Moroccan aims for gold in Olympic athletics, boxing

31/07/2008

Moroccan athletes hope to add more Olympic medals to the country's collection, with a heavy emphasis on boxing and athletics competitions.

By Mawassi Lahcen for Magharebia in Casablanca – 31/07/08

[Getty Images] The retirement of athletics greats such as Hicham El Guerrouj has opened the road for younger athletes aspiring to success at the Beijing Olympics.

Thirty-eight young men and 11 young women will represent Morocco in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and an additional 18 disabled men will participate in the Paralympic Games in September, also to be held in the Chinese capital. The athletes all share the same hope and determination to ascend to the podium and raise their nation's flag.

In this year's Olympic Games, Morocco will compete in seven sports: athletics, boxing, taekwondo, judo, fencing, archery and swimming. At the Paralympics, four Moroccans will compete in weight lifting and 14 more in athletics.

Hasan Botkiout, manager of national teams for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, said preparations began early for the Beijing games in several sports, and the government provided additional grants for the athletes who were nominated. The government also provided permanent training facilities in Rabat, Casablanca, Ifrane and Maamoura Forest, north of Rabat.

Morocco, which has been participated in the Olympics since 1960, aspires to greater achievements in terms of medals. In previous games, Morocco has won a total of 19 medals; 16 in athletics events and three in boxing.

Botkiout told Magharebia that Morocco has improved its participation in the Olympic Games since 2004.

"In the past, we waited until the last minute to look for athletes and we would send them to participate in the Olympics without any efforts to prepare them," he said.

"In 2004," he continued, "we drew up a plan for permanent and continuous preparations for Moroccan participants in athletics. In this framework, Morocco established a specialised centre for training athletes and preparing them throughout the year. This policy was successful in athletics, so the government decided to broaden the experiment to include other sports, such as cycling, boxing, taekwondo, judo, wrestling and weight lifting."

Noureddine Benabdennbi, Secretary-General of the Moroccan National Olympic Committee, and leader of the Moroccan Olympic delegation which departed for Beijing July 29th, said, "In spite of the strong competition which we will see in Beijing, we are determined to defend our chances and to win some medals."

Athletics are Morocco's biggest event, with 28 athletes competing, including seven women. Second is boxing, with 10 participants.

We are fixing great hopes to athletics due to our long history and our capabilities in this field," Benabdennbi said. "It is true that we are now going through a transitional period, characterised by the retirement of leading athletes, such as Hicham El Guerrouj, Nezha Bidouane, and brothers Ibrahim and Khalid Boulami, but we have new, young rising champions who have enough abilities, enthusiasm and will to aspire to shine and receive the torch of championships and glories from the previous generation. We are also training new young athletes aged between 15 and 19 years in the National Athletics Institute, who are nominated to become the champions of future in the 800m, 1,500m and 5,000m events."

The Moroccan athletics team includes such leading athletes as Moroccan Olympic champion Hasna Ben Hassi (30 years old), Jawad Gharib (36), and Abderehim Ghomari (32). The team also includes promising young competitors, such as Abdelati Iguider (21), Mohamed Moustaoui (23) and Meriem Alaoui Selsouli (24), on whom Morocco is counting to win gold in the women's 5,000m, despite fierce Ethiopian competition.

In boxing, Morocco was able to qualify to participate in 10 out of 11 competitions approved for the Olympic Games. Morocco has won three bronze medals in boxing in previous years, but is aiming for gold this August in Beijing.