Brahim Boutayeb

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Brahim Boutayeb









Photo/Foto: George Herringshaw
Date: 26th September 1988








CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
Olympic 10000m glory in 1988




The victory of 21 year-old Brahim Boutayeb in the 10000m at the Seoul Olympic Games, was one of the most unheralded wins in Olympic history. In fact, few people had heard of Boutayeb prior to his appearance in Seoul. He sent some signal of his rapidly improving talent when he massively improved his personal best at 5000m to 13min 17.47sec at the 1987 Bislett Games in Oslo. However, he only finished 10th in his heat of the 5000m at the 1987 World Championships in Rome and failed to advance to the final. More improvement came at the 1988 Bislett Games on 2 July, when Boutayeb reduced his personal best at 10000m by over a minute when he finished 5th in a time of 27min 39.12sec. Despite this improvement, he wasn't expected to be a major threat in the Olympic 10000m final held at Seoul on 26 September that year. The final at Seoul was started at a cracking pace, pushed along mostly by Kenyans, Kipkemboi Kimeli, and Moses Tanui. A small lead group reached 5000m at world record pace, at which point the unheralded Boutayeb assumed the pace making, continuing to maintain a world record tempo. Boutayeb quickly established an unbeatable lead, and soon after doing so he slowed the pace to just maintain his advantage. Nevertheless when he reached the bell (see photo above) he still had an outside chance for the world record if he could produce a 57 second last lap. Although he increased his pace in the last lap, the world record was never in danger, and in fact Boutayeb slowed considerably just before the line, and virtually walked across the line looking backwards, a gesture estimated to have cost him close to three seconds. Despite this deliberate slowing, his time of 27min 21.46sec was the fourth fastest 10000m ever run. (Ron Casey)