Jump to content

Ben Assou El Ghazi

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ben Assou El Ghazi
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Morocco
International Cross Country Championships
Gold medal – first place 1966 Rabat Senior race
Bronze medal – third place 1964 Dublin Senior team
Bronze medal – third place 1966 Rabat Senior team

Ben Assou El Ghazi (Arabic: بن أسو الغازي; born 1938) is a Moroccan long-distance runner who competed in track and cross country running events. He represented his country in the 3000 metres steeplechase at the 1964 Summer Olympics. He was the winner of the 1966 International Cross Country Championships – the second African to do so after Rhadi Ben Abdesselam. He also led the Moroccan team to African's first team medal at the tournament. He won two gold medals on the track at the 1965 Pan Arab Games.

Career

[edit]

El Ghazi first emerged as an international athlete at the 1964 International Cross Country Championships, where he ran in the Moroccan team and helped them (alongside Abdeslem Bouchta) to finish third in the rankings through his 17th-place finish.[1] Though fellow Moroccan Rhadi Ben Abdesselam had won the race four years earlier, this represented the first time that a non-European nation had reached the team podium in the international cross country competition.[2] El Ghazi's Olympic debut followed later that year and at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics he placed ninth in the final of the steeplechase.[3] He was Morocco's top performer at the 1965 International Cross Country Championships, but in 38th place he had fallen down the rankings.[4] Greater recognition came a t the 1965 Pan Arab Games, however, where he won a gold medal double in the 5000 metres and the steeplechase (setting a games record in the latter event. This extended Moroccan dominance in the events, as his countrymen Saïd Gerouani Benmoha and Abdeslem Bouchta were the previous champions.[5]

The 1966 season proved to be the greatest of El Ghazi's career. Based in Rabat, he had been given six months off from work in order to train for the upcoming cross country championships.[6] First came a victory at the World Military Cross Country Championships, taking the title from Tunisian Mohammed Gammoudi[7] Gammoudi was absent from the 1966 International Cross Country Championships and defending champion Jean Fayolle was not in the running.[8] El Ghazi crossed the line some seven seconds ahead of the next competitor Derek Graham of Ireland.[6] This made him only the second African to win the title, after Rhadi Ben Abdesselam, and he led the team to the continent's second team medal in the race with the help of Ahmed Oukbouch.[8] His win highlighted the increasingly global nature of the competition during this period.[9]

His career declined shortly after but he made three more appearances at the International Cross Country Championships. Absent for the 1967 race, he returned in 1968 and placed 24th, with Mohamed Said and Larbi Oukada taking up the role of Morocco's top runners.[10] The Moroccan team also suffered a decline alongside that of El Ghazi: their men took fifth in 1968, seventh at the 1969 race (where El Ghazi was 28th) and then sixth in the 1971 race, where El Ghazi finished 49th in his last appearance.[4] No Moroccan reached the top fifteen in this period. A revival occurred in 1972 when four men achieved that feat to bring Morocco to second – the best placing of an African team in the competition's history.[2][11]

The final highlight of El Ghazi's career came in the steeplechase: he completed a Moroccan 1–2 as a silver medallist behind Miloud Chenna at the 1971 Maghreb Athletics Championships.[12]

International competitions

[edit]
Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
1964 International Cross Country Championships Dublin, Ireland 17th Senior race 41:39
3rd Senior team 149 pts
Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 9th 3000 m s'chase 8:43.6
1965 International Cross Country Championships Ostend, Belgium 38th Senior race 38:21
8th Senior team 330 pts
Pan Arab Games Cairo, Egypt 1st 5000 m 15:02.4
1st 3000 m s'chase 9:21.0 GR
1966 World Military Cross Country Championships Diekirch, Luxembourg 1st Senior race 31:50.0
International Cross Country Championships Rabat, Morocco 1st Senior race 36:22.1
3rd Senior team 184 pts
1968 International Cross Country Championships Tunis, Tunisia 24th Senior race 36:33
5th Senior team 178 pts
1969 International Cross Country Championships Clydebank, Scotland 28th Senior race 38:17
7th Senior team 228 pts
1971 International Cross Country Championships San Sebastián, Spain 49th Senior race 40:59
6th Senior team 215 pts
Maghreb Athletics Championships Casablanca, Morocco 2nd 3000 m s'chase 8:56.8

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Magnusson, Tomas (2007-03-24), INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS - 12.1km CC Men - San Sebastian Lasarte Hippodrome Date: Sunday, March 17, 1963. Athchamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  2. ^ a b International Cross Country Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  3. ^ Ben Assou El-Ghazi. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  4. ^ a b Ben Assou El Ghazi (1938. . ). AthChamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  5. ^ Pan Arab Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  6. ^ a b Derek Graham Interview. Annadale Striders. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  7. ^ World Military Crosscountry Championships. Association of Road Racing Statisticians (2014-09-16). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  8. ^ a b Magnusson, Tomas (2007-04-24). INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS - 12.1km CC Men - Rabat Souissi Racecourse Date: Sunday, March 20, 1966. Athchamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  9. ^ From Alfred Shrubb to Paul Tergat: the fascinating story of Cross Country. IAAF (1999-03-16). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  10. ^ Magnusson, Tomas (2007-03-24), INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS - 12.1km CC Men - Tunis (Men) / Blackburn (Women) Hippodrome de Kassar-Said (M) / Witton Park (W) Date: Sunday, March 17, 1968. Athchamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  11. ^ International Cross Country Championships 12.1km CC Men Cambridge Coldham Common Date: Saturday, March 18, 1972. AthChamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
  12. ^ Maghreb Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ben_Assou_El_Ghazi&oldid=1254512178"