El Guerrouj Gracious as Ethiopian Breaks His 22-Year Indoor 1500m Record

Very fair play, as usual, the former Moroccan athlete expressed his pride in having held the indoor 1,500m record for such a long period, while congratulating the Ethiopian athlete. "I am very proud and happy to have held the indoor 1500m record for 22 years. I would like to congratulate Samuel Tefera for his excellent race and wish him good luck for the rest of his career," Hicham El Guerrouj wrote on his Twitter account.

The Moroccan still holds the mile record, which he almost lost last week, and especially the 1,500 meters in 3 minutes and 26 seconds that he snatched from the excellent Algerian athlete Noureddine Morceli and which will be very difficult for other athletes to reach. He is also the holder of the world record in the 2,000 meters, a distance he covered in 4 min 44 s 79.

Hicham El Guerrouj was the undisputed master of middle distance running in the late 1990s and early 2000s and was elected IAAF Athlete of the Year in 2001, 2002 and 2003, three consecutive years.

After retiring from his career, he began management studies in the United States and became the exclusive distributor of the Nike brand in Morocco in 2011.

The Moroccan’s 1,500m world record in 1998 in Rome: