Hicham El Guerrouj (© Getty Images)
With a fourth World title in the 1500m and a silver medal in the 5000m, Hicham El Guerrouj was elected, for the third year running, World Athlete of the Year. Now the young Moroccan is looking forward to 2004, which he sees as 'the year of all challenges'. Mohammed Benchrif reports
"To have won the title of World Athlete of the Year 2003, after a fabulous season, makes me very proud and it also is a great motivation ahead of the Athens Olympic Games where my aim is to manage a historic double victory over 1500m and 5000m.” Such were the optimistic words spoken by Hicham El Guerrouj after accepting his third consecutive title as the best athlete in the world.
Hicham's joy, on the 14 September last, was threefold, as he explains: “It was fantastic for me as both winners of the prize are African - El Guerrouj from the North of the Continent and Hestrie Cloete from the South. Moreover, today is my 29th birthday.”
And there was more to come following on from his fourth World title in the 1500m, his favourite distance, and his second place in the 5000m: on Saturday 27 September he took some time out from his gruelling schedule to marry his beautiful fiancée, Nejoua Lahbil. Nejoua, the grand-daughter of the Head of the first Moroccan cabinet after independence, and currently studying for a business degree at the University of Al Akhaouayene in Ifrane, is also - fortunately some may say - a great fan of Track and Field.
Because although Hicham tells us that he is determined that this new chapter in his life will see him make every effort to not allow his professional life to take its toll on his family life, there is no doubt that his ambitions for the coming year will require that he puts a lot of work into his preparation. As he tells us though, his new wife is very understanding and communicative, all the more so since she comes from a sporting background herself: “We have both defined our objectives - for me it is success at the Olympic Games whilst she wants to graduate with her Masters Degree.”
The uncontested World leader of middle distance has, for seven years now, been accumulating victories and titles, and anything less than a gold medal in Athens would, for him, be considered a failure.
Hicham, famed for his unique combination of speed, resistance and endurance is now, since his latest victory in the 1500m of the 9th World Championships in Athletics of Paris, one of the very few élite athletes with four World titles to their names
Guest star in the Paris 5000m, a distance which he has almost no experience in, as the only race prior to Paris since his bronze medal in the 1992 World Junior Championships, had been one in Ostrava earlier in the year in which he finished with the second best time of the season of 12:50.24. In the Paris 5000m, Hicham's courage and determination drew unanimous admiration and respect.
"Running the 5000m is like a new adventure for me, one in which I am learning all the time. In the 5000m I feel like a teenager who has just learned to drive and is still finding his way, whereas in the 1500m I am totally at ease as it is so much part of who I am.”
Even if this race was a bonus for Hicham, who is forever reminding us that he is 'but a soldier at the service of his nation', this year he carried a particularly heavy burden on his shoulders as Morocco had had a very poor tally of medals.
"It is thanks to the abnegation, sense of duty and self-sacrifice of Hicham that Morocco has maintained its position in the élite of World athletics. His 5000m of Paris will go down in history as one of the great races, all the more so since his extraordinary performance was made without the benefit of a pace-setter and with a heavy week behind him,” enthused the National Technical Director Mohamed Aziz Daouda.
For Hicham himself, his second place was, far from being a defeat, synonymous with a true triumph, one which showed that he was in effect human and fallible. “I see myself as the true winner of the event. I lost only by the smallest of margins, four hundredths of a second, and, for me, my silver medal is the equivalent of gold.”
As usual, like every time a Moroccan athlete distinguishes himself or herself, His Majesty King Mohammed the Sixth was the first to congratulate his subject. The King's elder sister, HRH Princess Lalla Meryem was in the official box in the Stade de France to witness this historic race.
Hicham came out of his formidable challenge, and of this superb 5000m even greater than before. For his coach Abdelkader Kada, whose name is so closely linked to that of Hicham El Guerrouj, his protégé's secret, the one which explains his results and his title of World Athlete of the Year are down to “his total reliability, his dedication, his exemplary behaviour and his sense of fair play.’’
After a season which exhausted and stressed him completely, El Guerrouj took about six weeks off, during which time he enjoyed his honeymoon, part of it in Marrakech before flying off to spend some time in France, Chili and the USA.
El Guerrouj now plans to press ahead with his plans to go down as one of the top runners ever. Once he had finished his holidays, he went back to the training track, with a view to win gold in the Athens Games next year. The fact that he started training during the period of the Ramadan (end of October) not in the Athletes' Institute but with his family is another marked change in his habits, even if he is quick to point out that he will not be allowing that to disrupt the rhythm of his preparations.
In spite of his four World titles, his five World records and his almost countless victories, Hicham never forgets that he still does not have an Olympic title to his name in the 1500m.
Indeed, twice, in Atlanta in 1996 and in Sydney in 2000, the dream slipped from his grasp. Now, however, he is more determined than ever to make 2004 the year when he puts this situation right by taking not one but two Olympic titles back to his King and his people.
“Going to Athens 2004 reminds me of Athens 1997 where I won the first World title of my career. Now I still feel youthful and driven enough to renew this exploit and take two gold medals,” he says.
"I want to be remembered in the record books of Track and Field when I am gone. I want the young people of tomorrow to see me in the same way that I used to consider Said Aouita when I read about him in my school books. That is the main reason I will win a 1500m Olympic gold whatever the price to pay, even if I have to wait until I am 40. For me that is the only way to dry my tears of Atlanta and Sydney."
The same ambition is shared by his coach Abdelkader Kada. "The titles and records of Hicham spur me on and every time I try my best to push him that extra bit further. But it will still be that elusive Olympic gold which will remain our main motivation. Hicham can not possibly end his career without an Olympic title and, if God wants it, we will do everything so that Hicham succeeds in his quest.”
The champion's father, El Ayachi, agrees with their analysis: "My son is too mature to fail. He knows and understands perfectly the worth of hard work, the necessity of preparing oneself in the best possible way and how to lay his body on the line. His mother and I pray God every day to give him the health and courage he needs and to guide him to success.”
The athlete who has already changed the face of middle distance running forever is also heavily involved in charity work. He is an active participant in the national campaigns seeking to fight poverty, under the slogan 'all together to help the poor', which are presided over by the King of Morocco in person.
Hicham, an unpaid ambassador for Unicef, has also recently been appointed as ambassador for the promotion of the candidacy of Morocco to the organisation of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.
The Technical Director for Athletics, Aziz Daouda, cannot speak highly enough of Hicham. “He is one of those rare athletes who, in addition to enchanting people on the track, is also the type of person off the track who, through his huge qualities, makes one hopeful for the human side of the future of our sport. When competing he respects and helps his opponents, is forever looking out for them and encouraging them. Surely that must be the right example to follow?”
President of the Association Beni Znassen for social work, Hicham is planning to build an eight lane track in his home town of Berkane, with the assistance of the Sports and Youth Ministry and the local authorities. He also plans to have a youth and sports centre built.
He is also busy, so as to promote the human, touristic and economic assets of Berkane and bring back athletics to the streets of the 'capital of clementines', preparing the 3rd edition of the International Road Race of Berkane next 28 December. The star of the event will be the famous Kenyan champion Paul Tergat, five-time World cross country champion and recent winner of the Berlin Marathon with the best ever time run in the event, a staggering 2:04:55.
2004 will without doubt be a major one in the sporting career of Hicham El Guerrouj as he attempts to succeed in his unbelievable attempt to be the first man ever to win Olympic golds in both the 1500m and the 5000m.
An unbelievable challenge it may be, but El Guerrouj is an exceptional champion, a champion who can attain such an ambitious objective.
Mohammed Benchrif is the Athletics correspondent for the Moroccan Press Agency and Press Attaché of the Moroccan Athletics Federation
Published in IAAF Magazine Issue 4 - 2003