Said AOUITA

He raced often and he ran fast, and his name monopolised the all-time lists at many of these distances.

His first major international competition was the 1983 World Championships held in Helsinki where he

contested the 1500m. Although lacking in relative experience, Aouita came to Helsinki with the fastest

time of the year, having run 3min 32.54sec at Firenze two months earlier. At Helsinki, the pace dawdled

for the first 1000m, tactics that did not suit Aouita, and he was outkicked by the sprinters, finishing third

and learning a valuable lesson.

Aouita improved his times significantly in the early part of the 1984 season, moving to third on the all-time

1500m list and second on the 5000m list. This left him with a dilemma as to what event to enter at the

Olympic Games in Los Angeles later that year, but he decided in the end to contest the longer race.

The 5000m at Los Angeles was run at a very fast pace set by Antonio Leitao (Portugal), which suited

Aouita much better than the tactics used in Helsinki. He stayed behind Leitao and then sprinted past

him on the last lap to win in 13min 05.59sec (see photo above), the third-fastest 5000m ever run.

Aouita had come very close to breaking a number of World Records in 1984, and the following year he

finally broke through. At the Bislett Games in Oslo on 27 July, he took just 1/100 of a second off the

5000m World Record held by David Moorcroft (Great Britain) clocking 13min 00.40sec. At Berlin on

23rd August, he recorded a time 3min 29.46sec for 1500m, breaking the World Record that

Steve Cram (Great Britain) had set only five weeks earlier. (Ron Casey).

Breaks 13 minutes for 5,000m then Gold medal at 1987 World Championship in Rome.  Photo taken by George Herringshaw ©

Said Aouita had an incredibly successful year in 1986. He was unbeaten in 17 races over seven different distances between 1500m and 10000m,

and was the overall winner of the IAAF Grand Prix series. He came tantalisingly close to breaking several world records, including coming within

0.5sec of the 3000m World Record on two separate occasions within four days. However his fortunes changed in 1987. On 16 July that year,

in Paris, he broke Steve Cram's 2000m World Record with a time of 4min 50.81sec. Only six days later in Rome, he broke his own World Record

for 5000m, and in the process became the first man to break 13 minutes, finishing in 12min 58.39sec. For the World Championships held later

that year, Aouita had provisionally entered the 800m, 1500m, 5000m and 10000m (probably to keep his opponents guessing), but eventually

decided just to contest the 5000m.

In the Rome final on 6 September, John Ngugi (Kenya) set a fair pace, but by no means fast. Aouita, always

in control of the race, made his move just before the bell, leading a mass sprint for the finish that he won in 13mim 26.44sec (see photo above).

His final lap was timed at an incredible 52.92sec. Since a narrow (0.04sec) defeat by Steve Cram in a 1500m race at Nice in July 1985, where both

men broke the existing World Record, Aouita had been undefeated in 44 races over a range of distances. That streak came to an end on

25 September 1987 when he entered a 3000m steeplechase, his first since setting an African junior record in 1979. It was his last race

in a long season, but he still finished a creditable second in a national record of 8min 21.92sec. (Ron Casey).

Said Aouita sought new challenges for himself in the Olympic year of 1988. Instead of staying within the comparative

security of 5000m competition, the distance at which he was the reigning Olympic and World champion, he decided

to concentrate his efforts on the shorter distances. At Nice on 17 July, he won the 1500m by over 10 seconds in

3min 32.69sec, the third fastest time of the season. At the Weltklasse meet in Zurich on 17 August, he beat a much

stronger field over one mile in 3min 50.82sec. He also set the season's quickest 1000m time of 2min 15.16sec, but

it was in the 800m that he made his biggest impact. He had four big race wins over 800m prior to the Olympic Games,

which included the lowering of his personal best set in 1983 twice, clocking 1min 44.36sec at Brussels on 19 August,

and 1min 43.86sec at Cologne two days later.

Even with this fine form, many pundits were surprised that he attempted the 800m/1500m double at the Olympic Games

at Seoul in September, rather than just confine himself to the 1500m, at which he was the world record holder. At Seoul,

Aouita easily won his heat and semi-final in the 800m, but had his left leg heavily bandaged to protect a recently sprained

hamstring. In the final on 26 September, a very fast pace was set to try to nullify Aouita's fast finish. Aouita ran according

to his race plan, but in the end he was outkicked by the 800m specialists and finished third in a time of 1min 44.06sec.

His bronze medal made him the only man in Olympic history to win medals at both the 800m and 5000m. However,

the race had aggravated his hamstring injury, and although he qualified for the semi-finals of the 1500m, he withdrew

before they started. (Ron Casey)