Three brothers will run in the Spanish Athletics Championships: “It’s a pride and a joy”

The Spanish Athletics Championships that will be held this weekend in La Nucía present a very special situation: three siblings – two boys and a girl – will compete on the same day, in the same championship, just a few minutes apart.

Is about Abderrahman, Soukaina and Abdelmonaim El Khayamithree brothers, 28, 26 and 22 years old respectively, who have lived, studied, worked and trained in Spain for almost two decades.

“It’s a pride and a joy to be able to share it with the dearest siblings. It’s a pleasure because there are no such families,” said Abderramán, the eldest of the three, in an interview with RUNEDIA, who has already measured himself against his younger brother in other championships.

“Recently I competed against my brother in the Spanish university championships, where we ran for different universities in the 1,500m event and we were both on the podium: I won the gold medal and he won the bronze,” said Abderramán, and jokes : ” At the moment I won but they fought hard, so I only have a few years of glory.”

The El Khayami brothers They came to Spain from Morocco with their family in 2005. and they lived in Sagunto, in the province of Valencia.

“We are a fairly large family, seven siblings, of which four came first and the other three came a little later. We were a little separated at the beginning and now, thank God, we are all together,” said Abderramán, who is first in the family to do athletics and passed his passion for sports on to his siblings.

“I have to admit that I am to blame. They have always seen me compete since I started in athletics and tried to follow my career. I feel very proud to deliver the values ​​of athletics. We have not had it easy to get to if where are we now,” said Abderramán, who He did not obtain Spanish nationality until 2019.

“It was easier for my brother because he came younger and my father has Spanish nationality, so he got it right away. But my brother is still doing the paperwork and still has no nationality. That’s why he can qualify for many federation teams” explanation of the obstacle.

Both Abdelmonaim and Soukaina will run the 1,500m semi-final on Saturday afternoon, he in the men’s category and she in the women’s category, a distance in which they became regional champions.

“If they make it to the final, I’ll buy them dinner,” said the oldest of the siblings. To be honest, Soukaina barely passed, because he didn’t have Spanish nationality, he couldn’t compete in the final of the Championship.

“It is a struggle, being a high-level athlete and being among the first in the ranking, she cannot qualify for the benefits of being there because she has no nationality. She is going through the process that I went through. a person who grew up here “Here he since he was 6 years old, he has been studying and working here since he was 16, contributing to this country and he cannot have the same opportunities as a person with Spanish nationality, who has done everything he needs to do,” said the athlete.

The 1,500m semifinals begin on Saturday at 8:00 pm and feature notable athletes such as Marta Perez, Esther Guerrero and Agueda Marques in women and Adel Mechaal, Jesús Gómez and Mario García Romo to men.

Abderramán, for his part, will face established athletes such as Daniel Arce and Sebastian Martos in the 3,000m steeplechase final starting at 9:05 pm

“They tell me I’m the rookie because it’s my first year as a hurdler, but I’ll try to do the best possible position. I’m in shape, I’ve done a good job to get here and I think I can fight for in the first positions”, the athlete confessed.

The entire Spanish Athletics Championship can be watched live RTVE Play.