Morhad Amdouni (born 21 June 1988) is a French middle- and

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires endurance, stamina as well as mental strength. Within e ...

. He won the gold medal in the

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

and bronze for the

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

at the

2018 European Athletics Championships The 2018 European Athletics Championships were held in Berlin, Germany, from 6 to 12 August 2018. The championships were part of the first European Championships with other events happening in the United Kingdom. For the second Championships in a ...

. Amdouni was the European under-20 champion in

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

(5000 m) and

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

in 2007. He is a two-time French national champion.

Personal life

Born in France on the island of

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

, Amdouni is of Tunisian descent.

Running career

Amdouni made his junior international debut in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

at the

2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics is the 2006 version of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held from 15 August to 20 August at the Chaoyang Sports Centre in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China. ...

but did not progress past the heats. At the 2006 European Cross Country Championships he finished twelfth in the junior race, gaining the team

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

with France alongside Noureddine Smaïl. He made significant progress in the junior ranks the following year: first, he managed 38th place at the

2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 24, 2007. The races were held at the Mombasa Golf Course in Mombasa, Kenya. Four races took place, one for men, women, junior men and junior women respectively. All races encom ...

and then he won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the

2007 European Athletics Junior Championships The 19th European Athletics Junior Championships were held between 19 and 22 July 2007 at the FBK-Stadium in Hengelo, in the eastern Netherlands. Medal summary Men Women Medal table See also *2007 in athletics (track and field) ...

. In the winter season, he went on to win the junior race at the

2007 European Cross Country Championships The 14th European Cross Country Championships were held at Toro in Spain on 9 December 2007. Serhiy Lebid took his seventh title in the men's competition and Marta Domínguez won the women's race. Results Men individual 10.7 km Total 57 c ...

, leading the French juniors to victory along with runner-up

Florian Carvalho Florian Carvalho de Fonseco (born 9 March 1989 in Fontainebleau) is a French middle distance runner. He competed in the men's 1500 m at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , event ...

.MORHAD AMDOUNI
FFA. Retrieved on 2010-12-12. In 2008, he stepped up an age category and competed in the under-23 competition of the

2008 European Cross Country Championships The 15th European Cross Country Championships were held at Brussels in Belgium on 14 December 2008. Serhiy Lebid took his eighth title in the men's competition and Hilda Kibet won the women's race. Results Men individual 10.0 km Total 77 c ...

, where he finished in eighth and shared in the team bronze medal with France. He ran on the world senior stage for the first time the following year, taking 63rd at the

2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

and being selected for the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

. However, he did not make it into the final of the world men's 5000 metres at the latter competition. That season he set a European under-23 record in the

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

, running at time of 7:37.50 at the

Meeting Areva Meeting de Paris (formerly known as the Meeting Areva and Meeting Gaz de France) is an annual track and field meeting at the Stade Sébastien Charléty in Paris, France. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamon ...

in July. He won his first senior medal at the

2010 European Cross Country Championships The 2010 European Cross Country Championships was a continental cross country running competition that took place on 12 December in Albufeira, Portugal. It was the second time that the country hosted the event, building upon the 1997 edition hel ...

as he finished in fifth place behind compatriot Abdellatif Meftah to take the men's senior team title. He made his debut appearance at the Olympics representing

France at the 2020 Summer Olympics France competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. French athletes have appeared in ever ...

and competed in the men's marathon event, where he finished 17th. At the 28 km mark of the race, Amdouni was filmed knocking over a table's worth of water bottles before grasping the last bottle, denying bottles to competitors behind him, leading to criticisms of bad sportsmanship from observers. He later claimed that the bottles were wet and slippery, making them difficult to grasp.

Achievements

National titles

French Athletics Championships The French Athletics Championships (french: Championnats de France d'athlétisme) is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Fédération française d'athlétisme (FFA; French Athletics Federation), which serves as the Frenc ...

: 2015 **

: 2016

Personal bests

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

– 1:47.20 (

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

2015) *

– 3:34.05 (

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

2015) *

– 7:37.50 ( Paris-Saint-Denis 2009) ** 3000 metres indoor – 7:44.55 (

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

2017) *

– 13:14.19 (

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

2009) ** 5000 metres indoor – 13:11.18 (

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

2017) *

– 27:23.39 (

2021) *

20,000 metres The 20,000 metres (approximately 12.43 mi or 65,617 ft) is a rarely contested long-distance running event in track and field competitions; most world records in the event have been set during half marathons and one-hour races, as a half maratho ...

– 57:50.25 (

Lucciana Lucciana (, , ) is a French commune in the department of Upper Corsica, collectivity and island of Corsica. Geography Situated on the eastern coast of Corsica nearly to the south of Bastia, the commune extends itself to the mountainous summi ...

2020) *

One hour run The one hour run is an athletics event in which competitors try to cover as much distance as possible within one hour. While officially recognized by World Athletics as a track event, it is rarely contested apart from occasional world record atte ...

– 20,772 m (

2020) ;Road * 5 kilometres – 13:19 (

2021) *

10 kilometres 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit (measurement), unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment ...

– 27:42 (

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

2020) *

Half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

– 59:40 (

Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and ...

2020) *

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

– 2:05:22 (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

2022)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amdouni, Morhad 1988 births Living people French male middle-distance runners French male long-distance runners People from Porto-Vecchio World Athletics Championships athletes for France European Championships (multi-sport event) bronze medalists European Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships winners Sportspeople from Corse-du-Sud French sportspeople of Tunisian descent Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of France French people of Tunisian descent 21st-century French people