São Paulo – Two Moroccans will be among the athletes who will run the 86th edition of the São Silvestre marathon, in the city of São Paulo, next Friday (31st). According to information supplied by the organizers of the race, the Moroccans Abderrahime Bouramdane and Mohamed El Hashimi will be among the 14 international competing athletes.
Bouramdane is from the city of Fez and started his career as a marathon runner in 1993, inspired by another Moroccan, Abdessalem Rhadi, who won the silver medal in 1960 at the Olympic Marathon in Rome. Now 32 years old, he was the winner of the Tunis Marathon, in Tunisia, in 2004, of the Marathon Marrakech, in Morocco, in 2005, and of the Ottawa Marathon, in Canada, in 2006.
The other competing Moroccan, El Hashimi, has won the ten-kilometre races of Kaatsheuvek and Neerpelt, in the Netherlands, in 2008. Aged 30, he has also finished international marathons in good positions, two of them this year: he was the vice-champion in Ottawa, Canada, and in Seoul, South Korea.
Out of the foreigners participating in the São Silvestre this year, ten are men and four are women. Since 1991, when the race started covering 15 kilometres, foreign athletes have won the men’s race 14 times and the women’s race 15 times.
The leading foreign name to compete this year is James Kwambai, from Kenya, currently the two-time champion. In November, the athlete finished fifth in the New York Marathon, in the United States. Alice Timbilili, who won the São Silvestre in 2007 and is also from Kenya, is the leading name among women runners.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
