Morocco finishes 65th at Olympic Games

At a breathtaking closing ceremony of the Beijing Games, Moroccan athlete Jaouad Gharib jumped on the podium of the marathon to get his silver medal that secured Morocco the 65th place in the overall standing.

    In a highly-contested race, Gharib persevered against Ethiopian and Kenyan armadas that exchanged leadership till the second half of the 42km-event, as some of the leading racers tired and began to lag behind and drop out one after another.

    The competition was down to Kenya's Samuel Kamau Wansiru and Morocco's Gharib. Thanks to a wonderful sprint, Wansiru managed to cross the finish line first in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 32 seconds (new Olympic record), while Gharib came in second place with a time of 2 hours, 7 minutes and 16 seconds. The bronze medal went to Ethiopia's Tsegay Kebede (2 hours, 10 minutes).

    With Gharib’s silver medal, Morocco scored seven additional points in the overall athletics competition, thus improving its ranking from 35th to 28th, with a total score of 16 points. Hasna Benhassi scored six points with her bronze medal in the women’s 800m race and Abdalaati Iguider scored three points for the Moroccans by taking sixth place in the men’s 1,500m race.

    In the overall standing, Morocco came 65th with two medals (1 silver and 1 bronze),sixth in Africa equal with Algeria after Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Tunisia and Nigeria, and third in the Arab world after Bahrain (1 gold) and Tunisia (1 gold).

    Morocco has won 21 medals in the Olympic Games since the first title in 1960: 6 gold, 5 silver and 10 bronze. Athletics has the lion share with 18 medals (6 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze).

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