Olympic Champion El Bakkali Dominates 3,000m Steeplechase in Monaco Return

– byBladi.net · 1 min read
Olympic Champion El Bakkali Dominates 3,000m Steeplechase in Monaco Return

The Moroccan athlete Soufiane El Bakkali won the Monaco meeting, after more than 4 months of stoppage due to coronavirus. He achieved the best world performance by confirming his status as number 1 in the 3,000 m steeplechase event with a time of 8:08.04.

The Moroccan athlete, world No. 1 in this event since 2018 at the Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, won this international competition in Monaco by overtaking the Kenyan Leonard Bett (8’08"78) and the Frenchman Djilali Bedrani (8’13"43). Three years ago, he had held the 2nd place in the world in London and Brussels.

On July 20, 2018, at the Herculis Meeting in Monaco, he had won the event with a time of 7 min 58 s 155, thus becoming the 10th fastest runner in the distance.

Native of Fez, he joined the athletics section of the Fès Country Club during a large detection operation exclusively for the 3,600 schoolchildren in the working-class district of El Merja1.