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Khalid Khannouchi

Personal information
Born	(1971-21-12) 12 September 1971 (age 40) Meknes, Morocco
Sport
Country
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	10,000 m: 27:45 Half Marathon: 1:00:27 Marathon: 2:05:38 Chicago Marathon (1st, 4x) London Marathon (1st, 1x)

Khalid Khannouchi (Arabic: خالد خنّوشي‎) (born September 12, 1971) is a Moroccan American marathoner. He was born in Meknes, Morocco. He is the former world record holder for the marathon and held the former road world best for the 20 km distance. He is one of only five men to break the marathon world record more than once, and one of only four to break their own marathon world record. (The others are Jim Peters, Derek Clayton, and Haile Gebrselassie.)

Khalid fell out with the Moroccan athletics federation over training expenses and moved to Brooklyn, New York City in 1992 with three of his friends. He married American Sandra Inoa in 1996 who now coaches him and acts as his agent. They have set up home in Ossining, New York. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States on May 2, 2000.

Achievements[link]

• 1993
  • World Student Games, winner of the men's 5000 metres in Buffalo.
• 1997
  • Chicago Marathon, winner (2:07:10), at that time the fastest debut marathon in history and the fourth fastest marathon of all time.
• 1998
  • Chicago Marathon, second place (2:07:19)
  • Peachtree Road Race 10k, winner (27:47)
  • Falmouth Road Race 7.1 miles, winner (31:48)
  • New Haven 20K, winner in a world road record (57:37)
• 1999
  • Chicago Marathon, winner in world record time (2:05:42)
  • Peachtree Road Race 10k, winner (27:45)
• 2000
  • London Marathon, third place (2:08:36)
  • Chicago Marathon, winner in a new American record (2:07:01)
• 2002
  • London Marathon, winner in world record time (2:05:38)
  • Chicago Marathon, winner (2:05:56), becoming the first man in history to break 2:06 twice in one year
  • Ranked as the number #1 marathoner in the world by Track & Field News and their American Athlete of the Year.
• 2004
  • Chicago Marathon, fifth place (2:08:44)
• 2006
  • London Marathon, 4th place (2:07:04), coming back from a long period of injury.
• 2007
  • London Marathon, did not finish.
  • United States Olympic Marathon Trials in New York City, 4th place (2:12:34)[1]

Khannouchi was the first marathoner to break 2:06:00. However, he lost the world record to Paul Tergat on September 28, 2003.

Audio interview[link]

• TheFinalSprint.com's 5/18/07 interview with Khalid Khannouchi before his NYC racing debut

External links[link]

• IAAF profile for Khalid Khannouchi

Records
Preceded by Ronaldo da Costa	Men's Marathon World Record Holder October 24, 1999 – September 28, 2003	Succeeded by Paul Tergat

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (January 2012) Don't speak French? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the French article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|fr|Hicham El Guerrouj}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Medal record
Hicham El Guerrouj (left)
Men's athletics
Competitor for  Morocco
Olympic Games
Gold	2004 Athens	1500 m
Gold	2004 Athens	5000 m
Silver	2000 Sydney	1500 m
World Championships
Gold	1997 Athens	1500 m
Gold	1999 Sevilla	1500 m
Gold	2001 Edmonton	1500 m
Gold	2003 Paris	1500 m
Silver	1995 Gothenburg	1500 m
Silver	2003 Paris	5000 m
World Indoor Championships
Gold	1995 Barcelona	1500 m
Gold	1997 Paris	1500 m
Gold	2001 Lisbon	3000 m

Hicham El Guerrouj "King of the Mile" (Moroccan Arabic: هشام الݣروج‎, born September 14, 1974, Berkane) is a Moroccan former middle distance runner. He is the current holder of the 1500 metres, mile and outdoor 2000 metres world records, as well as a double Olympic gold medalist. From about 1995 until his retirement from serious competition following the 2004 Olympics, he was the dominant middle distance runner of his day.

Early career[link]

Hicham El Guerrouj's first international triumph was in 1992 at age 18, when he was 3rd in the 5000 metres of the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul, behind Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia.

In 1994, he was a member of the Moroccan team in the 1994 IAAF World Road Relay Championships, which won the race in world record time.^[1][2]

El Guerrouj rose to international prominence in the mid-1990s with near-record times in the 1500 metres and mile. At the age of 20 he finished second in the 1500 metres at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. In 1996 after setting a new personal best over 1500 metres in 3:29.59 in Stockholm, he was considered one of the favourites for the Olympic gold.

1996 Atlanta Olympics - 1999 season[link]

El Guerrouj competed in his first Olympic Games in 1996 at Atlanta. Running the 1500 meters final, as he was moving into position to challenge for the lead,^[3] he fell with 400 m to go and finished last in 12th place. He had been expected to challenge the world record holder and three-time World champion, Noureddine Morceli.^[4][5]

One month later, at the Grand Prix final in Milan, El Guerrouj became the first runner to defeat Morceli over 1500 m in four years.^[6] In the following years, El Guerrouj became the only middle distance runner to win four consecutive world titles in 1997,^[7] 1999,^[8] 2001, and 2003^[9]

El Guerrouj set two world indoor records at the start of the 1997 season, starting with a 1500 m record of 3:31.18 at the Sparkassen Cup and setting a new indoor best of 3:48.45 in the mile run at the Indoor Flanders meeting a few weeks later. In 1998 in Rome, El Guerrouj broke Morceli's 1500 m world record (3:27.37) with a time of 3:26.00.^[10][11][12]

In 1999, also in Rome, El Guerrouj broke the world record in the mile set by Noureddine Morceli in 1993, with a time of 3:43.13. Noah Ngeny of Kenya, who ran second, was also under the previous world record with a time of 3:43.40. This was the first time in over 40 years that two men had bettered the mile world record in the same race.^[13]

Later that season he set a new world record over 2000 m in Berlin at 4:44.79, bettering the previous mark set by Morceli by more than three seconds. He also ran the second fastest 3000 m ever in Brussels.

2000 Sydney Olympics - 2003 season[link]

At the Sydney Olympics, El Guerrouj, finished second in the 1500 metres, behind Noah Ngeny, a Kenyan runner who ran as El Guerrouj's pacemaker when El Guerrouj ran his 1500 m world record in Rome in 1998.^{[14][15][16][17]}

El Guerrouj defended his 1500 m title in the 2001 and 2003 World Championships and came close to breaking his own 1500 m record in Brussels in 2001 with a time of 3:26.12. He also won 3 consecutive IAAF Golden League prizes in 2001, 2002 and 2003. He was the only middle distance athlete to produce the winning streak necessary to be entitled for a share of the jackpot of 50 kilograms (1,608 troy ounces) of gold (2000–2002) or USD 1 million (1998–1999, 2003–present). He remains the only athlete to have won it three times in a row.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, El Guerrouj set a personal best of 12:50.24 in the 5000 metres. Later in the year, at the World Track & Field Championships, he finished a close second to Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge in the 5000 meters, adding a silver to the gold he had previously won in the 1500 meters.

2004 Athens Olympics and retirement[link]

After a relatively poor start to the 2004 season that included slow times and an 8th place finish in a 1500 meter race in Rome, El Guerrouj won the gold medal in both the 1500 metres and 5000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Only 20 days before the Olympic final, 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Bernard Lagat ran the fastest 1500 m in 2004 (3:27.40), narrowly defeating El Guerrouj (3:27.64) at the Weltklasse Zürich meet on August 6. However, on August 24, El Guerrouj beat Lagat by 0.12 seconds in the Olympic 1500 m final, winning the gold medal. In a thrilling finale, entering the home straight El Guerrouj led, only to be overtaken by Lagat- and then El Guerrouj re-took the lead only a few strides from the line.^[18]

Four days later El Guerrouj won the 5,000 m final with a time of 13:14.39 preventing Kenenisa Bekele from achieving the 5000 m/10000 m distance double, last achieved by Ethiopian Miruts Yifter in 1980 Moscow Olympics.^[19]

El Guerrouj became then the first man in 80 years to win both 1500 m and 5000 m races in the same Olympics, last achieved by the "Flying Finn" Paavo Nurmi in 1924.

After the Olympics, El Guerrouj never again competed internationally, and announced his retirement on May 22, 2006.^{[20] [21]}

Awards and honours[link]

His sporting career is marked by numerous recognitions such as the award to humanitarian effort from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which he received in 1996. He is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. El Guerrouj was named IAAF World Athlete of the Year in 2001, 2002 and 2003 after remaining unbeaten in more than 20 races, becoming the first man to win the award in consecutive years. He was also named best athlete of the year by the athletics journal Track and Field News in 2002. In 2003, he was elected as a member of the IAAF Athletes Committee.

On September 7, 2004, El Guerrouj was decorated with the "Cordon de Commandeur" by King Mohammed VI of Morocco. In the same year, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Awards.^[22]

He is a member of the International Olympic Committee Athletes' Commission.

Hicham El Guerrouj is today an Ambassador for Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization,^[23] as well as a member of its ‘Champions for Peace’ club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport.

Personal bests[link]

The following table includes El Guerrouj's personal best times as published by the IAAF:^[24]

Titles and major results[link]

(1500 meters unless indicated)

See also[link]

• World record progression for the mile run
• Fédération Royale Marocaine d’Athlétisme
• Saïd Aouita

References and notes[link]

External links[link]

• Video of Hicham El Guerrouj breaking the mile world record
• IAAF profile for Hicham El Guerrouj
• El Guerrouj diary at IAAF

Records
Preceded by Noureddine Morceli	Men's 1500 m World Record Holder July 14, 1998 —	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Noureddine Morceli	Men's Mile World Record Holder July 7, 1999 –	Succeeded by Incumbent
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Haile Gebrselassie	Men's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 1999	Succeeded by Virgilijus Alekna
Preceded by Virgilijus Alekna	Men's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 2001 – 2003	Succeeded by Kenenisa Bekele
Sporting positions
Preceded by Haile Gebrselassie	Men's 3000 m Best Year Performance 1999	Succeeded by Ali Saïdi-Sief
Preceded by Benjamin Limo	Men's 3000 m Best Year Performance 2003	Succeeded by Eliud Kipchoge
Preceded by Noureddine Morceli	Men's 1500 m Best Year Performance 1996 – 2003	Succeeded by Bernard Lagat