Championships which will be held in Marrakech.
