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Rabat – Moroccan runner Anass Essayi has made history after he broke the national record for the 3,000-meter indoor race at the French Athletics Meeting in Levin.
Essayi clocked in at 7 minutes, 32.45 seconds, beating the record of 7:33.73 set by Olympic legend Hicham El Guerrouj in 2003.
The race, part of the Athletics Continental Tour Silver Meetings, saw Essayi finish fifth.
This comes just days after Essayi broke another record when he won the 1,500-meter race at the French Metz Meeting in 3:33:55, putting him second in the world rankings for the season.
In history, only El Guerrouj has run faster in the 1,500-meter indoor event. The Olympic champ still holds the record at 3:31:81, set in Stuttgart back in 1997.
Last summer, Essayi missed out on a spot in the 1500-meter final at the Paris Olympic Games. He finished seventh in the semi-finals, failing to make the top six.
In Levin, he faced some of the world’s best runners, including Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebreyot and Wali Getnet, who holds the sixth-fastest time in history (7:24.68).
Also in the race were two-time world indoor champ Samuel Tefera and Norway’s Philipp Ingebrigtsen, the older brother of Olympic gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
