Khalid Skah

Khalid Skah
nation	Morocco
birthday	January 29, 1967
place of birth	Midelt ,  Morocco
Career
discipline	Long distance running
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 0 × World championships 0 × 1 × 1 × Marathon Relay World Championship 1 × 0 × 0 × Mediterranean Games 1 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold 1992 Barcelona 10,000 meters  World championships bronze 1991 Tokyo 10,000 meters silver 1995 Gothenburg 10,000 meters  Marathon Relay World Championship gold 1994 Litochoro Marathon relay  Mediterranean Games gold 1993 Narbonne 10,000 meters

Khalid Skah ( Arabic خالد سكاح; Born January 29, 1967 in Midelt ) is a former Moroccan long-distance runner .

biography

He celebrated his first major successes at the World Cross Country Championships , where he won in 1990 and 1991. In the following four years he always ended up between fourth and seventh at the World Cross Country Championships. His first major championships on the track were the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo . There he won the bronze medal in the 10,000 meter run and was sixth in the 5000 meters .

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona , Skah fought a duel with Kenyan Richard Chelimo in the 10,000 meter race . When both of them lapped the Moroccan Hammou Boutayeb , the latter hindered the Kenyan and Skah won the race. After the race, Skah was accused of illicitly benefiting from this disability and was disqualified. However, this decision was later overturned after a protest by the Moroccan Association. The Spanish audience acknowledged this supposedly deliberate handicap by producing a loud whistle concert during the Moroccan anthem at the award ceremony.

At the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart , Skah was fifth over 5000 meters. In the same season he set his only world record and ran 2 miles in 8: 12.17 min in Hechtel on July 31 ; in autumn he won the Zevenheuvelenloop over 15 km in 43:35 minutes. In 1994 he won the World Half Marathon Championships , and in 1995 he was runner-up in the 10,000 meter world championship.

Shortly thereafter, on September 18, 1995, Skah received citizenship of Norway , his wife's country where he had lived and trained for years, but continued to race for Morocco. Skah had other big appearances on the track at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta , where he was seventh over 10,000 meters, and at the 1999 World Championships in Seville , where he was tenth over the same distance.

Towards the end of his career, he turned to road running . In 1998 he finished third at the Half Marathon World Championships in his personal best of 1:00:24 h, in 2001 he won the Great South Run over 10 miles in 46:17 minutes, and in 2003 he took part in the marathon of the World Championships in Paris / Saint- Denis participated in which he finished 38th.

With a height of 1.70 m, he had a competition weight of 58 kg.

Best times

• 1500 m : 3: 38.10 min, July 2, 1992, Stockholm
• 3000 m : 7: 36.76 min, August 21, 1994, Cologne
• 5000 m: 13: 00.54 min, July 8, 1994, Villeneuve-d'Ascq
• 10,000 m: 27: 14.53 min, August 8, 1995, Gothenburg
• Half marathon : 1:00:24 h, September 27, 1998, Uster
• Marathon: 2:16:34 h, August 30, 2003, Paris / Saint-Denis

Web links

• Khalid Skah in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Khalid Skah in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )