Morocco has won 33 medals, including 12 gold, in 19 editions of the World Athletics Championships since the competition began in 1983. The country will now send 20 athletes to the 20th edition in Tokyo from September 13 to 21, Morocco’s Press Agency (MAP) reported.
Morocco stood on the podium in 15 out of 19 editions, missing only Stuttgart 1993, Berlin 2009, Daegu 2011, and Moscow 2013.
The most successful campaign came in Seville in 1999, when Moroccan athletes achieved five medals. Hicham El Guerrouj won gold in the 1,500 meters, Salah Hissou took gold in the 5,000 meters, Nezha Bidouane and Zahra Ouaaziz earned silver, and Ali Ezzine claimed bronze. Morocco ranked fifth in the medal ranking that year.
El Guerrouj is Morocco’s most decorated athlete at the championships with six medals, including four gold in the 1,500 meters. He also won two silver medals, one in the 1,500 and another in the 5,000.
“El Guerrouj became one of the greatest athletes in history,” the Moroccan Athletics Federation said, recalling his double Olympic gold in Athens in 2004.
Soufiane El Bakkali has risen to become Morocco’s second most successful athlete. The steeplechase champion owns four medals: two gold, one silver, and one bronze. He defended his title in Budapest in 2023 and will compete again in Tokyo to seek a third consecutive gold.
Bidouane, one of Morocco’s greatest female athletes, won two golds in the 400-meter hurdles in Athens 1997 and Edmonton 2001, plus a silver in Seville.
Saïd Aouita, the pioneer of Moroccan track glory, wrote history in 1983 when he became the first Arab athlete to medal at the world championships, taking bronze in the 1,500 meters. Four years later, he won gold in the 5,000 meters.
Other milestones include Jaouad Gharib’s marathon titles in 2003 and 2005, Hasna Benhassi’s two silvers in the 800 meters, and Abdelaati Iguider’s bronze in Beijing 2015. In Eugene 2022, El Bakkali won Morocco’s first steeplechase gold, followed by a repeat in Budapest, where Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi added a bronze in the women’s marathon.
With a delegation of 14 men and 6 women, Morocco enters Tokyo with a legacy of dominance in middle and long-distance races. El Bakkali, the country’s current icon, carries the hopes of extending that tradition.
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