Ramzi on track for more golden glory in Doha

Profile: Rashid Ramzi (Bahrain)
Athletics (800m, 1500m)

Rashid Ramzi is the only male athlete ever to have done the 800m and 1500m double at the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championships, a feat he achieved in Helsinki in 2005. With the retirement of the legendary Hicham El Guerrouj, Ramzi is poised to take over as the king of middle distance running.

Born in Safi, Morocco on 17 July 1980, he joined his local athletics club at the relatively late age of 17. Following a promising junior career, he opted to switch nationalities and in 2002 he became a naturalised Bahraini.

Since then, under the tutelage of coach Khalid Boulami, his ascent to the pinnacle of international athletics has been relentless. He took gold over 1500m at the 14th Asian Games in Busan, Korea in 2002, and followed this up by beating Qatar steeplechase superstar Saif Saaeed Shaheen to gold over the same distance at the following year’s Asian Championships in Manila, Philippines.

In 2004, Ramzi gave a hint of things to come over 800m as he took a surprise silver at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

But it was at 1500m where he was making an even greater impact, and when he took the scalp of El Geurrouj, ending the Moroccan’s four-year winning streak over 1500m at the Rome Golden Gala that summer, he looked poised for the ultimate glory in the sport with the Olympic Games looming.
Making history

Sadly, his dream ended in unfortunate circumstances when he missed out on the final in Athens 2004 after being tripped in the semifinals. However, he bounced back with his history-making double in Helsinki where, after a commanding performance to win the 1500m, his specialist event, he decided to try his luck over 800m.

Running the perfect race, he burst clear with 80m to go, leaving Russia’s Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy with too much to do as Ramzi strode into the history books.

In 2006 he has continued to progress, breaking the 3:30 barrier for the first time ever when clocking a new Asian record of 3:29.14 in finishing 2nd to Daniel Kipchirchir Komen of Kenya at the Rome Golden Gala in July.

With speed, strength and an excellent tactical mind, Ramzi is the complete middle distance package and is expected to be one of the stars of the 15th Asian Games. Assuming he is at his best, it will require a truly superhuman effort to deny him more golden glory at Doha 2006.