Moroccan Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali has yet again lived up to expectations at the 3,000 meters steeplechase final at the Budapest World Athletics Championships, his second world champion medal in the discipline with a time of 8 minutes 03 seconds 53 milliseconds.
This 19th championship edition, which is taking place between August 19-27, saw a sporting highlight with a summit duel between El Bakkali and Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma in the 3,000 meters steeplechase.
Unbeaten since September 2021, El Bakkali, who is now 27, is the undisputed world number 1 in the 3,000 meters steeplechase, having put an end to the Kenyan hegemony in the discipline.
In 2021, the Moroccan athlete made history when he won the Olympic gold medal in the 3,000 meters steeplechase in Tokyo, becoming the first Moroccan athlete to do so.
Another world title in Eugene in the US ended a run of seven consecutive world titles for the Kenyans, the last two of which were won by Conselsus Kipruto.
After featuring in the Top 5 of the final list of athletes shortlisted for the World Athletics Awards 2022 thanks to his outstanding performances, the Moroccan athlete continued his momentum into 2023, clocking a season’s World Best Performance (WBP) of 7 minutes 56 seconds 68 milliseconds on May 28 at the Mohammed VI International Athletics Meeting.
El Bakkali also won the 3,000 meters steeplechase in Stockholm on July 2, then in Silesia in Poland on July 16 of this year.
His rival, Girma, made his mark this year by breaking the world record, held since 2004 by Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen, at the Paris Diamond League meeting in June, with a time of 7
minutes 52 seconds 11 milliseconds.
