Mohamed EL MORABITY (MAR)

It was in 2017 that Mohamed EL MORABITY made his appearance on the MARATHON DES SABLES, alongside his brother Rachid, who had already won four times that year. A runner since he was 14, the young Moroccan, then 25, had decided to take the plunge following Rachid, like Mohamad AHANSAL, who had followed in the footsteps of his big brother Lahcen (MDS record holder with 10 titles): “The story of the AHANSAL brothers inspires us all, but I don't want to project myself too quickly: I'm here to learn and gain experience. I am still very far from the level of my brother who always gives me valuable advice. »

At the time, we questioned the veracity of these remarks, but Mohamed had finally pocketed the second place behind his brother, a scenario which has systematically reproduced since. Rachid has just won his ninth title, while Mohamed has been second five times, even if we feel that sometimes Mohamed might be able to take the advantage over his older brother - 10 years apart between the two, today they are just 40 and 30 years old.

After the AHANSAL saga, we are therefore witnessing a second family saga on the MARATHON DES SABLES, that of the EL MORABITY brothers, and we feel that as long as Rachid has not equaled Lahcen, his younger brother will do nothing else that help him achieve his dream. We also saw it on this 36th edition against the Moroccan Aziz YACHOU, with a very good tactic on the part of the EL MORABITY siblings who made it possible to defend Rachid's chances as well as possible.

Still, Mohamed is a superb athlete, who performs at the highest level in desert races – victories in the Morroco Race MR65 (2016), NomadsRun Ultra (2017), Ultra Mirage El Djerid (2017) – and at a very good level in mountain races (a few podiums in the Atlas, the Alps and even in Belgium). His small size and his very lean body with fine and drawn muscles obviously serve him in his most difficult events, and we feel that this discreet native of Zagora is not done with the podiums.