Ben Assou El Ghazi (; born 1938) is a Moroccan long-distance runner who competed in track and cross country running events. He represented his country in the 3000 metres steeplechase at the 1964 Summer Olympics. He was the winner of the 1966 International Cross Country Championships – the second African to do so after Rhadi Ben Abdesselam. He also led the Moroccan team to African's first team medal at the tournament. He won two gold medals on the track at the 1965 Pan Arab Games.
Career El Ghazi first emerged as an international athlete at the 1964 International Cross Country Championships, where he ran in the Moroccan team and helped them (alongside Abdeslem Bouchta) to finish third in the rankings through his 17th-place finish.Magnusson, Tomas (2007-03-24), INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS - 12.1km CC Men - San Sebastian Lasarte Hippodrome Date: Sunday, March 17, 1963. Athchamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02. Though fellow Moroccan Rhadi Ben Abdesselam had won the race four years earlier, this represented the first time that a non-European nation had reached the team podium in the international cross country competition.International Cross Country Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-02. El Ghazi's Olympic debut followed later that year and at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics he placed ninth in the final of the steeplechase.Ben Assou El-Ghazi. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2016-05-02. He was Morocco's top performer at the 1965 International Cross Country Championships, but in 38th place he had fallen down the rankings.Ben Assou El Ghazi (1938. . ). AthChamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02. Greater recognition came a t the 1965 Pan Arab Games, however, where he won a gold medal double in the 5000 metres and the steeplechase (setting a games record in the latter event. This extended Moroccan dominance in the events, as his countrymen Saïd Gerouani Benmoha and Abdeslem Bouchta were the previous champions.Pan Arab Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
The 1966 season proved to be the greatest of El Ghazi's career. Based in Rabat, he had been given six months off from work in order to train for the upcoming cross country championships.Derek Graham Interview. Annadale Striders. Retrieved on 2016-05-02. First came a victory at the World Military Cross Country Championships, taking the title from Tunisian Mohammed GammoudiWorld Military Crosscountry Championships. Association of Road Racing Statisticians (2014-09-16). Retrieved on 2016-05-02. Gammoudi was absent from the 1966 International Cross Country Championships and defending champion Jean Fayolle was not in the running.Magnusson, Tomas (2007-04-24). INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS - 12.1km CC Men - Rabat Souissi Racecourse Date: Sunday, March 20, 1966. Athchamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02. El Ghazi crossed the line some seven seconds ahead of the next competitor Derek Graham of Ireland. This made him only the second African to win the title, after Rhadi Ben Abdesselam, and he led the team to the continent's second team medal in the race with the help of Ahmed Oukbouch. His win highlighted the increasingly global nature of the competition during this period.From Alfred Shrubb to Paul Tergat: the fascinating story of Cross Country. IAAF (1999-03-16). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
His career declined shortly after but he made three more appearances at the International Cross Country Championships. Absent for the 1967 race, he returned in 1968 and placed 24th, with Mohamed Said and Larbi Oukada taking up the role of Morocco's top runners.Magnusson, Tomas (2007-03-24), INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS - 12.1km CC Men - Tunis (Men) / Blackburn (Women) Hippodrome de Kassar-Said (M) / Witton Park (W) Date: Sunday, March 17, 1968. Athchamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02. The Moroccan team also suffered a decline alongside that of El Ghazi: their men took fifth in 1968, seventh at the 1969 race (where El Ghazi was 28th) and then sixth in the 1971 race, where El Ghazi finished 49th in his last appearance. No Moroccan reached the top fifteen in this period. A revival occurred in 1972 when four men achieved that feat to bring Morocco to second – the best placing of an African team in the competition's history.International Cross Country Championships 12.1km CC Men Cambridge Coldham Common Date: Saturday, March 18, 1972. AthChamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
The final highlight of El Ghazi's career came in the steeplechase: he completed a Moroccan 1–2 as a silver medallist behind Miloud Chenna at the 1971 Maghreb Athletics Championships.Maghreb Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.
International competitions 1964International Cross Country ChampionshipsDublin, Ireland17thSenior race41:393rdSenior team149 ptsOlympic GamesTokyo, Japan9th3000 m s'chase8:43.61965International Cross Country ChampionshipsOstend, Belgium38thSenior race38:218thSenior team330 ptsPan Arab GamesCairo, Egypt1st5000 m15:02.41st3000 m s'chase9:21.0 1966World Military Cross Country ChampionshipsDiekirch, Luxembourg1stSenior race31:50.0International Cross Country ChampionshipsRabat, Morocco1stSenior race36:22.13rdSenior team184 pts1968International Cross Country ChampionshipsTunis, Tunisia24thSenior race36:335thSenior team178 pts1969International Cross Country ChampionshipsClydebank, Scotland28thSenior race38:177thSenior team228 pts1971International Cross Country ChampionshipsSan Sebastián, Spain49thSenior race40:596thSenior team215 ptsMaghreb Athletics ChampionshipsCasablanca, Morocco2nd3000 m s'chase8:56.8
References
External links All-Athletics