The Spanish middle-distance runner finished fifth in the 800m final at the Paris Games, just 4 hundredths of a second off his Spanish record
PARIS, Aug. 10 (by EUROPA PRESS special correspondent Gaspar Díez) –
Spanish athlete Mohamed Attaoui said he had “nothing to blame” for finishing fifth in the 800-metre final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, finishing just four-hundredths of a second off his national record in the two laps of the track.
The European runner-up in Rome this year described his place as “excellent”, as the athletes who preceded him – the Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the Canadian Marco Arop, the Algerian Djamel Sedjati and the American Bryce Hoppel – “are among the best there are”, three of them with personal records under 1 minute and 42 seconds, better than his (1:42.04).
Attaoui described how the 800m final went in Paris. He controlled the first hundred metres at first, but when he took the bend he had to push hard to avoid the runners getting away. “I had to push hard. I saw the 200m pass at 23 something and then the 400m was told it was 50.20, so it almost doubled,” he explained.
At the last lap bell, the Moroccan-born athlete still had some energy left and he opened up to lane two to get a better position, he won the position from Sedjati, but was overtaken by Arop with 300 metres to go. “I said to myself: ‘This is the wheel I have to stick to’. And I stuck to him, but with 200 metres to go I was in a terrible state and when I entered the straight I was really short of strength, but even so I showed my strength and was able to pass Tual,” he said.
The national 800m runner was “excited” about what is to come in the coming years. “I’m happy, I’m upset to have missed out on medals, but it is what it is, there have been four better men,” he said, referring to those who preceded him, the world champion and runner-up, Sedjati, who had the best mark, and Hoppel, the world indoor champion.
For him, Sedjati was the “super favourite” and in the end he finished third. “Fear? No, you have to go day by day without thinking about what you have done. This year is my first in a professional team (OAC Europe) and until last year I trained in my city, in Torrelavega, without the best means,” he said.
Thomas Dreissigacker’s pupil, who will compete in Lausanne and in the Diamond League final, if he can qualify before taking his holidays, believes that, at 22, he still has a lot of room for improvement. “I’m going to keep fine-tuning details and improving. I made a few mistakes in the semi-final, but compared to a year ago I think yesterday is a 10, today is an 11 and tomorrow it will be a 12. I think I make mistakes in one out of every ten races, not like last year when it was nine out of ten,” he said.
In the Olympic final in Paris, Attaoui entered the final straight thinking that his rivals could puncture and climb to the podium. He swung and swung, but the dent in his rivals’ oxygen supply did not come. “The only one who punctured a little and was closing in on him centimetre by centimetre was Tual and I tried my best to get that fifth place. And if I had to throw myself away, I would have thrown myself away. A fifth place is worth it,” said the runner, who has lived in Torrelavega since he was 6 years old.