Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali retained his Olympic 3,000m steeplechase title on Wednesday and became just the third Arab to win double gold, while world record holder Lamecha Girma suffered a worrying fall at the 2024 Paris Olympics. 8min 06.05sec to victory with American Kenneth Rooks taking silver in 8m06.41 and Kenyan Abraham Kibiwot taking bronze (8m06.47). Girma, from Ethiopia, was left lying on the track after falling into an obstacle before being knocked off the stretcher.
Girma was taken to hospital, according to a source at the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, but did not undergo surgery.
El Bakkali became the second man to successfully defend his Olympic steeplechase title after Volmari Iso-Hollo of Finland last achieved the feat at the 1936 Berlin Games, but said the year was “not easy”.
“I was suffering from an injury and I managed to overcome it,” said El Bakkali, who managed to break down the Ethiopian team’s tactics with the help of his teammate Mohamed Tindouft.
“The race was not easy. There was an Ethiopian plan and thank God my compatriot Tindouft helped me. I asked him during the race to do anything to help me, so he put himself in front and increased the pace to break the Ethiopian block .”
El Bakkali admitted that his injury problems made him think he might not take part in Paris.
“Forgive me, now I understand what I did,” he said, in tears after the race.
“I made history with this second consecutive Olympic title and I owe it to the Moroccan fans who never stopped supporting me with their messages to which I was unable to respond, and to the current and former champions.”
El Bakkali, 28, arrived at the Olympics with a target on his back, having won the last three world championships.
After triumphing for the first time at the Covid-postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when he became the first non-Kenyan runner to win the Olympic steeplechase title since 1980, he confirmed his status with back-to-back world championship victories in Eugene and Budapest .
His second Olympic gold in the French capital leaves him in rare company among Arab athletes for having achieved a double at the Summer Games.
Only his Moroccan compatriot Hicham El Guerrouj, who won gold in the 1,500m and 5,000m in Athens 2004, and Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli (1,500m freestyle in Beijing 2008 and 10km marathon in London 2012) have achieved the feat.
As El Bakkali accelerated to victory, there was concern for Girma, the world record holder who crashed badly at the penultimate hurdle.
Girma hit the obstacle with her knee and dove head first onto the track. He lay prone and motionless before receiving medical treatment.
He finally left the track on a stretcher with his neck restrained by a brace.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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