Spanish-Moroccan Runner Mohamed Katir Shatters 3,000m Indoor Track Record

Mohamed Katir, who considers himself "100% Spanish", started out in sports playing football, where he played as a forward. But he felt he was not technically up to par. Then he turned to athletics, after winning a race at the university.

After four years of administrative procedures, he finally obtained Spanish nationality in October 2019, even though he was already making a name for himself as an athlete, participating in middle and long distance competitions and had even won a Spanish championship, without being able to receive the title.

Katir completed the year 2020 marked by the pandemic, with a good performance at the San Silvestre Vallecana, in which he finished sixth and second best Spaniard with a time of 28:38. The first Spaniard, Ouassim Oumaiz (28:36), is also of Moroccan origin.

Before obtaining nationality, Katir already had several regional records to his credit. But in Karlsruhe, his career took an important turn. He finished with a time of 7:35.29, thus beating all the records, except that of the Kenyan Bethwell Birgen (bronze medalist at the last World Cup), who won with 7:34.12, the best time of the year.

In the Spanish ranking, Katir is ranked third of all time indoors, surpassing figures such as Fermín Cacho (7:36.61), Enrique Molina (7:39.19), Adel Mechaal (7:40.14) and Isaac Viciosa (7:41.46).