© Stade de France ®
Macary, Zublena et Regembal
Costantini - Architects
ADAGP - Paris - 2002
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COMPETITION  PORTRAITS |
 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE-DISTANCE STAR
Paris 2003 Saint-Denis
Undisputed master of the 1,500 and track legend, Hicham El Guerrouj has set himself a unique challenge : the 1,500-5,000m double at Paris Saint-Denis. We take a look at how this athletics’ phenomenon rose to fame.
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| Vandystadt |
The successor to Aouita
Like Saïd Aouita in the eighties, El Guerrouj is a genuine superstar in Morocco, as popular, if not more so, than the King himself. For Hicham El-Guerrouj basks in an aura which transcends all borders, courtesy of his status as 1,500 metres supremo. Since he was little more than seven years of age, the man who says he draws his strength from his belief in God has dominated distance running in outrageous style. If it wasn’t for the monumental stature of the few triumphs he has let slip through his fingers during his career so far, he would come close to an invincible figure. Once the Olympic games got underway, it was as if some sort of curse descended upon the Moroccan. Few who witnessed it can have forgotten the sight of El Guerrouj floundering on the track after having caught the heel of arch rival Noureddine Morceli at Atlanta in 1996. Unbeaten throughout the entire 2000 season at 1,500 m and the mile, the gold medal seemed to have his name on it at Sydney. But in a crushing twist of fate, his old pacemaker Noah Ngeny snatched victory and Olympic triumph from him at the death.
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| In Sydney, Ngeny snatched victory and Olympic triumph from him at the death Vandystadt |
Forget Atlanta…
But if there’s any competition in which King Hicham appears infallible, it’s the World Championships. It was in Gothenburg, after all, where he first came to attention by pocketing an unexpected silver medal at a point when he was regarded as primarily a 5,000 m runner, a distance at which he had already picked up medals (3rd at the Junior World Championships in 1992). Noureddine Morceli didn’t yet suspect that his middle-distance reign was approaching its end, his successor already designated. Shortly after the Atlanta episode, during the final of the Milan Grand Prix that September, El Guerrouj dealt a fatal blow to the Algerian, unbeaten at the time since 1992.
Morceli’s dethroning
The World Championships in Seville were the scene of the official transfer of power. During the last lap, the Morrocan, fresh from breaking the world indoor 1,500m and mile records, usurped his rival and launched himself on the path towards the first of his three world titles. Nothing could stop the rise to prominence of the new middle-distance maestro. On 14 July 1998 at the Golden League meeting in Rome, he delivered one of the finest performances in the history of athletics. An incredible last lap completed in 53’’5 enabled him to better by 1’’73 the 1,500m world record then held by none other than…Morceli (3’26’’00). One year on, the latter would also be dispossessed of his mile world record (3’43’’13).
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« The Stade de France track is magical »
Despite being almost 29 and having a plethora of medals, Hicham El Guerrouj has clearly lost not one iota of his conscientious approach to competition. The plateaus of the Atlas mountains provide him with an ideal setting in which to ready himself for the latest in a long line of challenges: the 1,500m and 5,000m double at the Paris Saint-Denis World Championships in Athletics, a feat no athlete has ever attempted. But the Stade de France® feels like his own back yard to him: “When people talk of Paris these days, you think of the Eiffel Tower, fashion, perfume etc., but also now the Stade de France, and therefore athletics, he opined on the FFA website in June 2002. It’s a unique stadium, absolutely incomparable. The track is perfect and fast: it’s almost as if it gives me energy! It’s truly magical…” And who are we to argue with King Hicham…
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