Arab Americans

Khalid Khannouchi

Khalid Khannouchi (Arabic: خالد خنّوشي‎) (born September 12, 1971) is a Moroccan American marathoner. He was born inMeknes, Morocco. He is the former world record holder for the marathon and held the former road world best for the 20 kmdistance. He is one of only five men to break the marathon world record more than once, and one of only four to break their own marathon world record. (The others are Jim Peters, Derek Clayton, and Haile Gebrselassie.)

Khalid fell out with the Moroccan athletics federation over training expenses and moved to Brooklyn, New York City in 1992 with three of his friends. He married American Sandra Inoa in 1996 who now coaches him and acts as his agent. They set up home in Ossining, New York. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States on May 2, 2000.

As of 2013, Khalid holds the American record for the marathon,^[1] with a time of 2:05.38 at the London Marathon in 2002.Ryan Hall ran faster in 2011, 2:04:58, but that was in the point-to-point Boston Marathon, considered an assisted course because of the elevation drop.

Khannouchi officially retired on March 27th, 2012 due to reoccurring foot injuries since 2003. Khannouchi stated “It was really my feet that betrayed me. Every time I go and try to push hard, I get the pain and soreness again. I can’t train hard and if you can’t train at a certain level where you can be competitive it’s not worth it to keep wasting time.”^[2]

Achievements

• 1993
  • World Student Games, winner of the men’s 5000 metres in Buffalo.
• 1997
  • Cobán Half Marathon (Guatemala), winner (1:04:30).
  • Chicago Marathon, winner (2:07:10), at that time the fastest debut marathon in history and the fourth fastest marathon of all time.
• 1998
  • Chicago Marathon, second place (2:07:19)
  • Peachtree Road Race 10k, winner (27:47)
  • Falmouth Road Race 7.1 miles, winner (31:48)
  • New Haven 20K, winner in a world road record (57:37)
• 1999
  • Chicago Marathon, winner in world record time (2:05:42)
  • Peachtree Road Race 10k, winner (27:45)
• 2000
  • London Marathon, third place (2:08:36)
  • Chicago Marathon, winner in a new American record (2:07:01)
• 2002
  • London Marathon, winner in world record time (2:05:38)
  • Chicago Marathon, winner (2:05:56), becoming the first man in history to break 2:06 twice in one year
  • Ranked as the number #1 marathoner in the world by Track & Field News and their American Athlete of the Year.
• 2004
  • Chicago Marathon, fifth place (2:08:44)
• 2006
  • London Marathon, 4th place (2:07:04), coming back from a long period of injury.
• 2007
  • London Marathon, did not finish.
  • United States Olympic Marathon Trials in New York City, 4th place (2:12:34)[1]

Khannouchi was the first marathoner to break 2:06:00. However, he lost the world record to Paul Tergat on September 28, 2003.

Personal bests

References