User:Habst/Saad Hinti

Saad Hinti (سعد حنتي; born 27 April 2002) is a Moroccan hurdler specialising in the 400 metres hurdles. He is the Moroccan Athletics Championships record-holder in the 400 m hurdles, and he won the gold medal in that event at the 2023 Francophone Games.

Biography
At the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games, Hinti advanced to the finals of the 400 m hurdles by finishing 2nd in his heat, behind Yasmani Copello. In the finals, he finished 6th with a time of 50.28.

Hinti was entered into the 400 m hurdles at the 2021 World Athletics U20 Championships, but he did not start his first-round race. Combined with a false start, this led to a unique situation in which the three remaining competitors of his heat only needed to finish the race in any time to guarantee qualification to the semifinals, as the top three per heat were given automatic qualifiers.

Hinti was also entered in the 400 m hurdles at the 2022 African Championships and 2022 Mediterranean Games, but he did not start either race. At the 2022 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat, Hinti finished 7th place in the 400 m hurdles, beating by default the Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm who did not finish the race. The following month on 22 July, Hinti won the Moroccan Athletics Championships 400 m hurdles title in a new championship record of 50.29 seconds.

At the 2023 Arab Athletics Championships, Hinti won the silver medal in the 400 m hurdles, losing only to a championship record performance by Bassem Hemeida of Qatar. During the separate 2023 Arab Games in Algeria, Hinti qualified for the finals but did not start them, finishing 8th by default.