Hassiba BOULMERKA

Hassiba Boulmerka was at the forefront of a revolution in the 1990s, which saw the emergence of African women as a competitive force in international distance running. With little competition in Africa, Boulmerka was winning Algerian and Continental titles from an early age, but her performances at that time in the international arena were still more modest. In 1988, Hassiba won both the 800m (2min 06.16sec) and the 1500m (4min 12.14sec) at the African Championships. A month later at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, she was eliminated in her heat of the 800m, finishing fourth in 2min 03.33sec, and eliminated in her heat of the 1500m, finishing ninth in a personal best of 4min 08.33sec.

In 1989, Boulmerka retained her African Championships titles in both the 800m and 1500m at Lagos in August, and then a month later, although she finished only 7th, she set a new personal best of 2mim02.21sec over 800m at the World Cup in Barcelona. In 1990, Boulmerka improved her 1500m personal best to 4min 05.02sec, which ranked her 11th in the world that year. Hassiba's big breakthrough came in 1991 with an amazing improvement in her performances. On 17 July, she improved her 800m personal best to 1min 58.72sec when she won at the Golden Gala meet in Rome. While in the 1500m, she significantly reduced her personal best to 4.min 00.00sec.

Despite this improvement, Boulmerka faced a strong field in the 1500m final at the World Championships in Tokyo on 31 August. Boulmerka stayed with the pacesetters all the way, and then sprinted ahead in the straight to win the gold medal in 4min 02.21sec. This was the first world title won by an African woman, and Hassiba clearly showed her delight with her accomplishment as she took a victory lap (see photo above). (Ron Casey)

Hassiba Boulmerka made a great breakthrough in 1991, vastly improving her 1500m time, and winning the world championships at that distance in Tokyo. She became the first African woman to win a world championship title, and in an interview after the race, Boulmerka stated that she hoped that this would be "the beginning of a greater role for Algerian women". Unfortunately, others did not think so, and Boulmerka's athletic campaign in 1992 was severely affected by problems off the track. Ever since her win in Tokyo Hassiba had been bothered by crusading Muslim fundamentalists, who argued that she was displaying too much of her body in public.

This did not help Boulmerka in her quest to add the Olympic gold medal to her world title, and she had a dismal early season, failing to win a single event, and clocking a best time of only 4min 03.87sec. In desperation, Boulmerka withdrew to a private training camp in Germany in the weeks before the Olympic Games. The Olympic final on 8 August was run at a solid pace with Lyudmila Rogachova (Russia) leading the field through 800m in 2min 05.1sec with Boulmerka perched at her shoulder. They continued to race in this order until 200 metres to go, when Boulmerka swept passed the Russian and sprinted for the line, winning the gold medal (see photo above) in an astonishing time of 3min 55.30sec. Hassiba's time not only took 4.70sec off her previous best, but also advanced her to fourth on the all-time world list.

Compared with this success, Boulmerka had an indifferent season in 1993, but as usual she kept her best performance for when it mattered, finishing third in the 1500m at the World Championships in Stuttgart on 22 August in her year's best time of 4min 04.29sec. (Ron Casey)

By her own high standards, Olympic and World 1500m champion Hassiba Boulmerka had an indifferent season in 1993, although she still managed to win a bronze medal at the World Championships in Stuttgart. In 1994, she was back close to her best form, with an impressive record in all the big races during the European season. At the Weltklasse meet in Zurich on 17 August, Boulmerka thrashed a world-class field, including the year's number one ranked runner Sonia Sullivan (Ireland), over a mile in 4min 22.09sec.