Soufiane El Bakkali ( ar, سفيان البقالي, born 7 January 1996) is a Moroccan male runner specializing in the

3000 metres steeplechase The 3000 metres steeplechase or 3000-meter steeplechase (usually abbreviated as ) is the most common distance for the steeplechase in track and field. It is an obstacle race over the distance of the 3000 metres, which derives its name from the ...

. He is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion, having previously finished fourth at the

2016 Rio Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

. At the

World Athletics Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the ...

, El Bakkali won the gold medal in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

, silver in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and bronze in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. He also placed third at the

2019 African Games The 12th African Games was held from 19 to 31 August 2019 in Rabat, Morocco. This was the first time that the African Games were hosted by Morocco following the country's readmission to the African Union in January 2017. Bidding process The 12t ...

and second at the 2018 African Championships. El Bakkali was in his specialist event the

2022 Diamond League The 2022 Diamond League was the thirteenth season of the Diamond League, an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by World Athletics. The competition was a revision to the top level athletics series since the Diamond League ...

champion.

Career

At age 18, Soufiane El Bakkali placed fourth in the

3000 m steeplechase The 3000 metres steeplechase or 3000-meter steeplechase (usually abbreviated as ) is the most common distance for the steeplechase in track and field. It is an obstacle race over the distance of the 3000 metres, which derives its name from the h ...

at the

2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition for athletes qualifying as juniors (born 1995 or later) which was held at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, USA, on 22–27 July 2014. A total of 44 ...

, and then made his senior debut at the

2014 African Championships in Athletics The 2014 African Championships in Athletics was held in Marrakech, Morocco from 10 to 14 August 2014. The competition was the 19th edition of Africa senior championships. The competition served as preparation to African athletes for the next conti ...

, taking tenth in the event. He also competed in

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open ...

and was 18th as a junior at the

2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships () was the 41st edition of the global championships in cross country running, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held in Guiyang, China on 28 March. It was th ...

. He gained selection for

Morocco at the 2016 Summer Olympics Morocco competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics. Moroccan Olympic Committee (french: Comité Olympique Marocain) fielded a squ ...

after a personal best of 8:14.41 minutes to take fourth in his specialist event at the

Herculis The Herculis is an annual track and field meet at Stade Louis II in Fontvieille, Monaco. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and f ...

meeting. At the

Rio Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

, El Bakkali improved his personal best further to 8:14.35 minutes and finished fourth.Soufiane El Bakkali
. Rio2016. Retrieved on 19 August 2016. He won the silver medal at the 2017 World Championships held in London in a time of 8:14.49 behind only

Conseslus Kipruto Conseslus Kipruto (born 8 December 1994) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specializes in the 3000 metres steeplechase. He was the 2016 Rio Olympic champion in the event. At the World Athletics Championships, Kipruto won gold medals in 2 ...

who ran 8:14.12. Two years later, at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the c ...

, Qatar El Bakkali earned a bronze with a season's best of 8:03.76 behind Kipruto (8:01.35) and

Lamecha Girma Lamecha Girma (born 26 November 2000) is an Ethiopian athlete who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase. He is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist in the event and won silver medals at the 2019 and 2022 World Athletics Championships. L ...

(8:01.36). On 3 September 2020, he won the 1500 metres race at the 14th International Marseille Athletics Meeting in France. El Bakkali qualified to represent Morocco at the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

where he won the gold medal in his signature event with a time of 8:08.90, ahead of Girma in 8:10.38 and

Benjamin Kigen Benjamin Kigen (born July 5, 1993) is a Kenyan athlete who competes primarily in the 3000 metres steeplechase. He won the bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Kigen took gold at the 2019 All-Africa Games. He is from Baringo County, Kenya and ...

(8:11.45). He thus became the first non-Kenyan-born athlete to win the title since Poland’s Bronislaw Malinowski did so at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and the first non-Kenyan gold medallist at the Olympics or World Championships since 1987. On 18 September 2021, El Bakkali won his specialty event at the

Kip Keino Classic The Kip Keino Classic is a track and field meeting held at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya and named after Olympian Kipchoge Keino. The inaugural edition took place in 2020 as part of the inaugural World Athletics Continental Tour The Wor ...

meeting in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city prope ...

, Kenya, finishing with a 8:21.20 clocking. On 18 July 2022 at the

held in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census ...

, El Bakkali became the world champion, winning the gold medal in the 3000 m steeplechase with a time of 8:25.13 ahead of Lamecha Girma (8:26.01) and Conseslus Kipruto (8:27.92). In September at the

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

final in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich () i ...

, he claimed his first Diamond Trophy. Just three days later, he capped his fine season with an African best in the 2000 m steeplechase, running 5:14.06 at the

Hanžeković Memorial Hanžeković Memorial ( hr, Hanžekovićev memorijal) is an athletics event at the Sportski Park Mladost athletic stadium in Zagreb, Croatia as part of the IAAF World Challenge Meetings. It was first organized in 1951. ''Hanžek'' (which is t ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Sl ...

to move to third on the world all-time list for the event. El Bakkali was undefeated and ran the fastest time in the world that season, clocking 7:58.28 at Rabat Diamond League. In November, he was shortlisted for the men's World Athletics' World Athlete of the Year award.

Achievements

International competitions

Circuit wins and titles

champion 3000 m steeplechase: Diamond blue

:: 3000 metres steeplechase wins, other events specified in parenthesis :*

: Stockholm Bauhaus-galan,

Rabat Meeting Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populatio ...

() :*

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

: Monaco Herculis ( PB) :*

Doha Diamond League The Doha Diamond League is an annual one-day track and field meeting held at the Suheim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Qatar. It is part of the Diamond League – the top level international circuit for the sport. It is typically held in May as the ...

(WL), Monaco Herculis (WL),

Meeting de Paris Meeting de Paris (formerly known as the Meeting Areva and Meeting Gaz de France) is an annual track and field meeting at the Stade Sébastien Charléty in Paris, France. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamon ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...

: Monaco (WL) :*

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

: Rome Golden Gala in Florence :*

: Doha (WL), Rabat (WL ), Lausanne Athletissima, Zürich Weltklasse * World Continental Tour :: 3000 metres steeplechase wins, other events specified in parenthesis :* 2022: Zagreb Hanžeković Memorial (2000 m st.)

Personal bests

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athle ...

– 3:31.95 (

2021) **

2000 metres The 2000 metres or 2000-metre run is a track running event where five laps are completed around an outdoor 400 m track, or ten laps around a 200 m indoor track - the distance is 11.68 meters short of 1¼ miles. The global governing body World Ath ...

indoor – 5:00.55 (

Liévin Liévin (; pcd, Lévin; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The inhabitants are called ''Liévinois''. Overview The town of Liévin is an old mining area of Pas-de-Calais. Near Lens, this town is of modest size bu ...

2019) *

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

– 7:37.18 (

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; german: link=no, Königshütte ; szl, Chorzōw) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population ...

2021) ** 3000 metres indoor – 7:41.88 (

2018) *

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a sta ...

– 13:47.76 ( Rabat 2014) ** 5000 metres indoor – 13:10.60 (

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

2017) *

2000 metres steeplechase The 2000 meter steeplechase is a rarely run senior athletics and a standard youth athletics event for the steeplechase in track and field. The event is part of the athletics programme for boys and girls at the IAAF World Youth Championships in ...

– 5:14.06 (

2022) African best *

– 7:58.15 (

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word ...

2018)

Awards

Confederation of African Athletics The Confederation of African Athletics (CAA; French: ''Confédération Africaine d'Athlétisme'') is the continental association for the sport of athletics in Africa. It is headquartered in Dakar, Senegal. It organises the African Championships i ...

Best Male Athlete of the Year: 2022

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakkali, Soufiane Living people 1996 births Moroccan male steeplechase runners Moroccan male middle-distance runners Olympic athletes of Morocco Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for Morocco Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Morocco Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Mediterranean Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 African Games African Games bronze medalists for Morocco People from Fez, Morocco Mediterranean Games gold medalists in athletics African Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic gold medalists for Morocco Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics