The Tale of an ex-Moroccan.
Rashid Ramzi was a young Moroccan athlete struggling for recognition in his home country, so he moved to Bahrain, joined their armed forces, and later took out citizenship.
Six years later he's won them their first Olympic medal on the track - and it happens to be one of the most coveted of all.
It wasn't one of the great 1500-metre finals. Not that Ramzi could care less. In fact the field simply played into his hands, particularly the Kenyans, doing all the work early on, and allowing Ramzi deliver his turbo-charged finish to claim the title in 3:32.94.
Morocco will still play some part in the celebration. He still trains there, and if anyone had to claim the title from their previous champion, Hicham El Guerrouj, then Ramzi was surely the man. Ramzi was quick to say that there was no ill-feeling over his departure from Morocco. "This is a huge achievement for a small country, but I think Moroccans would also be happy," Ramzi said. "A group of Moroccan journalists have also congratulated me."
The 1500 metres was a pretty rough affair with a lot of pushing and shoving and so the clean run of Moroccan 21 year old Abdalaati Iguider was a fabulous effort he came in 6th in 3:34.66.
Asbel Kipruto Kiprop from Kenya won the silver medal and a result to make our kiwi readers smile - Nicholas Willis from New Zealand picked up the bronze medal.
Olympic Updates.
Update One
Update Two
Update Three
Update Four
Update Five
Update Six
Moroccan woman joins IOC
Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
1 comment:
Don't sugar coat it! Rachid Ramzi left Morocco's team because he was treated poorly by the Royal Athletic Federation after sustaining an injury. Bahrain welcomed him with open arms. He may not harbour bad feelings toward the Moroccan people (as well he shouldn't - just look at their support of him in the blogosphere!) but there's a reason he's running for another country.
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