Mahiedine Mekhissi

Mahiedine Mekhissi
Mekhissi at the 2013 French Championships
Full name	Mahiedine Mekhissi Benabbad
nation	France
birthday	15th March 1985 (age 35)
place of birth	Reims ,  France
size	190 cm
Weight	75 kg
Career
discipline	1500 m , 3000 m obstacle
Best performance	1500 m: 3: 33.12 min (2013) 3000 m obstacle: 8: 00.09 min (2013)
society	EFS Reims Athlétisme
status	active
Medal table
Olympic Summer Games 0 × 2 × 1 × World championships 0 × 0 × 2 × European championships 5 × 0 × 0 × European Indoor Championships 1 × 0 × 0 × U23 European Championships 1 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games silver 2008 Beijing 3000 m obstacle silver 2012 London 3000 m obstacle bronze 2016 Rio de Janeiro 3000 m obstacle  World championships bronze 2011 Daegu 3000 m obstacle bronze 2013 Moscow 3000 m obstacle  European championships gold 2010 Barcelona 3000 m obstacle gold 2012 Helsinki 3000 m obstacle gold 2014 Zurich 1500 m gold 2016 Amsterdam 3000 m obstacle gold 2018 Berlin 3000 m obstacle  European Indoor Championships gold 2013 Gothenburg 1500 m  U23 European Championships gold 2007 Debrecen 3000 m obstacle
last change: August 9, 2018

Mahiedine Mekhissi Benabbad (born March 15, 1985 in Reims ) is a French obstacle runner of Algerian descent.

Career

In 2007 he became the U-23 European Champion in the 3000 meter obstacle course . At the World Championships in Osaka , he was eliminated in the preliminary run.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , he won the silver medal with his personal best of 8: 10.49 minutes, 15 hundredths of a second behind reigning world champion Brimin Kiprop Kipruto (KEN) and 12 hundredths of a second ahead of fellow countryman Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong . After Mekhissi was eliminated again in the preliminary stages at the World Championships in Berlin , he was back in the finals at the European Championships in Barcelona in 2010 . There he and his compatriot Bouabdellah Tahri pulled away from the field early, in the final sprint he secured the title ahead of Tahri with a new European championship record of 8: 07.87 minutes. At the World Championships in Daegu he finished third behind the Kenyans Ezekiel Kemboi and Brimin Kiprop Kipruto with a time of 8: 16.09 min.

At the 2012 Olympic Games in London , Mekhissi again won the silver medal in the 3,000-meter obstacle course. With a finishing time of 8: 19.08 min he reached second place behind the Kenyan Ezekiel Kemboi . Kemboi won in 8: 18.56 min. In the qualification, the Frenchman achieved the fastest qualifying time with 8: 16.23 minutes.

In March 2013 he won the gold medal in the 1500 meter run at the 2013 European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden . In July, he introduced the Diamond League - meeting in Paris a new European record over 3000 meter steeplechase in 8: 00,09 min.

Mekhissi (left) at the 2013 World Championships

At the 2013 World Championships in Moscow , Russia , Mekhissi ran to the bronze medal in 8: 07.86 minutes behind Kenyans Ezekiel Kemboi and Conseslus Kipruto .

At the 2014 European Championships in Zurich , Mekhissi crossed the finish line with a clear lead over the 3000 meter obstacle, but was subsequently disqualified because he had torn his jersey off on the home straight. He took the jersey in his mouth, jumped the last obstacle and crossed the finish line with a bare chest. The team around fourth-placed Spaniard Ángel Mullera protested against the score after the run, and Mekhissi became visible due to rules 143.1 and 143.7 of the IAAF , which state that on the one hand athletes must wear a jersey during a competition and on the other hand the competition numbers are visible must be attached, the title revoked. The subsequent counter-protest by the French association was rejected. Three days later, Mekhissi ran to a clear victory in the 1500 meter run.

In 2016 he became European champion for the third time over the 3000 meter obstacle course in Amsterdam . At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro he won the bronze medal. Although he had only reached the goal in fourth place, he moved up one position after the original third-placed Ezekiel Kemboi from Kenya was disqualified as a result of a protest by the French team for illegally leaving the track.

Antics

Mahiedine Mekhissi is known, among other things, for his unsportsmanlike escapades away from running. At the 2010 European Championships, for example, he ordered the mascot to kneel in front of him and then pushed it to the ground. At the 2012 European Championships, the Frenchman knocked a bag out of the hands of a mascot that had a 14-year-old girl in it and knocked it over with both hands. At the Diamond League meeting in Monaco in 2011 he fought with his teammate Mehdi Baala . He and Baala were then banned for ten months (five of them on probation), had to pay a fine of 1,500 euros and did 50 hours of social work.

Best times

• 1500 meters: 3: 33.12 min, set up on July 2, 2013 in Tomblaine
• 3000 meters: 7: 44.98 min, installed on May 30, 2010 in Hengelo
• 3000 meter obstacle: 8: 00.09 min, set up on July 6, 2013 in Saint-Denis

Web links

Commons : Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ welt.de: Tricot strip costs the European champion the title
2. ↑ Parker Morse: Report: Report: men's 3000m steeplechase final - Rio 2016 Olympic Games ( English ) IAAF. August 17, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
3. ^ French Athlete fight with Barni. In: YouTube from August 10, 2010
4. ↑ Alex Dutler: mascot attacked and compatriot beaten up - the disqualified European champion is a repeat offender In: watson.ch from August 15, 2014
5. ↑ Pia Wertheimer: The fists of the Leibchen-Loser were already flying. In: Tages-Anzeiger .ch / Newsnet from August 15, 2014