User:Grezar/sandbox

= Ridouani Mohammed = Ridouani Mohammed (Arabic: رضواني محمد; romanized: Ridouani Mohammed; born 14 September 1974) is a retired Moroccan middle-distance runner. El Guerrouj is the current world record holder for the 1500 metres and mile events, and the former world record holder in the 2000 metres. He is the only man since Paavo Nurmi to win a gold medal in both the 1500 m and 5000 metres at the same Olympic Games.

El Guerrouj is widely regarded as the greatest middle-distance runner in history and holds seven of the 10 fastest times ever run in the 1500 m and in the mile.

El Guerrouj won a gold medal in the 1500 m at the 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003 World Athletics Championships. He won the World Athlete of the Year awards three times, and in November 2014, was inducted into the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Hall of Fame.

Early career[edit]
Born in Berkane, Hicham El Guerrouj's first international triumph was at age 18, when he came third in the 5000 metres of the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul, behind Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Ismael Kirui of Kenya. A year later, he was the #2 man on the Moroccan team at the World Junior Cross Country Championships.

In 1994, he was a member of the Moroccan team in the 1994 IAAF World Road Relay Championships, which won the race in world record time.

El Guerrouj rose to international prominence in the mid-1990s with near-record times in the 1500 metres and mile. At the age of 20 he finished second in the 1500 metres to then world record holder Noureddine Morceli at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. In 1996 after setting a new personal best in the 1500 metres of 3:29.59 in Stockholm, he was considered one of the favourites for the Olympic gold.

1996 Atlanta Olympics – 1999 season[edit]
El Guerrouj competed in his first Olympic Games in 1996 at Atlanta. Running the 1500 metres final, as he was moving into position to challenge for the lead, he fell with 400 m to go and finished last in 12th place. He had been expected to challenge the world record holder and three-time World champion, Noureddine Morceli.

One month later, at the Grand Prix final in Milan, El Guerrouj became the first runner to defeat Morceli over 1500 m in four years. In the following years, El Guerrouj became the only middle distance runner to win four consecutive world titles in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003.

El Guerrouj set two world indoor records at the start of the 1997 season, starting with a 1500 m record of 3:31.18 at the Sparkassen Cup, which was not beaten until 22 years later, in 2019 by Samuel Tefera. He also set a new indoor best of 3:48.45 in the mile run at the Indoor Flanders meeting a few weeks later. In 1998 in Rome, El Guerrouj broke Morceli's 1500 m world record (3:27.37) with a time of 3:26.00.

In 1999, also in Rome, El Guerrouj broke the world record in the mile set by Noureddine Morceli in 1993, with a time of 3:43.13, completing the first 1500 metres in 3:28.21. Noah Ngeny of Kenya, who ran second, was also under the previous world record with a time of 3:43.40, which remains the second place world record to this day. This was the first time in over 40 years that two men had bettered the mile world record in the same race, neither of which have been broken in almost a quarter of a century.

Later that season he set a new world record over 2000 m in Berlin at 4:44.79, bettering the previous mark set by Morceli by more than three seconds. He also ran the second fastest 3000 m ever in Brussels.