Mounir Akbache

Mounir Akbache (born 14 March 1986) is a French middle-distance runner. After achieving modest success on the national level, he became a pacemaker (also known as a rabbit) for the Diamond League. As a rabbit, Akbache has paced several middle-distance world records in athletics, including for the indoor 3000 metres and outdoor 2000 metres.

Athletics career
Akbache's individual career started as early as 2006, and he raced at several French Athletics Championships with a best placing of 4th at the 2015 indoor edition in the 1500 metres. Despite national-level successes, he was not able to qualify for the highest level of international competition, so he became a pacemaker.

Pacing career
Akbache paced his first world record at the 2023 Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais, leading Lamecha Girma to break a 25-year-old record in the indoor 3000 metres. Speaking in French after the race, Akbache said, "I could feel that [Girma] was hyper-confident. He'd done some crazy sessions in training, he knew he had the world record in his legs".

Akbache is one of Jakob Ingebrigtsen's favorite pacemakers, helping Ingebrigtsen break the 2000 metres world record at the 2023 Memorial Van Damme. At the 2023 Bislett Games, Akbache paced Ingebrigtsen through the first lap in 55.47 seconds, leading Track & Field News to state "the pacing couldn't have been better". Ingebrigtsen would set a best of 3:27.95 in that race, a national record.

Personal life
Akbache is a member of the Club athlétique de Montreuil 93 athletics club in France. He studied at the Institut national des sciences appliquées de Lyon, and he is also an engineer at the Roads Testing and Materials Department for the Centre Expérimental de Recherches et d'Etudes du Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics.