Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali won the 3000m steeplechase final at the Stade de France in Paris on Wednesday to claim historic back-to-back Olympic titles.
El Bakkali, who also won gold in Tokyo three years ago, timed his run perfectly, comfortably beating Kenneth Rooks of the USA and Kenya’s Abraham Kibiwot, who took silver and bronze, respectively.
The 28-year-old, who also won gold at the past two world championships, ran a season's best time of 8:06.05 to take the title.
The Olympic double elevates him into rare company as only Hicham El Guerrouj, winner of the 1500m and 5000m at the Athens Games of 2004, has ever brought two Olympic gold medals home for Morocco.
Lamecha Girma, the Ethiopian who finished second behind El Bakkali in Tokyo and who last year set the new world record time of 7:52.11 for the event, took a bad fall at a hurdle on the final lap and did not finish the race.
Meanwhile, Qatar's reigning Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim made it through the high jump qualifying round at Paris 2024 but not without a slight fitness niggle.
Barshim was one of four athletes in his group to clear the 2.27 metre benchmark to qualify joint-second behind the USA's Shelby McEwen, who flawlessly completed all his jumps. Barshim had missed his first attempt at 2.27m.
Barshim, 33, and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi, who famously agreed to share the gold medal in Tokyo rather than contest a jump-off, once again showed their friendship during a difficult qualifying session.
Both advanced despite physical issues. At one point, with Barshim writhing in pain with what looked like a cramp in his calf, Tamberi came over and massaged his leg. Later, the medical staff took over.
“Nothing is good right now,” Tamberi said after joining his friend in Saturday's final (9pm UAE). Tamberi, 32, has already had an eventful Olympics, losing his wedding ring in the Seine while taking care of flag bearer duties for Italy during the opening ceremony. He then had to return home and was hospitalised for what he described on Instagram as a "probable" kidney stone issue.
Meanwhile, Djamel Sedjati breezed through his 800m heat, saluting as he crossed the finish line in first place.
The Algerian has designs on David Rudisha's world record of 1:40.91secs but eased up as he approached the finish line ahead of Great Britain's Giles Elliott and Hobbs Kessler in a time of 1:46.15.
In the women's 400m, Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser went through to Friday’s final after winning her semi-final in a time of 49.08 secs.
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