the moroccan Soufiane El Bakkaligold in Tokyo 2020was declared this Sunday champion of the 3,000 -meter hurdles Eugene World Championships in Athletics (USA), a test in which the Spaniards Daniel Arce and Sebastian Martos they finished in ninth and fourteenth position, respectively.
In a spectacular sprint on the last lap, The Bakkali gold was hung in a race where he didn’t show his head until the end.
The Moroccan thus became the first athlete not to be born Kenya to win 3,000 obstacles in a World Championship since Italian Francesco Panetta in 1987.
Bakkali, who went bronze at the 2019 Doha World Cups and silver at the 2017 London World Cups, achieved a time of 8: 25.13.
The silver, with a time of 8: 26.01, went to Ethiopian Lamecha Girma, who was also second in Tokyo 2020 and Doha 2019; while the bronze, with a time of 8: 27.92, went to Kenyan Conseslus Kipruto, gold in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and double World Champion in London 2017 and Doha 2019.
For the Spanish representatives, Daniel Arce was ninth with a time of 8: 30.05 and Sebastián Martos was in fourteenth position (out of fifteen participants in the final) with a time of 8: 36.66.
In a slow final, Martos, a five -time Spanish champion, started the race with courage and led the test in the first kilometer while Arce, the current national champion, took shelter behind the group.
With five laps remaining, Girma and Kipruto increased the intensity of the race but Arce and Martos reached the final 800 meters in the group of the best.
Meanwhile, El Bakkali waited for his moment and that came in the final lap, where he hit the table hard to leave all his rivals and take the victory.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
